Russ , for $185 you should be able to buy the testing kits to do your tests. There are some old posts on this forum about which kits are acceptable. I think Papond approved test kits from pet shops.
It looks like someone (Dr Willis or me?) is going to have to do an article describing male and female pumpkinseeds for PBoss mag. You have to watch out for pictures in books especially if they are not photos of fresh fish. Joe does a very good job of fish art, but he is usually working with one fish from one habitat. Lots of variation in color does occur as we all know. Sometimes things get skewed in artist's renderings. Bottom fish in Ewest's plate above is the male. The book (Fishes OF Central United States) with Joe Tomelleri's prints has the male, female labeled correct. I think the male PS also has a slightly larger portion of the black gill flap than the female. The red spot is also slightly more prominent in the male. Problem is, I do not have a good source for mature larger sized PS near me. The female PS that I have seen are slightly more colorful than that female depicted in the above plate.
