Sex Queen Arabesque

[AndrewC]

Edited - To organise the fish into the two different species they are !


The following fish are just over two years old and are between 2" to 2.5" in size.
What sex do you think they are;

These fish are L411:
Fish 1:




Fish 3:




Fish 4:




Fish 6:




These fish are L260:

Fish 2:




Fish 5:




Fish 7:





Fish 8:

[AleGer]

As for me you have a mix of L260 and L411.

[Yann]

Hi!!

I totally agree the one with the "blury" pattern are L411
The one with the well defined pattern are L260

How long since you have them??
Cheers
Yann

[steph en jess]

in first i think 2 and 7 are l260
5 and 8 hybride l411/l260
rest l411
this is in 1 look
sorry to say

[AndrewC]

They are all L260.
Half of them are my mine from my old pair of L260 that breed a couple of years ago.
Also a couple of years ago i got three fry from two reputable dealers, and over a couple of years i lost two.

When they are all in the tank and settled they all look like 260, i have seen L411 before in person.
Just some of them get really stressed when removing them from the tank, whereas other fish don't seem too stressed with it.

Edit:
You know the more i look at the pictures the more dubious i am of some of the fish myself, strange one this.
They've been grown on from fry in my tanks the paszt couple of years.
Tomorrow, i am going to remove all the decor from their tank and take a video of them, see if i can video of them less stressed.

[pleco22]

Hi,
sorry to say, but I see also some L 411 (fish 1, 3, 4, 6). It should be a rule: Never mix different sources of Hypancistrus. Perhaps you could devide them. If they are from the same Parents they are hybrids.

By the way. Sexing L 260 is so difficult
Regards

[steph en jess]

the pair on your site are both l260
i thik the problem is with the fish you bought

[AndrewC]

I have never really looked at these fish since i got them a couple of years, i just kept there water good and fed them well.
The only reason i have started to look at them is that i also have a wild caught group of nine, that are around three years old and they are showing signs of starting to breed, so i was going to move the younger group on.
What a suprise i found there.

Some pictures of my wild caught L260, and there is a couple of nice plump females in this group:







Anyways, i agree that the pictures in the first post: 1, 3, 4 & 6 are L411, and the pictures: 2, 5, 7 & 8 are L260.
I edited the pictures in the first post to show this, and here are a couple of pictures from today;

The two species have been seperated and now have there own tank.

L411:
One of them cannot be seen in the pictures but it is a 411.




L260:





I must have got four fry from from two different sources, as my original breeding pair were L260, which i don't have anymore, because i have ended up with four L411.
It's a lesson to learn with hypancistrus, check them more as they grow to check their identy, as i would never have noticed the difference when i got them at 1" in size.

Thanks for all the help everybody.
I stick to keeping the easier to identify hypancistrus, just to save hassle like this, but L260 is too nice not to keep.
I do have some video but will need to see how it turns out, if it's any good i'll post it.

If possible does has anybody have a good guess at the sexes of the fish in the first post

[steph en jess]

nice looking new pictures
lots of l411 been sold as l260

your wilds look verry nice

iam happy to get a nice wild pair again verry soon

[Barbie]

I would say 2 & 7 are female, 5 is male. Have you had a look at their stomachs?

Barbie

[AndrewC]

Barbie, i never had a look at their stomachs.
What are you looking for when looking at their stomachs ?

[krazyGeoff]

Apparently the stomach of the female L260, is white, and the males have the similar markings to the top of the fish.
It was a question I was just scrolling to the bottom of the thread to ask.

Therefore I am interested in the answer.

Thanks

Geoff.

[saor alba]

The stomach way from my experience with the fish ive got being all white is 60/40, 60 white 40 not, some of my females whom are spawning at the moment every couple-ish of weeks, and have lots of young in theres tanks just know,have patterning running down there sides onto there bellies so i couldnt say that way of sexing out Queens is spot on for me,
I went more on body shape Head and Pectoral fins,again ive got a hairy female with pretty long odontodes hairs .
But then again ive tend to some times just have the feeling that its a certain sex type ,so something must be running threw my head telling me what sex i reckon it is (Just a feeling sort of thing )

[Jools]

The belly colouration is not consistent method for sexing these fishes; I also find that body shape is hard to use in this compact species. Macro photography of the genital papillae of adults is the best bet.

Jools

[apistomaster]

The belly colouration is not consistent method for sexing these fishes; I also find that body shape is hard to use in this compact species. Macro photography of the genital papillae of adults is the best bet.

Jools

This has been my experience with my L260's. I am 100% positive all mine are L260's.
I do not consider them easy to sex unless they are the same age and in breeding condition.
I have never used the belly coloration.
I go by shape, plumpness and actual breeding results.

I have never reached the point where I am comparing differences between genitalia.
I guess I've never had the need to know that badly and keep over 40 adults or nearly adults so as long as I get fry once in awhile I am OK with that.
I can sex adult wild Discus better than I can sex adult plecos.
Even so, I am never 100% correct with either type of fish using my less than meticulous methodology.