How to tell male and female arowanas apart? Just remember these 7 points

If you want to keep a silver arowana, the first thing you need to do is go to the market to pick one out, but many people run into trouble when choosing, because they want to pick a male silver arowana but do not know how to distinguish male from female silver arowanas, which makes it very hard to pick out the silver arowana they like.

First of all, for juvenile silver arowanas, telling males from females apart is quite difficult and requires a fairly professional person to make a relatively accurate distinction. The methods introduced here for distinguishing male from female silver arowanas apply only to mature individual silver arowanas, and ideally with a reference specimen available.

Feature one: Body size of the silver arowana

In general, the body of a male silver arowana is longer than that of a female silver arowana under the same conditions. It seems that in the vast majority of living species, males are larger than females.

Feature two: Shape of the silver arowana's pelvic fins

Usually, the pelvic fins of a male silver arowana are relatively pointed and long, while those of a female silver arowana are not very long, and are not as long as those of a male silver arowana.

Feature three:Shape of the silver arowana's belly

In mature individual silver arowanas, the female appears to have a rather swollen belly because she carries eggs, and this is also a relatively direct feature for distinguishing male from female silver arowanas.

Feature four: Size of the silver arowana's head shape

Because the male silver arowana needs to hold eggs in its mouth, in terms of head shape, the head of a male silver arowana is relatively large.

Feature five:Shape of the silver arowana's gills

On a female silver arowana you can see a pretty letter A at the gills, and the arrow part is shorter than that of the male; the A on a male silver arowana is irregular, and the arrow part is also relatively long.

Feature six: Comparison of the vent

If the vent is U-shaped it is a female, and if it is V-shaped it is a male. Comparing them this way, it turns out that the robust-looking silver arowana really does have a V-shaped vent, as shown in the close-up, while the slender silver arowana has a U-shaped vent.

Feature seven: Comparison of the head

The whole head of the female looks smaller than that of the male; because the male has to hold eggs, its head is slightly larger. From my observation, the head of the robust silver arowana is indeed somewhat larger than that of the slender one. This happens to be consistent with the result of method one.

The above are five relatively obvious features of how to distinguish male from female silver arowanas, but even so, without a good reference object, distinguishing them is still somewhat difficult. If this can help everyone, the editor is very happy, and if there is anything lacking, I hope the seniors will offer guidance.

If there is anything about the above article that you do not understand, you can leave a comment at the end of the article to consult me~