sexing a pleco

The only way to get a male and a female of a common pleco is to get a bunch of them and hope you have one of each. There is no real way of telling them apart that I am aware of.
 
supgourami said:
It is also impossible to breed plecos in captivity, so, it doesn't matter what gender it is really.
I don't know about commons, but bristlenose are fairly easy to breed. But you never know their sex until they are about 2 inches big and most bristlenose in shops are wee babies, so you don't know when you buy them.
Take care,
Mary.
 
supgourami said:
It is also impossible to breed plecos in captivity, so, it doesn't matter what gender it is really.

It depends on what species your talking about. Here is a small list of plecos that have been captive breed.

L046 Zebra Pleco
L204 Flash Pleco
L104 Clown Pleco
L316 Jari Zebra Pleco
L015 Candy Stripe Pleco
L260 Queen Arabesque Pleco
Bristlenose Pleco

Even the common plecos are farm raised in ponds in Florida. You should do some research before making such a broad statement.

For the original question about sexing it depends on what species you have. Some are easy to tell sexes other are not.
 
supgourami said:
Everyone's a critic.

It's ALMOST impossible then, happy?
Hardly. The only reason plecos are rarely tank bred is because most people don't have the space for multiple adults and most plecos are kept singly. Ask anyone who keeps multiple Ancistus — it's hard to keep them from breeding. I don't know how to sex plecos, so I didn't answer his question. I could pull something out of my *** and present it as factual information, but wouldn't that be a disservice to someone who's trying to learn here?
 
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