Do you see any females?

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shooter50014

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Dec 7, 2011
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Des Moines, IA
there are 8 fish total. 4 have big wiskers 2 have small ones and 2 dont seem to have any. The first 2 pics are of 3 fish that were not found in a cave

Thanks for your help































 
Jacqueline

Jacqueline

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Jan 19, 2011
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I only have pictures of my very first pair. I now have 13 of them but didn't take more pictures of them after.

The pair, female on the left, smaller male on the right.


Female


Male


In your pictures I see very broad headshapes which indicates a male posture. Females have less odonthode growth than males.
 
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shooter50014

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Dec 7, 2011
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Des Moines, IA
thanks for posting photos of your female.

the middle fish in top has no odontles but head shape seems wrong and same with fish from bot photo. Any chance they could morph into females?

the main reason I keep asking is that I have a ton of aggression in tank. That makes sence since there are a lot of males but I just keep wondering if there is a fem making them roudy.

The fish in bot right is by far the biggest fish and I would guess male just on size but it has nearly no odontles and I would have expected it to be the most horned up.


shooter50014 said:
Thanks for your help




Click to expand...
 
A

AusPleco

Retired Staff
Oct 1, 2011
676
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Rural NSW
Other then head shape i am guessing by the head difference you mean a female pepp has more of a narrow head?
Other then that and feeling their head like i have been suggested what are the best ways in order to sex this species as i struggle to tell the difference?

And are the odonthodes near the gills?
 
S

shooter50014

Member
Dec 7, 2011
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Des Moines, IA
odonthodes are the cheek wiskers. On the ones that have a slim chance of being female they look like a mushroom head to me. The sure males have wiskers. I think I have read them referred to as chew chew on here but I had not heard that before.

When I looked at biggest the vent looked more round but my old eyes struggle with venting them.
 
Bigjohnnofish

Bigjohnnofish

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Apr 15, 2010
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that generally only applies to ancistrus species

L262's definitely have different head shape between sexes and im sure cheek odontodes will be much larger on males much the same as L260's..... :)
 
Brengun

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Don't talk to me about L260's. I thought I was going insane yesterday.

I saw what I thought was a female lining up near a males cave so I took a photo and yup sure enough the face markings were the same.

Trouble is, there are 3 males all caved up in the one part of the tank and the most bristly presumed dominant male had bites on his tail from the other males giving him a hard time.

So I removed two males in their caves to a 2ft out of the way. Then I couldnt see the female any more.

Took a photo of the tails in caves moved to the 2ft and the markings matched up with the same darn female who was supposed to be in the main tank breeding.

I thought I had gone mad so later on I checked the 2ft and here's 3 fish in there. The female had gone into the males cave to hide and scratched the heck outa him trying to get him to give it up.

I returned her to the main tank and the dominant male. Phew!
 
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shooter50014

Member
Dec 7, 2011
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Des Moines, IA
I matched up the 2 that looked most male and most female to me a while back. they killed the 3rd that I though may have been female also. I found male gaurding eggs but also found some biggers ones. I would say I have 10-30 plus babies in the cave. the reason I think much more than the 10 I saw is that usually if I can see 10 there is a lot more lurking. I let most parent raise and I guess not knowing they bred before proved they are going to be good parents. Now all I have to do is keep the light out of the cave.
 
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