how do you tell the sex of a royal plecostomus?
- Thread starter alexx-w
- Start date
whiskers? i dont see any whiskers on him, im a plecostomus noob, this is my first pleco thats not a commonceeej31;4168145; said:
Im pretty sure he means this
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?species=panaque+nigrolineatus&image_id=1130
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?species=panaque+nigrolineatus&image_id=1130
Nobody really knows. You cant rely on the whiskers (odontodes) alone. Dissected specimens with a decent amount of whiskers were found to be females. Typical characteristics for plecs would be a broader and longer head, and larger fins in males. And larger more rotund belly in females. But these characteristics are already exaggerated in mature Panaque. The best way would be to grow a group of juveniles to maturity and see if there any differences.
that is what i ment, but i didn't know that it wasn't a foolproof method as matubula pointed outCasper2000;4169056; said:
wow, my royal plecostomus does not have any whiskers?ceeej31;4169337; said:
will they grow? or am i wrong about it being a royal?
well first off.. you haven't posted a picture yet... so its hard to tell you what you need to look for..
second.. You haven't told us how big is your Royal.... so we can't really say how long it'll take before you can properly sex it.. (at young age, you cannot sex it.)
Royal pleco takes time to grow... and even the whiskers.. it takes YEARS.. for a pleco to reach adulthood.. some species are faster than others..
Common's grow the fastest.. next to chocolate pleco.. but any other exotic takes 3-4 years to reach adulthood.. I had a Royal for 1 yr and it only grew 1.5" so it takes time..
The general rule of thumb is the whiskers on the side.. and head.. Males have bigger head compare to female.. their also slightly bigger.
second.. You haven't told us how big is your Royal.... so we can't really say how long it'll take before you can properly sex it.. (at young age, you cannot sex it.)
Royal pleco takes time to grow... and even the whiskers.. it takes YEARS.. for a pleco to reach adulthood.. some species are faster than others..
Common's grow the fastest.. next to chocolate pleco.. but any other exotic takes 3-4 years to reach adulthood.. I had a Royal for 1 yr and it only grew 1.5" so it takes time..
The general rule of thumb is the whiskers on the side.. and head.. Males have bigger head compare to female.. their also slightly bigger.
(dont have a camera right now)zerojquan85;4171193; said:
so the whiskers come in over time or are the royals born with it?
alexx-w;4171301; said:
They are a sign of maturity (but can point to both sexes) and usually start to develop at around 7/8" in Panaque nigrolineatus and its associated varieties (L027, L190, L191, L330, L418). They dont always develop, I have a 8" who has just started to grow some but a 12" who has barely any.
Heres my 15.5" L190 with operculum and pectoral odontodes, same as my avatar.
The anal vent is another way to differentiate between the sexes. Males tend to have pointy vents. Both my hairy and un-hairy L190 have very broad cylinder shaped vents.