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I bought these at a recent local auction as 'Hoplosternum thoracatum'. I understand they are now more correctly referred to as Megalechis thoracata, right?
Can anybody sex these fish? Hoping to have a pair!

I think.

I think the fishes are a bit too small to sex them, approximately 3 inches?

At around 4 inches the males ought te be recognizable from the underside: they have large bone shields, which in males overlap, while in females they almost touch (or do touch, but no overlap)

I can not confirm whether they are M thoraca or H littorale, but both species can be sexed this way

Bas Pels wrote:I can not confirm whether they are M thoraca or H littorale

Nor can I from this point of view (V-shaped caudal? Than H. littorale. Or H. punctatum. No Dianema afaics), but I will have a go at sexing them. Fish on the left is a male (larger and thicker pectoral spines) and the 2 on the right are very likely females.

Thanks for the input. I'll try to get some photos of them from the side.

Some of them were pretty beat up, especially the fins looked like they had been chewed on by some other fish. They have settled in well though, and are eating like pigs. They are very unusual catfish - extremely active at all times, not hiding, and begging for food whenever anybody is in the room - let alone near their tank. They eat the food greedily from the surface!

As an aside, I've read a lot about these fish when I was a kid in Germany, but never managed to lay my hands on them until now. In the German countryside in the 1970s and 1980s Hoplo cats were not available at LFS. On the other hand, in NE Ohio where I live now, there aren't many cichlids or catfish that you can't get through local clubs like the OCA

Frank