L015 setup

[Luis.Ventura]

Ok the tank is all done,
Pretty huge Red cherry comunity, stable chemistry of the water, the plants healthy, and lots of caves for them.

Now is the time to buy them and i thot.... should i get a trio(1 male and 2 females) or just 1 pair?

and what about Rinolicarias Lanceolatas?

[MatsP]

Pair or trio is fine, in my opinion. A trio makes it slightly more likely to get a more fry. The real difficult part is finding some mature enough specimens to tell male from female.

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Mats

[Luis.Ventura]

My L015 will come whit 6/8 cm
is what they are selling but they say that can sex them (at least they try to)

are they big enuf to be sure of sex?

[MatsP]

6-8cm TL is probably not good enough to sex reliably - these fish are (as you can see in the L134 sexing thread a few days ago) not the easiest to sex. Only dominant males in a colony are easy to sex... And probably not until they are about 8-10cm TL.

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Mats

[aldare]

You could be able to tell the sex if TL>8cm. The problem is it is not for sure even when you can observe their behavior for weeks in an aquarium and you precisely know that kind of fish (caving, ...). You can see a bit about that here ... http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hilit=L015
I would say, if TL>8cm and it is heavy fuzzy with non-rounded body shape, it might be a male. If TL>8cm and no signs of fuzziness at all with rounded belly, it should be a female. The problem is you will hardly find those at size around 8cm and even when you do, it is just a guess. Wait till 10cm at least.
If anyone tells you he can do the sexing, be careful, it is not easy at all!

[Luis.Ventura]

the prob is that i can´t wait since thats the normal size they come to my country, and i can only ask for them from 2 in 2 months.

Seems that i will have some risk and spend more then i wanted since only 1 costs 25 euros each plus travel expences, I will ask for 4 and pray that at least i get a cuple there.

[MatsP]

This is not an uncommon problem, and one that doesn't have any particularly easy solution. Basically, you buy some fish, hope that you have at least one of each, and sell any surplus fish (now hopefully sexable), and then pray hard that you got it right, and didn't sell a female that you later need.

Females are generally harder to find.

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Mats

[Luis.Ventura]

i´m going to cry so hard if i do this wrong ><

i´m all pumped on this project that if something goes wrong i don´t know what will happend.
i will pray that in 4 specimens at least i get one of each.

[aldare]

L015 has been the first pleco I have bought. Unexperienced I have acquired 3 of them. All three turned to be females. Then I fortunatelly found someone with two males and one female only 300km from my place. So I was able to exchange one female for a male.
All other plecos heve been bought at the number of 5. Still not sure, but the odds are much better.