# Female Piranha wanted



## Joshaw (Oct 13, 2003)

Looking for a female piranha to breed with
email me if you have one.
Thanks
Josh


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## EZ_Ian (Feb 21, 2004)

for your fish to breed with right?


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

I have at least 10 females but it is dificult for me to send over the US!!!

j/k :rasp:

Piranha's are *NOT* Sexually Dimorphic so it is very difficult to determine the sex.
Try reading O.P.E.F.E. instead....


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## the grinch (Feb 23, 2004)

how the heck do u know if u got male or female's without scientific tests


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## Chad_linden (Dec 3, 2003)

the grinch said:


> how the heck do u know if u got male or female's without scientific tests


 as husky jim's signature says, "Piranha's are NOT Sexually Dimorphic so it is very difficult to determine the sex. Try reading O.P.E.F.E. instead.... "


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## hastatus (Jan 16, 2003)

Some things to look at (as stated certain piranas are NOT sexually dimorphic; no external sex features) is the age of the fishes. Sexual maturity begins at around 1 1/2 to 2 years of age and average size about 5-6 inches TL for Pygocentrus.

A comment about thick and thin as determining sex. There is a grain of truth in this, however, primarily when you see your piranas spawning then you can see subtle differences between them. But this can also fool you because if you tend to overfeed your fish, which most hobbyists do, it can make a false positive on the fish being female. Trust me on this, I've cut open enough piranas to verify that "thick or thin" is not accurate. If you play percentages, then I would say it is less than 60% accurate each time for telling males from females. The reason goes back to what I said earlier; diet. Also too, parasites can mimic pregnancy on piranas. IF you feed your fish large doses of beefheart this too can make a fish look fat.

About the anal fin and the thick/short first ray. This has nothing to do with sexual dimorphism. These fin rays develop individually. So its wishful thinking to believe that is a key element on determing sex. But I should add here, certain silver dollars and 1 species of pirana (Pygopristis denticulata) have a biloped anal fin and that makes those species sexually dimorphic.

Serrasalmus spilopleura when full grown adult, the females are large in terms of girth from the males. And that helps in indentifying the fish sex, but is not carved in concrete.

Blowing nests while it is a "male" thing, that is about 90% accurate, with both males and females doing this. So this is partially helpful.

Lastly, you can't use color because both fishes can turn black and while "aggressiveness" might point towards a male pirana, it too is in the 60% range for it being male.

So the best luck you have is buying a few fishes (4-6 of them) and let them pair off.


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