Distinction between a male fish vs a female fish

[tndoe270]

OK all you biologist guru's and fish inspectors. Besides coloured and size and without cutting the fish open how can one tell a difference between a male and female???
Dd22 fish and I were out Sunday afternoon and I caught a small 13" fish, he ask to see it before I threw it back, I of course ask why and he preceded to show me a male has two holes on its belly and a female will only have one pooper. Does this same apply to all species of fish???

 

[rsimms]

RE: Distinction between a make fish vs a female fish

Hmmm? You and DD22 just taught me something.

I had to do some cross-checking (via Google, of course) and found this article on the American Sportfish Hatchery website which discusses determining sex of bass: http://bit.ly/1TlRQgv

However, I did find other sites which said, "This is not always definitive and is rarely used by biologists." But, obviously some biologists do use it.

To my knowledge, this does NOT apply to all or other species. But if you'd ask me about bass before reading the above article, I would have said the same thing about them. I guess I lose my "Guru" status. emoBigsmile

 

[tndoe270]

Re: Distinction between a make fish vs a female fish

Richard you're and always will be a fish guru, I learned something myself, Sunday with big Gary, I've never heard that before Sunday and thought he was pulling my leg. I looked at those we caught and we only had one with one hole and it was super skinny and appeared to have spawned out if it was a female.

 

[Racefish]

Re: Distinction between a make fish vs a female fish

I would think its easy to tell, the female is constantly changing her mind on which type of minnows to eat. The male really don't care. Yes me and my wife just had that argument.

 

[EricM]

Bass have separate anal and reproductive openings. Normally you cannot tell one sex from another, but in the spring the female reproductive opening will normally get red and swollen for some time and you will be able to differentiate between male and female in most cases.