L168 Sexing delemma with update!!!

[Baardman]

Hi guys . I have read a bunch of articles on sexing the Butterfly pleco but I'm just not coming right with it can someone pleas assist?

[Baardman]

Here is the other 2 photo's

[Fundulopanchax76]

I m not a specialist but i think first fish has chance to be female all other fish are males - very hairy with slim abdomen .

[Jobro]

My experience with this species is, that both genders will develope strong odontodes. I tend to look at the ventral fins for sexing these. Males will have way longer ventral fins than females have, when ready to breed.

Pictures are from: https://www.suedamerikafans.de/en/wels- ... t/?art=258

Diffenrence in ventral fin:


Male:


Female:

[bekateen]

I'm attempting to use @jobro 's fin pics to sex your fish. I agree that your group is male heavy, but I can't decide if you have one female or two.

Good luck, Eric

[Jobro]

I'm attempting to use @jobro 's fin pics to sex your fish. I agree that your group is male heavy, but I can't decide if you have one female or two.

Good luck, Eric

Same here, I tend to think there are 2 females in the group. But it should be easier seeing them in real.

[stuby]

Another way to do it is if the pectoral fin is laying next to the body of the fish.... the males pectoral fin will go further back on the pelvic fin than females do.... in other words the males have longer pectoral fins than females do. This works on a lot of plecs not just L168's.

HTH
Chuck

[Jessman101]

Hi,

I think you have either 4m2f or 3m3f from my experience.

I do agree that females do tend to get a couple odontodes at the ends of the pectoral fins but never further up towards the body or as long.

Cheers,
Jessie

[Baardman]

Thanks guys I did manage to contact the Author of the above mentioned Article, he also advised that i have 4 males 2 females

[Baardman]

Update I finally got them spawning!!! Thanks to everyone that helped

[bekateen]

Most excellent! Good luck with the eggs!

And "pictures or it didn't happen." (Just joking)

Cheers, Eric

[Jessman101]

Awesome work!

I've had a few spawns recently which have failed and witnessed a couple where the eggs were being laid... and it's interesting that the male doesn't neccessarily trap the female like other species such as Hypans and Panaqolus.... rather the female "traps" the male in the cave or in the instance where the eggs are laid on the roof of a rock, she pushes herself right up against him similar to some whiptails I guess??

I don't know if anyone else has witnessed this but its interesting to see.

Cheers, Jess.

[Jobro]

Jess, I did never witness my L168 spawn (only ever had 1 spawn).

But I found the word trapping being mostly missleading. I think it's more often the male refusing to let the female in than the female actually not willing to spawn and therefore being trapped by the male forcefully. It's especially the hypancistrus that make it look like a trapping. The males seem to put a lot of effort into proving the females that they can defend their cave and do a lot of fanning prior to the spawn.

But with other species it seems to be more of an effort by the female to make the male accept her. Like the female repeatedly pushing into the males cave for some days before the male would let her in finally.

I would think your observations could be pretty accurate. Since L168 tend to spawn under rocks between sand and rock, opposed to caves, if possible, it could be closer to a whiptail than other plecos. The body shape is pretty unique too.

[Baardman]

I have 3 Spawns now one in a cave, two in a open ended slate cave upside down females are hanging around outside again so i suspect they will spawn again soon