Sexing L134 Leopard Frog Pleco's. Help please.

plecoman

plecoman

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Dec 30, 2009
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It's been 9 months since I've tried to have these sexed. I can tell differences in them, but apparently not enough to sex them. Any help from the experts would be greatly appreciated! Also please try to ID their sex from left to right please. Thanks

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What is the size of these fish? They look pretty young still.

One of the best ways to tell with L134 is simply to put in a few caves and see which ones occupy the caves. Only males will occupy and defend caves.

Going strictly by body shape I would say it is M,M,M,F,F,M,F,M. But that is not really a good way to tell unless the fish are mature.

Andy
 
Still young ones but they may be sexually mature or really close. My last female I had was nearly 4" long before I traded her.

I can't tell from the picture but if you look close you should be able to see longer odontodes on the leading pectoral fin rays and back half of the body on males. These look like little teeth or thick hairs that stick out. Females will not have them.

Andy
 
Nar got it half right. The back end odontile growth is a good way to ID males vs females. However, the traditional method of seeing who caves doesn't work so well. Female P. compta will cave unlike most other plecos.

Also, they do not seem to do as well spawning when in colonies unless there is a lot of space available. I would suggest that putting pairs or trios into smaller tanks will often yield better results.
 
Hopefully this picture of one of my males will help illustrate the rear end odontile growth-

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Thanks Chris! That's an awesome looking male! All of mine are around 3 1/2" now and I'm not seeing any odontile growth like that on mine. I'm beginning to wonder if I have all females. That would be a nice thing, but then I'm gonna need a few males. How old and how long is the male in the picture?
 
I have had the group for some time. I am thinking I got 11 wilds in 08 or 09. So they have to be about 4-5 years old. My best guess on size is around 4 inches. I have had a bunch of spawns with few surviving to frr swimming. My best guess is I am needing a bigger tank or else to reduce the size of the group.
 
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