Male or female L260 - Queen Arabesque????

Carmencatfish · Post by **Carmencatfish** » 13 Aug 2006, 15:52

Hi all, new to this site, not to fishkeeping. After doing a lot of browsing of thise site, I finally joined. It is very informative, so I hope you guys can help me. I've asked on other forums about the sex of one of my Arabesques, but everyone came up with different conclusions. Please help!!

First pics of when we first got the "her"

Top view

Side view

Also, we are concerned with the health of our male L260. He keeps putting on weight and seems to loose it again. We feed them frozen shrimp, shirmp pellets, catfish wafers and bloodworms. He loves his food, but does look stragley. He is also thinner than the other L260 now, being bigger when we got the second in May.

Thanks

Line · Post by **Line** » 13 Aug 2006, 16:22

Hello

Could be a girl - but it seems, that she isn't that big ?

A picture from above would be very helpful.

Kind regards
Line

Rantosa · Post by **Rantosa** » 14 Aug 2006, 06:25

Looks like a female but a picture from abouve will confirm it.

Ben Moore · Post by **Ben Moore** » 14 Aug 2006, 08:44

My guess its a girl.

rememeber its only a guess!

great pics btw

cheers
Ben

Carmencatfish · Post by **Carmencatfish** » 15 Aug 2006, 16:30

Thanks all

I tried to take more pics of "her" today, but "she" didn't want to be caught and is still hiding behind some wood.

Does anyone else's L260 eat cucumber and courgette? The "girl" loves it!!

Ian M · Post by **Ian M** » 15 Aug 2006, 17:29

Looks like a female to me. The underside is also not got any markings which some people suggest indicates a female. There is an artical that talks about this here http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... icle_id=98

Mine eat anything including cucumber.

Ian

Carmencatfish · Post by **Carmencatfish** » 16 Aug 2006, 15:43

I tried to catch the L260 again, but no luck. "She" posed in a few different positions, so here's a few more pics.

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This L260 will pose in all sorts of positions, but what you want.

Thanks for all the replies.

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Post by **Barbie** » 16 Aug 2006, 17:27

Definitely looks like a girl attempting to get in the cave. I'm assuming the male is in there? If so, it's just a matter of time and a rainy season or two ;). Congrats!

Barbie

Carmencatfish · Post by **Carmencatfish** » 16 Aug 2006, 18:14

Thanks Barbie

I really want this to be a female, because I do want to set them up for breeding eventually.

She normally is by the cave. Sometimes she goes in, but our male is normally in the area, only sometimes going into the cave. She does seem to follow him around, but he just swims off and ignores her. They normally come out together if there's food.

Is that normal QA behaviour? They are in our large community tank, a 4 foot. So with loads of places to hide away, he does hide from her, although in full view of us.

I saw in your breeding thread of the QA that your male had very long hairs on his fins and odonodes. Arrys are long, but nowhere as long as that. Is that just when they breed or was he always like that?

Thanks for your time

Post by **Barbie** » 16 Aug 2006, 19:21

Yeah, it's normal if he's not ready to spawn yet. Once he sets up housekeeping in a cave you could probably stimulate them to spawn pretty easily with her condition and what not. If you have some other type of pleco in with them that he's afraid of, he might not take to the cave at all though.

The odontodal growth depends on age and dominance it seems. That male was definitely the big boy of the tank. He goes through spurts where he looks extremely spikey and at other times he just looks like any other male. Maturity does tend to make them look quite a bit more intimidating though ;).

Barbie