Safe to say these are female?

[Nozebleed]

Female L134?

IMG_3085.JPG (38.6 KiB) Viewed 2846 times

[Nozebleed]

IMG_3087.JPG (47.94 KiB) Viewed 2845 times

[drpleco]

It's never safe with frogs. I've had very large "females" spike up after either removing a male or conditioning them for breeding. You'll likely have to wait and see whether they become trappers or trappees. That said, all of my males cave and face inward while all of my females either don't cave or face outward in a cave. There are enough caves for every fish in the tank.

[apistomaster]

I agree with drpleco. Your fish are not in the best of condition for one thing. I do not no what you are feeding them but I strongly recommend feeding them frozen blood worms daily and earth worm sticks. I also feed my breeders live black worms placed in a custard dish a couple times a week but worms are not essential to breeding success. That confines many of them until they are eaten. Some always end up in the substrate, if you use any and establish colonies. I look at that as a plus as it makes for a more complex ecosystem. i also like to raise Cherry Shrimp and grow a mass of natant Tropical Hornwort, Ceratophyllum demersum. Again because I like a complex ecosystem. Complex but simple. The shrimp are very helpful at cleaning up particles of earth work sticks adult Peckoltia compta don't bother to eat. Mine only spawn from within +/- 2 weeks of March 1st and they wind things down in the same way about Sept 1st. I have no idea how they can tell the seasons since mine are in a darkened room and have few external clues.
I have 3 breeding seasons of this experience so I can only assume they do not breed well outside their breeding season. Out of over 600 I have raised, only about 3 fry have ever appeared outside their breeding season.
I keep my breeders in tap water outside of their breeding season but about a month before I expect them to spawn I begin using RO water to replace water changed. Then I try to keep the TDS between 50 and 100 ppm. I have had them spawn successfully in just tap water, too.
My water may come from one of at least 3 city wells. In the past the water pH was 7.4 and 340 ppm but recently the pH has remained the same but the TDS has been testing at about 130 ppm.

I find I can sex them with some accuracy if they are healthy well fed specimens by looking at them from above in a white dish pan. Females tend to be broader between their pectoral fins and just behind regardless of whether any males are showing obvious odontode growths. My accuracy is only about 70% so that helps but I don't know how to be more accurate considering all the possible variables that are involved. This was the first year when any of my oldest F1 females bred and they mated with wild males. Their broods numbered only about 12-15 while the at least 6 year old wild females typically produce 25 to 30 fry.
Patience is a prerequisite to breeding any of the small, pretty pleco species. I had my wild fish nearly 3 years before they spawned.
Probably could have been bred much sooner but I took a couple years before I set them up in their own breeding tank. I provide only enough caves for those fish i believe are males. I add drift wood for the others to hide among.
I don't attempt to sex any fish less than 2 years old. Your fish look like they are about that old but they have to be in excellent condition. Right now getting them fat and sassy should be your first priority. It is only safe to say right now that each of your P. compta has a 50/50 chance of being a male or female.

[Nozebleed]

"Your fish are not in the best of condition for one thing"


Care to elaborate apistomaster. what exactly is wrong with them? I have been feeding them bloodworm,cucumber sinking catfish pellet and frozen prawns.

[apistomaster]

Peckoltia compta often are underfed.
You did not state how long you had these fish. I will admit I made an assumption it was a fairly recent acquisition and from it's looks it appeared like it could use a couple more months of fattening up to get into the condition where one would have any chance of guessing whether it is a male or female. Did not mean to imply you were not taking good care of it now that it is yours.
When we ask the several thousand members of this board a question we should not take anyone's answers too seriously.I do not know you and have no idea of how experienced you are but In the 1000's of posts I made on this board I have never asked anyone's opinion of the sex of my fish. I have asked for opinions on the identity of a few fish. I did not always agree with their opinions but I also did not take any offense. Some of the importers of wild fish email me or send a PM for my opinions so a few who handle far more of these fishes than you or me seem to value my take. If you were offended by my response, I did not intend to do that. I suggest you develop a thicker skin. My responses to planetcatfish members is never directly meant to be personally offensive. I tend to write in the imperative and impersonally.
Only in the wild Discus hobby do I rightly claim to be as expert as any one and there I am usually very blunt because so much mythos surrounds those fish needs to be dispelled. We are all still learning about the Loricariidae catfish husbandry.
You should see how opinionated those who are involved with wild Discus and how strongly they express them. My response was restrained my comparisons to many I have given in that other venue but I began breeding wild Discus in 1969.
Having bred and raised over 600 Peckoltia compta in the past 3 years and kept them for over 6 years I think I know a bit more than most about this species than most breeders.
Let me reverse this and ask you, can you tell which fish are what sex? They shared the same tank with about 175 other F1 L134 I raised out of over 200 this year and were selected as representative of what I had for sale last spring. Do you see your specimens as fatter? I can not sex these with great confidence although fish from this group spawned within 4 months after taking these photos. I keep about 25 to 35 fish each year as my future breeding stock. I sell off surplus males among my very oldest F1's so I maintain a ratio of about 1 male to 3 females. I have almost 90 fish retained for the future. I never know when Brazil will decide to ban the export of a pleco species and I am not about to be caught short of genetically diverse Peckoltia compta breeding stock. The ages of the fish shown here range from as little as 12 months to 16 months. Some females have spawned at 24 months. They are never among the easiest of small plecos species to sex as I stated in my previous post I believe I am correct only about 70% of the time among fish over 24 months old. Your fish did not appear to be that old to me because by then mine are at least over 3 inches long

[Nozebleed]

thanks for the reply apistomaster. its fair to say i was a little miffed by your first post. although i had started writing my reply before i had read the entire post. i do value your input..very much so. thank you for the help. i do have these fish only a few weeks and they were in poor condition when i first got them. im doing my best to get them to full health. as far as i know they were wild caught..but who know's. i thought it was safe to say the both were female as most photo's i've seen on this site of males show odontode obvious growth..but as you say they have to mature and getting them nicely fattend up is my priority. thanks for the reply.

[Shaun]

Larry, very informative
Shaun

[andywoolloo]

Larry, you're fish are beautiful.

[bunnyrabbit]

I've only had my peckoltia compta for about 5 months before I got a spawn. Currently I have a male with fry that are about 5 days old and still with yolk sac. There are a few fry out of the cave now. And there are no more signs of possible spawning behaviour. I guess I will have to wait 6 more months before I get another spawn according to apistomaster's post. I am not an expert as I've never raised a spawn before, but I hope I don't have to wait another 5 months for another.

[apistomaster]

Just because mine only have spawned seasonally for 3 years in a row is not proof they only breed seasonally. Mine have produced the odd fry or two outside of what has been their customary breeding seasons. Just because mine act this way is not really proof of anything except how mine act.