Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Female LMB ID?

I need help to ID female LMB, in addition to body shape of pre-spawn fish.
I want to insure all LMB that are to be added to HSB/CNBG pond are FEMALE.
The female LMB are to supplement existing HSB in bowl shaped ¼ acre pond that has NO structure, in order to further control the BG.

Curently ~25 HSB to three pounds, and one female LMB provided by Overton Fisheries.

An additional 4 “insurance” female LMB will be transferred from main pond this spring if I can develop the confidence in identification characteristics.

I know this topic has been discussed previously but can’t find a summary in the archives.

George, don't go by body shape alone, I have caught what appeared to be a pre-spawn gravid female (by body shape) out of our pond that had it's milt tube hanging out 6". I too would like to know what the experts say.

count me in on this one too.....i may be needing to obtain a small number of female lmb next year.......what identification clues would give me confidence i'm dealing w/ a female? and what is the best time of year to ID? what about more juvenile fish, is it possible to sex them w/ confidence?

i have not seen this specifically discussed here before....thanks in advance.

Females have more of a round shape to their vent configuration. Males are more elongate, pear, or teardrop shaped. Females are usually pink and swolen around spawning season, males are not. And lastly, healthy mature males will emit milt near spawning season with a light squeeze.

This may sound strange and trivial, but I give a difficult fish a little squeeze around the vents. A male will usually squirt urine, females won't.

".......what identification clues would give me confidence i'm dealing w/ a female?"

Once you have their attention, offer them the option to either go shopping or watch college football. You will have no doubts.

These are tilapia but you can get an idea of what Todd is saying.

Male on left , female right.

When I was helping the Arkansas Game and Fish doing walleye and hybrid spawning we used a capillary tube to determine if the eggs were ready.

A capillary tube is just a small glass tube. To determine the sex you just insert the tube. If it is a male, milt will run out of the end of the tube. For females, after the tube is inserted cover the end and remove it. The tube will be filled with eggs.

Whoa – I’m in trouble……looks opposite to me from what Todd is saying?

SRAC

Species Profile

Largemouth Bass

http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/srac/722fs.pdf

Broodfish are usually more than 2

years old and weigh at least 1.5

pounds. Very large fish are harder

to handle and less dependable as

spawners. Sexing of broodfish is

most easily accomplished in the

spring when ripe females should

have distended abdomens and

males freely emit milt when

stripped. Bass larger than 13 to 15

inches usually can be sexed by

examining the scaleless area

around the urogenital opening.

This scaleless area is almost circular

in males but more elongated in

females. The surest way of sexing

is to gently insert a capillary tube

into the urogenital vent to remove

eggs or milt.

[b][/b]

I stick to what I've said, despite the SRAC description, pictures are worth 1000s of words. We should get some pics on the forum. I'll make an effort when we start to sex our LMB in the spring season.

"clueless in el dorado"

merry christmas to you cecil, and thanks for that post. it just goes to show that nothing is really easy, you have to work at what you want...........so where do you get a capillary tube? i dont imagine a McDonald's straw will work...come to think of it, maybe i'm willing to take a chance on the "subjective" vent configurations....

This sounds like a risky operation to me, to be left to the expert, fully experienced in determining LMB sex I.D.

Thanks Cecil.
Merry Chrismas to all.

Aquatic Ecosystems pg 207
1-877-347-4788

That site is no longer operating, so can you attach this document here so I can download it.

Try this

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/144/