# Is my goldfish male or female?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-goldfish-male-or-female/295226>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-goldfish-male-or-female/295226 "2005-03-18T22:57:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-goldfish-male-or-female/295226/1 "2005-03-18T22:57:09Z")

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I’ve had Sir Rodney for over two years now. I’ve always assumed he was a male, but how can I tell?  
I hope I don’t have to change his name to Madam Rodney!

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**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-goldfish-male-or-female/295226/2 "2005-03-18T23:29:59Z")

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Sexing goldfish:

[http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm](http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm)

Have fun!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thylacinewas\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Thylacinewas\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacinewas_taken)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-goldfish-male-or-female/295226/3 "2005-03-18T23:45:17Z")

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> [@daffyduck](#):
>
> Sexing goldfish:
> 
> [Sexing Goldfish](http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm)
> 
> Have fun!

It seems that Sir Rodney is a girl!

She/he doesn’t have white pimples, and the vent seems to be poking out, but that’s possibly because it’s full of a never-ending stream of poop.

I’m not sure, though. It’s snowy out there, so Sir Rodney’s mating instincts might not have cut in yet.

## Thanks for the response!

The site says: Put quite simply - in the breeding season, males chase after females to induce them to spawn. Easy? No. Why? Because males will chase each other in the absence of females.

Jen says: I’ve heard it goes like that in jail, too!