Four new L134's

[Nathaliec]

Yesterday evening I get some new L134's!

This are the new fishes

A little bit stresses from a long time in the car...



Number 2



Number 3



Number 4 wouldnt come out of the cave so I put that one in the water immediatly! So that's a surprise!
What do you think?

[MatsP]

Number 1 and 2 look like they may be male. Third one is harder to say, could be female based on the rather broad body.

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Mats

[Nathaliec]

Okay, i thought..

1 male
2 female

3 dont know

[MatsP]

Both 1 & 2 look like they have quite a bit of "hair" on the back of the body.

The best thing would probably be to put all of the fish in a white or light-based bucket [or similar] and take a photo of all of them at once - that way, it's easier to see the differences.

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Mats

[Nathaliec]

Yeah i know what you mean!

But it can also change (the hairy part) when they leave in a new group.

My females in the other aquarium are also a little bit hairy..

So I have to wait and see

I think its very interesting to hear everybody's opinion and the reason 'why' they think it.

[MatsP]

Absolutely, an ID (whether it's sexing or identifying a species) is often worthless unless there is motivation to explain why the person thinks so.

Males who loose their dominance in a group will loose their hair, indeed. But given the body shape AND the hair, I think your two first fish are indeed male. The third one is more difficult.

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Mats

[Nathaliec]

Okay!

And then we have antoher one who dont want to come out of the cave!

Havent seen him or her yet.

I think i have to put a female between this little group. I think there are more males then females now. I have one who is big enough for them in my other aquarium. Im thinking about replacing her to this group tonight. She is probably a female.. she's never in the caves and always in the wood. No hair at all.

I think the one in the cave is a female dont know why...so another female is always good!

[jac]

I would say the 3 fish on the photo's are all male and guessing on what you say about the 4th one not willing to come out of the cave I would say that is a male too.

As you say that you have more "hairy" fish, I would think you are collecting only males..... Peolple always are willing to sell adult males if they have anough, females are very rare to come by.

[MatsP]

Someone (I think it was Shane or Janne, but I could very well be wrong there) that there are more males than females captured in the wild. The reason being that males stay in their hollows, whilst females swim awya, when the fishermen capture the fish. The figure given then was something like "80% males isn't uncommon". I have no personal evidence as to whether this is true. I do know that ALL of the large L128 I've seen have been male - and I've seen more than half a dozen.

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Mats

[Nathaliec]

I would say the 3 fish on the photo's are all male and guessing on what you say about the 4th one not willing to come out of the cave I would say that is a male too.

As you say that you have more "hairy" fish, I would think you are collecting only males..... Peolple always are willing to sell adult males if they have anough, females are very rare to come by.

Okay Jac thanks...

I think i just have to wait...and see what happens!

[Nathaliec]

I have 13 L134's now...

There should be some females among these alll...

I hope so !

[Nathaliec]

Number 4:

This time it only took 10 seconds to get him or her out if the cave,



What about this one>?

[jac]

Male.

[MatsP]

I have 13 L134's now...

There should be some females among these alll...

I hope so !

From a statistical standpoint, if you have 13 fish, with a 50:50 mix, you'd have 1/2048 chance of having ALL the same sex.

However, statistics with a 50:50 mix works well on large, natural populations, not hand-picked fishes in aquariums.

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Mats

[bsmith]

I have heard that there are just more males in the hobby then females. I have no evidence to back this up but I have heard it from a few more reputable people then myself. Do you think this would be with ALL Catfish species?

[MatsP]

I have heard that there are just more males in the hobby then females. I have no evidence to back this up but I have heard it from a few more reputable people then myself. Do you think this would be with ALL Catfish species?

Probably not. But most cave-breeding plecos, I'd expect to be that way, as per the above "it's easier to catch them, as they stay in their cave".

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Mats

[Borbi]

Hi,

don´t intend to sound picky, but:

But most cave-breeding plecos, I'd expect to be that way, as per the above "it's easier to catch them, as they stay in their cave".

this should be stressed to be only related to the "much preferred" mature specimen.
Much preferred as these are bred faster, but the above is the reason why I actually like to buy groups of youngsters (also wild caught) and grow them out myself. Among those, you could at least reasonably expect to eventually have a 50:50 mixture of both sexes.

Otherwise: yes, it´s a good idea to know the importer, so you can pick out the few females in the shipment before they arrive at the market..

Cheers, Sandor

[MatsP]

Sandor: Indeed, juveniles are obviously more likely to be equal groups.

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Mats