Silver arowana gender please

[Getbackca]

I am attaching a pic of silver female which my friend had 8 years before...this arowana layed eggs too but was single so didnt fertilized the eggs..in the pic u can see the jaw clearly sir...



Another female i guess in the pic below..here u can see long fins and long jaw too....could u please share a small video or pic of ur female and male silver bro if possible when u have time..



In the link below u can see a pair with almost same size of anal fins..i mean both have same size of fins..but jaws are different...can u please have a look sir...thanks

http://instagr.am/p/CTM7B4gJQwK/

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I am attaching a pic of silver female which my friend had 8 years before...this arowana layed eggs too but was single so didnt fertilized the eggs..in the pic u can see the jaw clearly sir...

[1] If this picture is of your friend's arowana at the age when it was an adult and laid eggs (the age of the fish in this photo is not clear; clarify please, gotta be specific and diligent in reporting), then I'm glad to see a differing example to our experience, where an adult arowana still has an overbite.

[2] If this arowana laid eggs, it is a female ... while the overbite is posited by some to signal a male. Hence, the overbite doesn't signal a male.

Another female i guess in the pic below..here u can see long fins and long jaw too....could u please share a small video or pic of ur female and male silver bro if possible when u have time..

[1] I'd say this is a female based on the fin trailers length. This aro is a juvi too, and IME chances are it will grow out of the overbite. Your examples show that this is not the only outcome and the overbite may only lessen or remain altogether, if your friend's arowana above is pictured at a ripe adult age. If not, then scratch that.

[2] Have a field day with all the photos and videos of our arowana in our thread https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/my-silver-arowana-in-4500-gal.688112/

In the link above u can see a pair with almost same size of anal fins..i mean both have same size of fins..but jaws are different...can u please have a look sir...thanks

Yes, the fins look about the same length on both and reach the anus and just barely reach the start of the anal fin. My hypothesis would say probably females, both. The jaws are a bit different indeed. One is "the norm", the other is tiny bit overbite. Both fish are adults. The side by side swimming and rubbing is a sexual behavior but it could be a prelude to fighting or to mating, we don't know. The preludes to both looked the same in our experience. We have several videos too to attest to that. See our thread.

 

[Getbackca]

May be u r right sir...so when will we be able to make out the gender sir? Is it after 16 inches or should we have to wait till it reaches 2.5 ro 3 feet?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right, but we are not certain yet and it's fun to be on the journey to certainty and knowledge.

Honestly, my hypothesis doesn't specify age. It is based on adult, sexually mature arowana, meaning over 2-3 years old and over 2ft-2.5ft length. IDK if the pelvic fin extension trait is indicative of gender at an earlier age. It becomes an even more of a guess for me for now.

We can guess all we want but the surefire way is to see them courting and breeding. Unfortunately, the arowana farmers either don't need to know this info or are not sharing because sharing would be lead to a conflict of interest. Moreover, the science seems to not have had the time to dedicate to this study. So we are left to our guessing games and working hypotheses. After all, the objective and reliable sexual dichotomy in appearance of silver aro may not even exist. That's okay. Let us arrive there.

I am yet to see a single proof that refutes my hypothesis, wherein an adult male would display long extensions or an adult female would display short ones. I am not saying they don't exist but just that I've not seen any yet. If someone knows or has seen it, please, show us or share. We have to bear in mind that there exist human errors and misleading hearsay, there could be deviations / mutations and the trailers could be bitten off as well or be eaten away by disease, but if my hypothesis is simply wrong and the length of pelvic fins has no correlation with the gender, there must be a plethora of examples that would contradict my hypothesis.

Problem is, arowana breed very rarely in captivity for us, mere mortal fish hobbyists.

 

[Getbackca]

Need a clarification bro...in the pic which i attached here shows 2 arowana's fins pass the anus..bit if u look carefully u can see that the upper arowana fins are much longer compared to the bottom one..in this case are they both female? If u again take a closer look we can see that gap between the anal fin and anus is smaller than the bottom arowana..bottom arowana's gap is much larger ..does that mean anything?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

To evaluate the anal fin-to-anus gap, I'd think we need to see the ventral view to be sure. So to me this is too uncertain to guess about. Overall, it's a good idea to compare pelvic fin base-to-anus and anus-to-anal fin base distances. I've never done it, in part because it is not easy to see exactly where the anus center is from side pics.

As for the pelvic fin length, yes, the top one is obviously longer, says female to me, despite the slight overbite, again.

The bottom is harder as it is closer to the borderline. My hypothesis would say female too, albeit with a bit less certainty.

 

[Getbackca]

Thanks for the reply brother..I am from India ...I had a chat with a guy from Malaysia..he informed me that the gap between anus-to-fin will be longer in males and shorter for females..he told he is a breeder..but i am not sure whether he is correct or not...becoz each individual checks differently..as u check for fin size that guy checks for thia gap and the A marking shape in the jaw...some other guys tell me long finned are male and short finned are female..but I dont agree that too..



U know what..i think ur logic is correct
.becoz i saw a video in which there are 3 females ..i mean with long fins but jaws of all 3 were different which means ur fin theory should be correct than looking at the jaw shape..in the video u can see that eggs are not taken in the mouth by other arowana..so all r females...u r correct sir..but now my only question is how big should the arowana be to know whether it is male or female..becoz some say 16 inches plus..b3coz till that time almost a the silver looks the same i guess

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

If the Malaysian guy breeds silver arowana, this info should have good merit.

IDK the significance of the 4 aro head shots.

In the video, it seems there are three females, one drops eggs, none of the other fertilize them, so they are probably females too. IDK if a male would take unfertilized eggs in the mouth. Don't want to guess.

As I said, IDK if my hypothesis holds in younger arowana. Are you saying you cannot find any pics of young, immature arowana with short pelvic fin trailers that would look like a male?

Your countryman might help us too; he has been keeping a swimming pool of arowana. headbanger_jib

 

[Getbackca]

Thanka for the reply..no bro..all the baby arowana looks the same..i mean even fins looks of same size..ha ha ...i got another video of female where i can see the protruding jaw..almost all the female video i saw have bigger jaw...no idea whther we can fix this jaw therory in females

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Not necessarily only babies. I meant do any silver arowana show short trailers anywhere from 3 inches up to 1.5ft-2ft?

This video shows another proved female who laid eggs but has an overbite. Safe to say, overbite does NOT mean a male. Probably the presence or absence of an overbite has nothing to do with gender. Both genders may or may not have it.