L-204 sexing help

[Speedforce]

Dear All

I am attempting to breed l-204's so I went and bought myself a group of 5, suposedly 2 males and 3 females, however one of the females, is turning quite hairy and now I am not so sure it is a female at all.

I am posting pics of the individual fish and would be very grateful if anyone could try and help.

Ps: I moved the breeding group from my 5 footer to a 3 foot 180 litres tank with the intent of giving them some peace from other tank inhabitants, would a tank that size suffice for a group of 5 or should i thin out the group once i get some answers here?

Does turning tank light on in the evening have an adverse effect when trying to breed?

Tank temperature is at 25.5 centigrade at the moment, should I gradually increase to 28C?

Also all the fish are around 4.5 inch and the alpha male is 5.5 inches head to tail , how big a cave should I build for them? at the moment I have several caves with 32mm entrance and 6.5 inches deep, what cave size would you guys advise?

Sorry about the long post but I thought I may as well get all the questions out of the way.

Fish 1Alpha male-

Fish 2-

Fish 3-

Fish 4-

Fish 5-

Many thanks for all your help.

Looking forward to your opinions and views.

Regards

 

[bigbird]

wow just stunning fish indeed. You will need a lot of wood and great filtration to get this system clean etc. I think and agree with your chosen alpha male. maybe seperate him with 2-3 females and see what happens. Caves size waries but they have to be secure in them and be a nice fit. Maybe remodel your tank accordingly. I would keep tank temp ay 27-28C and not always change etc. Seems that in some time, the commotion scares them off for a while. Have a good break and cheerio j k :thumbup:

 

[Speedforce]

Thank you JK

Any Idea on how to sex the other 204's, I know the hairy one is the largest and hairiest, so that one I agree is the Alpha male, its the others I am not sure about.

Thank you in anticipation.

 

[Brengun]

Notoriously difficult to sex and I had one supposed female for years until one day it got hairy as well. Fish 2 looks like quite a nice female for breeding.

 

[Speedforce]

Hi Brengun

Thank you for your comments, any one else has any idea on what these might be?

 

[Speedforce]

Has anyone got any idea of the gender of this fish?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

 

[Warborg]

I'm far from an expert, my guess would be 1-4 female and 5 male

 

[Speedforce]

Thank you for trying Warborg.

I read somewhere that once they develop hair in the backside they are bound to be male, fish one is exceedingly hairy, so almost certain is a male, its the others I am not sure about.

Can anyone else shed some light? many thanks to all that try and help.

Regards

 

[Dis]

I have a group of 5 and I seem to be dealing with the same problem. I have 2 males for sure, I think 2 females and the 5th with small odontondes. Perhaps give them more time to develop and you can see a change. Goodluck!

 

[bigbird]

time will tell at the end, but patience in needed. they are indeed hard to sex. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Speedforce]

Thank you guys.

Will wait and see what happens.

Regards