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Hello Everyone I'm hoping to breed this fish and I believe it's a male as I have seen it spread it's adenoids but just wanted to get a confirmation before I purchase a female this weekend.

Picture of the belly for help

Hi, hard to tell 100% from the pictures but it does look like a young male, maybe to young to breed yet but hard to tell the size, and it's Odontodes by the way
Males have longer odontodes behind the gill covers and on the pectoral-fin spine.

thanks for the correction on the Odontodes. I've had this fish for a little over 2 years, do they normally take that long to mature? I know they can live a really long time so that is definitely possible, just thought it was a good looking fish and one worthy of procreating

The belly picture is about 6 months prior to the first picture which is just about a week ago. The fish is almost 5" long

I've had mine for just over six years and the are approx. 150mm (6") body length (SL) maybe a little more, they have only recently shown signs of pairing up, male checking out cave and resting close to the female, then again maybe wishful thinking. if your male is 5" TL (total length) then I would take a guess and say maybe not mature enough to breed yet, I'm no expert and have not bred mine yet so maybe someone will be along shortly and able to give there opinion.

Wow that's a long time for a fish to mature seems like they wouldn't reproduce fast enough to stay around. I guess they hide well though in the wild like they do in aquariums

Probably male, yes. Got a recent belly shot?

Unfortunately I don't have a recent belly shot, he's not often on the glass when I go to the tank and when he is he almost always makes his best Usaine Bolt impression for his favorite log. I'll see what I can do though

First time I've seen him/her on the glass what do you guys think?

Probably male. maybe he needs a little more food. But it is not easy if you only have one pleco. they usually eat better in groups. you should try shopping for a female!

Agreed, looks like all my males did, before they were conditioned, it was only after reasonably heavy feeding with Repashy and large weekly water changes for about 3-6 months, that the males really grew odontodes, and the female began to widen behind the gills.

With L128 its a slow process to breed them, firstly you need a group big enough to hope there is a female, I think my only female was the 7th or 8th adult fish I purchased, despite many hours, over 2+ years spent examining them before purchase, they really need to be in good condition to make a confident gender decision. Unfortunately I have never seen one in breeding condition in a shop.

Good luck!

He seems to eat quite well now. When I first got him he wouldn't touch much until I put a piece of lettuce in and he devoured that. Now he'll eat most anything I put on the fork for him. I guess I'll have to see if I can get a couple for him to feel more comfortable and hope I get a female. It amazes me how slowly these guys mature considering I've had him now for close to 2 1/2 years.

Here is a head photo of him to so you can see the odontodes are starting to grow

As marc said, it is usually pretty hard to get a pleco female. Sellers don't know the genders and the fish are usually in really bad condtition. If you should end up with two females, you can be asured there will be someone to swap it for a male with you anytime. So go ahead and get a female

They are not too often available around here to purchase. I guess I need to get him a couple more either way so that they can be more comfortable. I didn't realize that phantoms were social fish as well