Hello Forum, I´m from Germany and I´m new here. Also my English is not the best I hope to find help here. I´ve got a L 025 some weeks ago and no one here can tell me for sure if it´s a male or a female. I´ve shot some pics to describe, better some more than not enough. First I thought I´ve bought a female, because of the missing in german: "Odontoden" one but my collegues here are "nearly sure" it´s a male because of the genital.
Is here anybody who can tell me the sex of my fish for sure and perhaps can send me Photos to see the genitals and characteristic signs of female and male?
here are the links to the photos of my fish- I hope to find a partner for it.
A friend of mine that import quite a lot of these especially big specimens, told me there is a differences in the coloration of the paired fins, Males are likely to have the hard rays of their fins being colored and female are hardly colored at this point might even not be colored at all!
But from what I see I would say a Male, the papilla is rather conic(pointed) than tubic...
I'd say male as well. The easiest way I've found to sex the "show sized fish" is to ideally look at them from the top: females tend to bulge out around the midsection, while the males tend to be streamlined. I don't know that this is 100% accurate, but it may be a starting point.
No expert on L-25s but from a number of other plecos I keep the things I generally look for are this:
Females have a more pinched or narrower profile at the gill area when viewed from above and are generally fatter behind the gills - just as Steve91 said. Your fish looks more slender with a wider head = male.
Males of pterygoplitchys when large tend to have a genital papiliae that sticks out.Your fishes genital p. sticks out = male.
Males often have more odontoidal growth on the pelvic fins and the rear of the body - your fish shows some on the body on the shot from above and a bit of growth on the pictures of the pelvic fins. I don't see any odontoidal growth around the gills. However the odontoidal growth seems to be evident in both genders in several genera and for the most part the growth will sprout when the fish is mature and ready to breed. Often a big waterchange can make the growth sprout on both fins and body overnight . It sometimes goes away in a few days. Your fish is a bit inconclusive here but I would lean towards male. If you do a big softwaterchange and the growth sprouts it would probably confirm male. Though there may need to be a female present? I had it happen with solitary plecos who grew a big beard after waterchanges.
The second set of fins in males tend to have thicker first rays and are usually longer and more square shaped at the end on males with shorter rounder fins on females. A function the provides the male with better ability to fan the eggs. Yours looks male.
In behaviour males tend to set up in a cave and hang their tail out to attract females. This behaviour is often a big indicator on the sex of the fish.
Good luck and I hope you get a female and they breed.
Thank you for your promptly answers - I think I will look for a female one now.:D
About hanging the tail out of a cave I never heard before...
The thing is that all bigger L 025 I have seen until now seem to be male..- I was told before the females aren´t as big as the males, have a smaller head, are rounder in shape, less attractive from colour and less orange?? and have smaller fins, especially the Sail should be smaller- but I think the only thing to be sure is to see the genital of a male and female one. Is there anyone who has taken such photos of his pair L 025 or other big Pseudooacanthicus so I can have a look?
bidewaterkant,
if you look in the cat-elog on L-25 you will see picture #12 is from above , similarly as yours. On that fish the second pair of fins is slightly shorter and more curved then yours. If you put them both onscreen at the same time it seems more obvious. That fish also seems to bulge more at the rear of the body.
I did notice on some of the pictures on the L-25 page that they seem to have "sideburns" odontoidal growth from the gillplate - I didn't see that on yours though?
I have a pseudacanthicus leopardus (L-114) which has won a number of trophies at shows. The fish makes its home under a pile of wood rather then a cave. I have noticed that the paired fins are not colored, slightly curved and the fish is very fat - quite round and stocky looking when well conditioned and fed. The fish is not very long either and when compared to pictures of mature L-114s it seems the bodyshape is quite obvious.
I had leporacanthicus joselimai go into spawning mode and 2 males were constantly in their caves , hanging their tail out and waving it to lure females to their cave. The one female I had was usually stuck to the underside of a woodpile. She did go and visit one of the males a few times but no spawn resulted. The fish were well contitioned but sadly died of an accident and a post mortem showed the female full of eggs.
This behaviour is also typical of hypancistrus, peckoltia, panaque and a few other genera I have .
There are pictures of L-114 on their page in the cat-elog sitting in a cave with the tail out.
If you set up a tank for them , make sure it,s big enough (I would do 1.5 meter long at least) and get 2 females if you can. Look at the spawning caves/tubes on the L-114 page and try to copy that , make sure they are not too big - I noticed that plecos will often avoid caves that are too big. It needs to be just barley as high as the fishes dorsal and almost as wide as the fish is tip to tip between pectorals - clay is good for material.
I would put in a small pile of wood roots as I have observed many species' females hanging out in piles of wood near the males cave.
Feed the fish well and when they are nice and fat do a dry season to rainy season simulation.
@INXS: if you look in the cat-elog on L-25 you will see picture #12 is from above , similarly as yours. On that fish the second pair of fins is slightly shorter and more curved then yours. If you put them both onscreen at the same time it seems more obvious. That fish also seems to bulge more at the rear of the body
If I understood right, the one on the two following pictures show a female one with a little luck, right? What do you think?
The pictures show a L 025 which is offered to me from a aquaristic-shop at the moment. Should I try to get photos from the genital to be sure?
I´m from Germany and I´m new here. Also my English is not the best I hope to find help here. I´ve got a L 025 some weeks ago and no one here can tell me for sure if it´s a male or a female. I´ve shot some pics to describe, better some more than not enough. First I thought I´ve bought a female, because of the missing in german: "Odontoden" one but my collegues here are "nearly sure" it´s a male because of the genital.
