Sexing Hemiancistrus Medians?

[DHarris]

I've been a fan of this fish for a while and just found some for sale.
As I have the opportunity to purchase more than one, I'm curious if anyone here knows how to sex them. Figured I'd try to get a pair if possible.

Seems to be very little info on them, hoping someone here has experience with them.

Thanks.

[DHarris]

Well just bought three of these amazing fish. A big thank you to Wes Wong of Rare Fish!

I'll do my best to answer my own question incase anyone else is looking in the future and curious.

What what I could tell, the most surefire way to identify the sex is by the genital papilla - though I could be wrong.
I think I ended up with 2M/1F.

They're acclimating now and seem a bit stressed from a long drive so I don't want to mess with them.
Will add pictures once they're settled in.

[bekateen]

You appear to be the only registered keeper of these fine fish. That probably explains the lack of response.

If there is any consistency based on genus, check out this picture of male/female

Hemiancistrus guahiborum

. I rely on the odontodes to sex my fish, although there is a difference in girth in well fed fish.

https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/im ... e_id=20662

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

Good luck with them!

If the difference between sexes is anything like

Hemiancistrus sp(l128)

, then it will be as Eric mentioned above. I only knew for certain I had a female when she was in good breeding condition, and had laid eggs!

With L128 at least, I have never been sure of the sex when looking at them in a store, only after months of good food, and conditioning. In my group, it seems that only the alpha male develops impressive bristles, the other males get a bit of stubble. This often seems to be the issue when in stores or recently imported, one of the group look like a male and the others all look the same and often appear to be sub dominant males.

That's my experience at least after trying to find a female L128 for quite a while!

Often if you are keen on getting a breeding group its an idea to buy as large a group as you can afford or house, then when they mature or condition you can keep the fish you want and sell the others on. There's usually a better chance of getting both sexes that way.

[Acanthicus]

Hi

I recently checked a group of six H. medians that were kept for a few months already and they were fully grown at around 20-25cm. Still it was difficult to see differences. The dorsal fins of what was believed to be males seemed slightly bigger and yes, the genital papillae "confirmed" the genders and matched the fins. Odontodes only develop in breeding season, which means they are useless when the fish is not mature yet or it just feels not like breeding. Females tend to have a wide head as well as males, but this might look different when they really start to build up eggs. Not an easy task this species.

Good luck with yours!

[DHarris]

I've noticed that two seem to have longer odontodes than the third - I don't believe any are fully mature.
My largest, which I think is a male is 7". The others are roughly 5" and 4".

As they're still settling in, I haven't seen them much today. Assuming they start coming out with all of the other plecos I'll do my best to document them.

From your experience with them, is there any thing I should be aware in their upkeep that's out of the ordinary? There's so little info on these.