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sexing sculpins


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#1 Guest_theK_*

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 04:39 PM

i was wondering if there was a way to tell a male prickly sculpin from a female. the other day i went to the river with my cousin and his kinds and we decided to catch some crayfish and some sculpins so the kids could see how cool they look and i was just wondering how to sex them. i know how to sex the crayfish but no idea on the sculpins. everything was released afterwords

#2 Guest_daveneely_*

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 07:09 PM

During the spring, the genital papilla (a little projection just posterior to the vent) gets elongated and round in cross-section in males; it's shorter and flatter in females. I'll poke around and see if I have any good photos of this... The males of most of our freshwater sculpins also display blackening (or at least a bit of darkening) during the breeding season.

#3 Guest_theK_*

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 03:11 AM

is the papilla similar to the ones you would fins on discus and angelfishes while breeding? like the males papilla is more of a sharp pointed cone look and the females has more of a rounded off point, also would you happen to know how big they get before breeding? i seen a few small ones that were quite dark but im sure they were just tying to blend in. found one with a almost bitch black body with a white head pretty neat looking juvenile sculpin. i tried doing research online with google and what not but couldnt find anything i was looking for.

#4 Guest_daveneely_*

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Posted 05 August 2011 - 05:21 AM

Yes, papilla is similar to those on lots of fish. They don't reproduce before they hit 40-45mm SL, but if I remember correctly there's some variation and some pops don't go until they're substantially larger, like 60-70 mm SL. Lots of YOY sculpins will be very dark, but the nuptial pattern is different. Moyle's Inland Fishes of California is probably a good place to start, and work backward into the primary literature if you're really interested. They're cool fish, indeed.




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