Hemiancistrus L128 sexing

[emanuel]

Can anyone figure out if I have both male and female? Unfortunately I can't provide better photos, because they are now inside the aquarium and it is impossible to fish them again.
The smallest measures 15cm

[emanuel]

They are very shy, but have already started eating, especially courgettes, peas and worms, but ignore any tabs or granulated food.
I photographed these two, they both look male to me. Maybe then I only have male?

[MarcW]

Hi Emanuel,

It is tricky to tell with L128, I think in your picture where the fish are numbered, number 1 looks a little different.

I would suggest you keep this group for a while (6+ months) and see how they get on, try adding some caves and see if there are any behaviour changes. If nothing happens and you have another tank available, maybe try moving two to a different tank for a week or two, then putting the group back together.

Good luck they are very nice looking fish!

[emanuel]

MarcW, Thanks for the reply. I've read all your old threads about your experience with these beautiful fish, so I was hoping you'd get back to me
I will monitor the situation, based on your experience I know that I am very likely to have only boys (unfortunately). So far acclimatization is going well, whole courgettes are literally devoured at night, but I have only observed one specimen tasting food in daylight. Normal with newly imported animals ...

[MarcW]

Yes, it took me a long time to find a female, or maybe I had a female all along and it just took a long time for the conditions to be right for spawning .

Courgette is a favourite for mine, I still have the group of 6 young, they will go for courgette right away with lights on, although their wild caught parents were more cautious.

Good luck!

[emanuel]

MarcW, Yes yes, it is difficult to find females on the market. In my opinion because males in the wild spend so much time inside their dens, while females swim around among the rocks. It is not possible to catch these adult plecos while they are swimming, but they can only be fished by catching them with your bare hands when they are stuck inside the den. So on the market we find almost only males, this is my idea, tell me do you agree? So perhaps by buying young specimens it is easier to find both sexes? Because I think that when they are young they make no difference in behavior between males and females ... And they are probably also caught with a net
I hope you understand what I mean, I'm not very good with English.

This for the moment is the ranking of the favorite foods of my group of L128

zuchinis
peas
green beans
sweet pepper
They don't like potatoes and fruit

I will try more in the next few days.

However for now only one specimen goes out to eat without problems in broad daylight, here is a photo of it (I'll clean the windows tomorrow ) the others for now only eat at night. I'm sure they eat at night only because I give large quantities of peas and zucchini at night and in the morning they are all gone, it is impossible for a single fish or the other guests to be able to eat such an amount of food; it has to be the whole group of L128

[MarcW]

I would suggest a large group of young fish would probably be the best starting point for a breeding project as I guess your thinking is along the right lines, however these fish are caught seems to lead to a majority being of one sex.

Mine also liked to eat peeled sweet potato, although it took a long time for them to recognise it as food, and they didn't eat as much of it. I really favour the Repashy gel food, specifically Igapo Explorer, but it is becoming hard to get that in the UK, the other mix they seem to like is Soilent Green, it isn't the cheapest food though!

[emanuel]

Mine also liked to eat peeled sweet potato

Oh yes! I tried yesterday for the first time and it was literally devoured, just like the zucchini. it was a hit and today I will give again but a much bigger chunk.
Instead, I think that for commercial food they just have to get used to considering it food, they'll soon eat that too.

[Kirin]

Honestly this part of the Hypostominae I hate sexing, it takes a combination of features I find and even I found with Baryancistrus demantoides (located as a sister to H. subvirdis in the phylogeny Roxo 2019 I think it was or Lujan 2015) seasonal differences at maturity. Which not often are they at that age and size when bought but more then often I find you need to have them for around a year to be sure. I bought her thinking she was female then with the masculine shape and large odontodes I thought I was crazy then I think around winter time those odontodes decreased in size and she was clearly female. With many they might be that right size but it seems like maturity is very rapid so one day male then next definitely female vice versa. I prefer the vent/genital papilla because I find while it does show some change not as drastic as odontodes and head shape is a tad hit and miss.
I'd say likely all male, one potentially could be different but from above only uses one characteristic, head/body shape. These fishes don't seem consistent, saying that bought as adults they should be.

[MarcW]

Hi Rebecca,

Completely agree, these are so tricky to sex. If a mixed group or breeding is the goal, it seems the best bet is just to buy as big a group as you have the space for and wait, then wait some more and see what happens!