sexing and breeding five Peckkoltia sp L387

[Erik82]

Hi all,
I Was wondering if some one can help me identifying my group of Peckoltia sp. (L387.) They are about 1 1/2 year old. I am not familiar with sexing these species so I hoped you can help me on this one. I have three photographs of all five fishes. One above, one at the gills and one from the belly. Can some one tell me what sexes I have?

Fish 1





Fish 2





Fish 3





Fish 4





Fish 5

[MatsP]

I moved this to the Loricariidae section, as I don't believe the question is about what species the fish is, but rather which ones are males and which are females.

1. Female?
2. Female?
3. Male?
4. Female?

I'm not at all sure about those, but if someone said "pick one male and one female", I'd pick 1 & 3.

--
Mats

[The.Dark.One]

I would say 1 is a female, 2-5 males

[Erik82]

Thanks for the answers, i was afraid for this result. To bad i probably don't have more female's. I was planning to breed some of these fishes but with one female that will be hard...

[MatsP]

One female is enough to breed the fish. You just need to remove the surplus males. What makes you think you need more than one female?

But I would grow them all out a little bit first.

--
Mats

[jac]

Looking at odonthodes on the jaw and the genitals I would say:

1 = female
2 = male
3 = male
4 = male
5 = female

[The.Dark.One]

Looking at odonthodes on the jaw and the genitals I would say:

1 = female
2 = male
3 = male
4 = male
5 = female

I was unsure about the last but there appears to be the beginnings of some longer odontode growths on the rear body scutes. Time will tell.

[Richard B]

Looking at odonthodes on the jaw and the genitals I would say:

1 = female
2 = male
3 = male
4 = male
5 = female

I was going to suggest this but i'm not good with these.

if someone said "pick one male and one female", I'd pick 1 & 3.

This seems to be the best two individuals

[DutchFry]

1 is probably a female, rest is male!

[The.Dark.One]

1 is probably a female, rest is male!

We agree!

[Erik82]

Hi all,
thanks for the replays! It seems we all think 1 is a female and we are doubting about the last photograph. If i understand it right, you guys would remove all the other malls and and keep the female and the male (photo 3) in one tank?

I'm familiar with breeding apistogramma's, but Loricariidae is an other thing, i would like to lurn it. II would be grateful if you guys have any suggestions to improve the change of breeding.
My tanksetup is as follows:

Tank 90*50*40 (l*w*h)
subtract fine sand, clay caves and some slate
Heavy flow rate with brushstown(?, a lot off bubbles..)

Water conditions:
pH 6.5 - 6.8
EC 400 (and lowering due refresh my water with RO-water)

Food:
- shrimpmix (mix of shrimps and pea)
- Acetes
- mysis
- sometime some zucchini

Best regards,
Erik

[jac]

That would be an "airstone" for the bubble issue

I would leave them all together because you don't know which fish will pair up together yet.
Then feed them well on a varied diet of frozenfoods and maybe some dry tablets if you want. The female has to get gravid before any attempt will be taken to spawn succesful. Males will become more pronounced by growing odonthodes on their tails and pectorial fins. The most dominant male will have the most. I think it will take an other 6 months before they could be ready. Peckoltia's are not my strongest point in breeding so I'll leave that to the one's who have

Good luck

[Erik82]

Thanks for your replay Jac.
I will wait until they get full adult. Maybe then we see some breeding activity in the tank Do you have some advice about the frozen food I need to serve?


Greetz Erik