Although I don't wish to belabor the issue of sexing these fish, I'm wondering if one of my videos provides clues as to the sex of the fish with the pale spot on its nose, the "ambiguous" fish (fish #3) from page one of this thread (
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 20#p286830 and
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 20#p286832):
If you would please be so indulgent as to go back and watch the video entitled, "Clown plecos (Panaqolus maccus) fight for a male's cave" (
https://youtu.be/9fXA8URBK1M), pay attention to the genital papilla of the pale-spotted individual, the "intruder" trying to gain access to the cave.
When you watch it, make sure you set the video quality to High Definition, maximum quality (720p). Specifically, look at the intruder's genital papilla at the following time stamps (all these times are approximate):
- 0:08-0:09
- 0:38-0:42
- 2:04-2:06
- 3:00-3:05
At these moments, the pale-spotted fish seems to have a very prominent genital papilla, hanging down and backwards like an open hatch. By contrast, at no moment in the video did I see a prominent genital papilla on the male guarding the cave.
Is this pale-spotted clown a female? Is the genital papilla the right shape for a sexually ripe female? Perhaps I've misinterpreted that video - maybe it doesn't show one fish trying to take over the cave of a resident male. Maybe it shows a very sexually eager female trying to mate with the male in the cave, but at that moment in time the male isn't ready or interested yet.
If so, then my observation that the resident male in the video was trapping a female just one hour after this video was taken might mean that the pale-spotted clown IS the female in the cave. And remember, this particular clown with the pale spot on its nose doesn't have a plump, round body like the other three females in the aquarium. If that is the case, then this might explain the small number of eggs which were laid in the cave.
And if this fish IS a female, then it explains why she didn't have strong odontodes in her initial photos, and why she had a large genital papilla in the initial photos (although again, it was her narrow body and modest odontodes which led me to suspect she was a male, perhaps subordinate in the tank; I may have gotten that wrong!).
I'm just wondering, and I hope someone else can review the video and affirm the gender of this fish, one way or the other.
Thanks again. Cheers,
Eric
EDIT: As a result of the discussion that follows this post, the video mentioned herein about clown plecos fighting has been renamed on YouTube. The new name is "Pre-courtship behavior in clown plecos (Panaqolus maccus): A female tries to enter a male's cave."