PlanetCatfish.com

I'm trying to learn how to sex L No's - Is it me can some people just look at a fish and sale Male or Female - I look & think < > - What "V" am I looking for.

I've attached 2 pics of fish that I'm putting together & I'm going to attempt to make some suggestions & all I ask is help & corrrection.

Here goes:

L66 - L134's -

You have to look at different things when trying to sex plecos.

Thickness of the first finray of the pectoral fin...
Spines on the body and fins (males have more, female less)
Head size (females have narrow head)
Body form over all
Sometimes size of fins and also body color...

In you're case, body form, pectoral fins... and odontodes... In my opinion, looking at the back of the L134s body for spines is the best way to sex that species... depending on the plecos size....


I can't say anything from those images... they have to be more close up... on at least the L134s...


Cristoffer

[Mod edit: Fix multiple typos in order to clarify the message --Mats]

I agree with Cristoffer: Sexing any species of pleco (aside from perhaps Ancistrus) is a question of setting up a little table of different features, and scoring them (e.g. 1 for "present" or "lots", 0 for "absent" or "little" [make sure all scores are consistently 1 for male or 1 for female]- you can use a bigger range, e.g 1..5, or 0..100). Then sum up the different scores and see where you end up. Almost certainly, you will find SOME that are "not clear" - there is not much we can do about that, other than letting the fish mature further [sometimes isolating a subdominant male from other males will also let it show more of it's maleness].

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Mats