L600 Sex

[CarnivorousCarnivore]

Long time reader, decided to put these up for opinion as I’m stumped!

Both fish are 25-27cm
Fish 1 is the one that caves and is the aggressor

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[phreeflow]

Looks like you got a pair! Based on head shape alone, I’m nearly certain that fish number 1 is a male. Fish 2 is a bit tougher but it looks female to me.

 

[CarnivorousCarnivore]

Looks like you got a pair! Based on head shape alone, I’m nearly certain that fish number 1 is a male. Fish 2 is a bit tougher but it looks female to me.

Thanks! Here’s to hoping, the confusing part is that fish number 2 is the aggressor and caves very frequently

 

[phreeflow]

Thanks! Here’s to hoping, the confusing part is that fish number 2 is the aggressor and caves very frequently

If there are a lot of empty caves, females will cave also. Usually the male aggressively defends its particular cave from other males. However, when females want to breed, they will try to forcefully enter a male’s cave.

Some people say males “trap” the females to spawn but in my experience, ready females are the aggressors and will push their way in a males cave, sometimes very persistently to the point that it looks like aggression.

Can you describe the aggression and when it happens? Also, does the female often visit the males cave and either sit on top or next to the cave?

 

[CarnivorousCarnivore]

If there are a lot of empty caves, females will cave also. Usually the male aggressively defends its particular cave from other males. However, when females want to breed, they will try to forcefully enter a male’s cave.

Some people say males “trap” the females to spawn but in my experience, ready females are the aggressors and will push their way in a males cave, sometimes very persistently to the point that it looks like aggression.

Can you describe the aggression and when it happens? Also, does the female often visit the males cave and either sit on top or next to the cave?

There is only 2 caves in the tank, fish 2 will defend the cave and is very dominant around feeding time chasing the other fish away.

Fish 1 (which every says is male) doesn’t challenge the other fish for the cave and has no interest in caving in the other cave.

So essentially fish 2 looks female behaves like a male, fish 1 looks male and behaves like a female what are the chances fish 1 is male and fish 2 is female?

This is another 2 I also have growing out, around 6-7” possibly a pair also? The first vent photo is the top fish, second is the bottom

 

[phreeflow]

Hard to say with certainty on the 2nd pair for a number of reasons.

The larger two definitely look like a pair. I wouldn’t just base everything on behavior. There’s no hard and fast rule with living things. There’s also not a ton of info on breeding L600 so we can only guess how they act.

Also, with some plecos species like L134, both males and female cave, whereas L46 males never seem to leave their caves while females roam. Even then, my largest female always confused me since she looked female but behaved uncharacteristically like a male. She dominated a cave and chased away all other females and subdominant males. All my confusion cleared up when she finally spawned with the alpha male, which she became very possessive over.

Your male L600 probably isn’t ready and that female also doesn’t look very gravid.

What are you feeding them and how have you tried to trigger them? Temp and water parameters?