Please sex my para

[benjamin]

Today I was happy to find my male orientalis's cloaca is increasing in size, but I was also very pleasantly surprized to find the same thing was happening to my big para. I can't tell if it's male or female because despite the cloaca increase there has been no change of tail colour. I remember somebody doing a power point drawing that showed females cloacas also increas a little during breeding but are a different shape, I want to see what your opinions are. The first pic was taken from behind and the second pic is from the side but because it was so close it's a bit blurry.

 

[chris]

Its a bit dark, but as the cloaca seems to go back down before the tail, giving it a triangular look, I would hazard a guess at a female. I can't be entirely sure, though. Could you post a pic of the whole animal from side on, so I can see tail length etc.
Thanks
Chris

 

[jesper]

Need better pics.

 

[benjamin]

The strangest thing happened today. I turned on the lights in their aquarium to take pictures, and instantly their behaviour changed. They're usually quite subdued but they started swimming around the aquarium really fast. They started biting eachother and the glass, but they usually do that when I'm watching them because they associate me with food. Then one of my newts (not the one in the picture, known as fatso), starts grabbing the one in the picture around the waste and trying to slow it down and it also looked like it was trying to get its tail infront of the pictured newt's face. The newt that I have pictured, however, was more interested in trying to eat me. All of Fatso's actions seemed very determined. What was going on? Here are the pics, hope you can see the tail to body ratio.

Here are two pics of interactions between the newt in question and another one of my newts, named fatso. The pics are blurry because the newts were moving fast.

Here are pics of just the newt in question. They are blurry for the same reason as the other two.

 

[paris]

chris-does tail/body ratio work for paros?-i thought it was a mostly cynops thing?

ben-my best description for sexing them is that though both will swell/change shape, the males turns to a rounded dome-like projection (i believe this is it swelling with active mucus production glands). males are more truely a swelling while females are more of an elongation/shape change. their vent is going to become more volcano shaped -it may have a very flat top-but its main adaption is for picking up sperm packets and laying eggs-it will be most volcano shaped when a fem is laying. so a male is a more rounded swelling where as a female is more of a puckered elongation...comparitive terms i know but once you see it-it becomes obvious (at least when they are in breeding condition)...i guess i could get photos of mine and post them to illustrate this.

 

[chris]

Paris - the female has a much longer, lower tail in comparison to the male, which has a shorter higher tail.
Chris

 

[andrew]

I agree with Chris there on his last thread, thats how mine are. My male also has the white-ish/blue stripe on his tail all year round.

 

[paris]

i guess i never really compared these guys tails -at least from the side -i do not the darker orange on the stripe below the tail (compared to the belly colour) here are some pics of my chinensis to describe the shape difference i was referring to -they aint great cause i didnt have good light (my 'flash' for my digital cam doesnt work for close up)
first here is the males vent

here is a photo of the females vent from below-look how it is in the reflection off the glass bottom-this is the volcano/puckered shape i am referring to-she isnt in full breeding condition yet-but it will be soon.

and here is what it looks like form the side

 

[benjamin]

Well my newt is no where near either of those, maybe the size increase happened because it's in a better environment than at the pet store. Though it does kind of have the female shape.