How to vent your frontosa
Its 2:30 in the morning and I feel compelled to discuss the Venting(sexing) of the frontosa / gibberosa. Most people will guess what sex their fish may be and keep the fish for many years thinking it is something other than what it is. Its like naming the cat George and later having a litter of kittens from George....
Some will make an assumption based on the size of hump or by other physical characteristics of the fish. Most of these ideas are not accurate and are only a guess at best. As a matter of fact even the most accurate technique(venting) can be wrong in certain cases. Such as, when you are venting a very small fish(3"-4") and you decide it is male. Possibly it is male BUT, if she has not laid an egg yet then she has not lost her virginity so to speak. So her sex organ would appear to be that of a male. I have been through it, three different opinions all say male and 6 months later she drops tube and lays eggs.
100% successful venting can only be done on Adults. Juveniles can be tricky. This method of venting can be used for most fish though some may be harder to see the urogenital opening (vent) with the naked eye.
Something to remember............. If someone tells you they can vent a 1"-3" frontosa and tries to convince you they are accurate, they are full of themselves. Its simply not possible to positively sex a frontosa so small.
I have added pictures of the vent on both a male and female gibberosa species. These vents appear the same in both the frontosa and gibberosa.
The first picture is of a wild male Moba, notice the 2 openings right in front of his anal fin. The opening closest to the anal fin is the urogenital opening. The opening furthest from the anal fin is the anal opening. Take note of the size of the opening closest to the anal fin in comparison to the anal opening. In this picture both the anal opening and the urogenital opening appear to be similar in size. The male urogenital opening has a v shape to it and may appear to be slightly larger than his anus.
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This next picture is of a wild female Mpimbwe, notice the 2 openings again in front of her anal fin. same rules apply regarding the placement of the urogenital opening and the anal opening. Take note of the size of the urogenital opening of a female. The shape is round and the opening is better than twice the size of the anal opening. As I said above, a female who has not laid eggs yet may not appear to have a large urogenital opening as you see here so be careful about trying to vent young fish.
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I hope this little article helps you better vent (sex) your frontosa / gibberosa. The photos within this article are of my personal gibberosa. The photos were taken by a good friend of mine using a fancy Nikon camera. Thank you Antonio and be sure you bring that camera back! I have some wild Zaire Blues for you in trade
FROM: Frontosa.com on venting
