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    Thread: Male or female?

    1. #1
      Matt24's Avatar
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      Male or female?

      Is this one male, or is it female? This koi is 29" and 7 1/2 years old. The vent photo was taken today. The second photo (from above) was taken a couple of years ago when the koi was 26". It was April 22, 2018, when females should be getting eggy. While widely built in general, this koi has never seemed to develop a very eggy looking lower belly area.

      When it was three years old and 22" in 2016, I put it in a spawning tub with two males. On the morning of the fourth day, the males went crazy over it, exhibiting vigorous spawning behavior and splashing for over half an hour. I thought surely this was a successful spawn. But then they stopped, and I could find no eggs at all.


      Name:  Scarlet vent 10-25-2020.jpg
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Size:  73.1 KB Name:  Scarlet 4-22-2018.JPG
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    2. #2
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      That looks female to me. I will assume you have checked several times for milt and not found any.

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      Matt there's a lot of glare in that photo the area I'm interested in is right where you can see 3 shiny dot's just to the left of the anal vent that's where the egg tube would be located but at first glance that's a male.

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      Quote Originally Posted by FRK View Post
      That looks female to me. I will assume you have checked several times for milt and not found any.
      Thanks Mike. I have not checked that on this or any koi. Maybe next time I have it netted I will check. Does that work after it gets cold? I seem to recall hearing that it only works 6 months out of the year but don't know if that's right.

    5. #5
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      Quote Originally Posted by Orlando View Post
      Matt there's a lot of glare in that photo the area I'm interested in is right where you can see 3 shiny dot's just to the left of the anal vent that's where the egg tube would be located but at first glance that's a male.
      Thanks Orlando. Here is a shot with less lighting, but less glare. Does that help?

      Name:  Scarlet vent 10-25-2020b.jpg
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    6. #6
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      Quote Originally Posted by Matt24 View Post
      Thanks Orlando. Here is a shot with less lighting, but less glare. Does that help?

      Name:  Scarlet vent 10-25-2020b.jpg
Views: 449
Size:  59.9 KB
      That's a boy, the females especially at that size you can see the eggtube I don't see it on this one.

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      Matt, this is what I look for look just in front of the anal vent can you see the small tube. Name:  Vent F1.jpg
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    8. #8
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      Quote Originally Posted by Orlando View Post
      Matt, this is what I look for look just in front of the anal vent can you see the small tube. Name:  Vent F1.jpg
Views: 840
Size:  14.4 KB
      Thanks Orlando. I have seen that look on other folks' photos of some of their koi. The term "tube" does not come to mind for me when I see that. I might have described it as a sideways slot. In any case, I appreciate that very clear photo of just what you are describing for the typical look of a female.

      I still wonder about the vigorous spawning type behavior that I observed four years ago. I have seen over the years that koi of both sexes can exhibit confusing signals during the lead up to spawning. So I know you can't tell male or female with certainty just from the semi-casual foreplay. But once they really get vigorous, splashing all over the place repeatedly, with all the attention on one koi, I had thought that was the a signal I could count on.

      Also, while I've occasionally had males grow to that length, they took more years to get there, and they were not that wide bodied. So the build is another puzzling factor. And for what it's worth, when I bought this one from Kodama years ago, thy had identified it as a female, though I believe they have made mistakes before as well.

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      The person that prepared this illustration was pointing at the vent if you look carefully to the left infront of the line that's on the left you can see the tube, my apologies for any confusion. The other option would be to catch it and try to milt the koi as it's been suggested you can always feel with your hand to see if you can feel the tube that's why you seen how I describe it as an outie.

    10. #10
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      For what it's worth, I checked this koi for milt and nothing came out. Is it too cold or too late in the year to check for milt? It's Oct 31st and the water temp is 51 F (11 C). Last week was our first cold week, surprisingly getting down to 32 F, which is unusual for us in October.

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