help sexing L183

[mpfsr]

I have a L183 and was wondering if anyone could help me sex it. I tried feeling its nose as I was told females have a squishy nose as the male have hard noses(not sure if true). It feels squishy on the sides but not the middle. Any help would be most appreciated.
thank you..

[pleco_breeder]

The males are the ones with the "squishy" nose. Anyway, this looks like an adolescent male.

Larry

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

a pic with a lateral view would help...
What's the size of the fish ?

Cheers,

[mpfsr]

its nearing the 4" mark now and about 1 year old..He really didn't like being out of the tank (125g) so I don't think I can get a better shot. Thx for the input and thank you for correcting me on the squishy nose thing

[jamos]

Couple of males!

[mpfsr]

Couple of males!

is there a reason behind why you think male? body shape? Or just the amount of tentacles? Its the same fish in both pictures..to show it in both shades in case it helped.

[jamos]

Ok one male hahaha

Generally male grow long bristles and females don't.
In saying this females may grow a couple around their lip but not going up the nose.

Females aren't Squishy as the squishiness comes from the bristle growth,

[pleco_breeder]

At only one year old, this fish still has some maturing to do. However, the quantity of bristles definitely points toward male. The squishiness, I don't even think that's a word, also points toward male. The pic appears to show a row of bristles starting up the center of the forehead, and that's a definite male trait.

It could still be wrong since this fish is still young, but everything seems to point toward male.

Larry

[mpfsr]

Thank you for the information Larry It is much appreciated . Also a big TY to jamos. I'm not really sure why I thought I read both male and females of this pleco grows bristles. TO much reading on to many at once I guess. I have 8 from several different breeders all growing out in my 125g tank. They all show some signs of bristles but as on this one and four others have them starting up the head. the others have the normal 2 in front as I see in all of them from little ones. So Its looking good so far on the mix..But I won't count my chicken's before they hatch

Mike

[Barbie]

The females of this species DO grow bristles, just only along the lip edge. They will even have a couple rows of them. I had one that was quite bristled years ago. None of the forks of the bristles will point up, or be in the center of the face for the females. Does that help? Females should feel almost like sand paper above the lip, the males will have definite fleshy patches.

Barbie

[davej]

Personaly I would guess both females.
When I had some the males had quite a lot more bristles than the females.
The females had one row along the edge of the lip, whereas the males had britles back up away from the edge and way more.
Good luck with them. Sure wish I still had mine, maybe I'll find some again.