L 260 Sexing please

[shep]

Just bought this group and am very excited to try and get them to breed for me, but would like to know the ratio.

These pictures are of the three fish in the first pic

Thank you in advance for the replies.

Sheldon

[shep]

These are the other 3 I bought, the last two pics are of the same two fish.

Thank you once again.

The smaller fish are 8.5 cm and the two big ones are 9.5 - 10 cm

[Suckermouth]

I think you have two males and an immature fish. The immature could be a female since the other one is showing male characteristics already.

[shep]

The first and second post are two separate sets of three.

The first one looks like 1m-2f to me and the second set looks like 2m-1f to me.

[Suckermouth]

I see. My answer was about the second post.

First post: The big fish is another male. The other fish are hard to tell.

To me, none of your pics look like you have obvious, fat females.

[shep]

Thanks, maybe i'll take some more pics in a couple months and see if there's any differences then.( and maybe find a better camera)

[Barbie]

I can't tell from the pictures, do the odontodes extend beyond the end of the operculum? If so, by more than just a small amount? What colors are their stomachs? Are they pectoral rays thickened towards the end? All of those things will also help us with an identification for sexing purposes.

Barbie

[prairiefire]

I sorted those fish out. It was easy to pick out the 2 males, for the 4 females you wanted I went on stomach color and narrower head shape. Not an exact science but hopefully close.

[shep]

I'm new to plecos, so I was just trying to get a second opinion. I've spent hours looking at pictures online and reading about them (L260) but have never seen one in real life. My first thought was that I had three pairs and I wanted to verify that. The cheek Odontodes took me by surprise, I thought that the females ones would be very short... not 1cm+. I also thought that it was a bit weird that the two smallest ones went and hid in the caves while the big males are just hanging out under some slate. I thought that the females wouldn't go in the caves unless they were breeding? So much to learn:) Anyways I love my newest addition to my fish family! They are a GREAT looking fish!!

[apistomaster]

Whether or not any particular fish ends up with a cave depends not only on sex but how large and dominate they are and whether or not there are enough caves or other perfectly suitable hide outs available.
If you only provide a couple cave without any other good hide out then it is true that dominant males tend to get the possession of the few caves.
I place more trust on appearances. Both sexes have well developed gill plate odontodes so that is not as reliable as head shape and overall build. males are more robust fish than same sized females. Females in breeding condition are more apparent. The lack of spots on the belly may generally be true but there are always exceptions. Taking all factors into consideration seems to result in more accurate guesses than focusing on only one aspect.
I have about 40 L260's. Some are my original wild stock purchased in 2006 but most of them are F1's and then some smaller F2's, all of which I bred and raised. I have made progress but i haven't been so successful as to brag about it. I seem to have a three steps forwards and one step backwards trend throughout these past six years. I have lost entire batches of up to 17 fry only a couple weeks old by making too cold a water change. I have had other setbacks. If I hadn't I should have over 150 of them at the slow rate mine have bred if I had never lost any. They have been my most challenging species to produce in good numbers. OTOH, I have had great success with Peckoltia compta. But there are breeders who have much better success with their L260's than I.