L260 - Queen Arabesque

[AlexAndCarmen]

Hey Bex

Thanks, I do really love our L260's, they are so stunning. I bet your little one is too adorable. Having an only white belly apparently doesn't mean it's a girl. Some sub dominant males could well have white bellies too. Not sure if it could change. But it would be great if you had a girl too, as I've heard from plenty people that they battled to find females. When yours is older, it will have longer interopercular, pectoral odontodes if it's a male. But it does take a while for these fish to mature. The other day I was reading on another forum that someone had just bred theirs, and they were 28 months old (this person had got them from a breeder, so knew exactly how old they were).

Anyway. Our red whiptails have surprised us. We bought two and then got a male thinking the other two were girls. WRONG. Only weeks after getting our lovely handsome boy, one of the others suddenly matured over night and has facial hair too. They look exactly the same now. But the other from the original two is definitely a female. Not a hair in sight and she even looks girly compared to the other two.

So I think it would be a few months yet till you are able to sex yours. They are too cute though aren't they!! Our two males have their little territories, which is actually very funny, since they live right next to each other. One just moves slightly into the others territory, and there is a funny jittering threat and one climbs on top of the other. No actual fights, just lots of jittering and funny bouncing .

Keep well and speak soon, and hope you get those pics up soon.

Carmen

 

[Bex]

Yeah, I love the little whippies! They are adorable! It's the little shuffles that make me laugh, as you said before - they moonwalk I keep looking at one really closely thinking I can maybe see little tiny hairs on his face, but then my eyes start to go funny from looking too closely through the glass. I'm a bit impatient so will just have to wait a little while, but they have both grown so much since we got them!

Will have to try and get a better look at my L260 but it's so small at the moment, only about 1 1/2" max! From looking at planet catfish, that size is only about 6 weeks old apparently! I haven't seen the belly since we got it and I'm not really sure now of the colour anyway. Brian will have to become Brianny if he turns out to be a she!

What are the pectoral odontodes? I've heard people talking about them but to be honest I have no idea what they are Are they the little things that stick out from the sides of their mouths?

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Hi Bex

The pectoral odontodes, as far as I can tell, are the hairs on their cheeks. Both sexes have them, but the males are a lot longer. Here is a pic of Arry's when we first got him

These pics are a few months old, as I haven't been able to get any closer pics of him for a while, as he is really shy. Arabella loves the camera, a little super model, but Arry would rather do without.

Another couple of Arry

Keep well and speak soon
Carmen

 

[Bex]

Ahhh, I see! Thanks for that! Is that true of all plecs? Haven't seen anything like that on any of my plecs and we've now got 6! Our plec addiction is getting a bit out of hand We just find them fascinating!

Going to have a really close look at all of ours tonight to see if any of them have them. Either they are too young or they are all girls and we are going to have to re-name them all

*EDIT - What's the yellow guy in the third piccy? He's gorgeous!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Morning Bex

I'm not sure if all the males have those long whiskers. We've kept common plecs before when we still lived in South Africa, but I never examined to see what sex they were. You've got that adorable Panaque haven't you? I think the males of those also have the long whiskers and over hairy pectoral fins. I'm really not sure how long it takes for them to mature though, probably years.

That yellow guy is our albino bristle nose. He has grown some since that pic. He is too adorable. I've named him Albi, since he's albino. He is very friendly. He loves his algae, in fact all food. He goes mental if you put cucumber or courgette in there. Shame, they are funny.

I took this pic of him a couple of days ago.

He is really weird. Falls asleep under logs and actually looses suction on the log and lies flat on his back on the sand, sound asleep. I thought he was dead the first time I saw it, but he does it regularly, so must be a normal thing. We actually have 2 brown bristle noses as well and they do it too.

Keep well
Carmen

 

[Bex]

WOW! I love him! He's so cute! We've got an albino common but he's a coppery red colour. Would love a yellow plec like that! I quite like the bristle noses but we have really run out of room for any more plecs for now. Until we get a bigger tank that is

Eddie is our Panaque and apparently we won't be able to tell his sex until he's about 5 years old! He is just a baby at the moment so we've got a while to wait yet His thing at the moment is resting his tail on his gravel cave while hanging upside down eating his wood. He also looks dead and has given me a scare a few times recently!

Plecs are such funny fish! Our newest addition is the cutest little Snowball pleco L102 last week. Again only a baby, about 2". He doesn't mind challenging Eddie for the Sera Catfish Chips and Eddie is at least 3 times his size!

 

[PlecMama]

Snowballs are adorable! when ours were babies, they looked like little girls hair-bows.

He is really weird. Falls asleep under logs and actually looses suction on the log and lies flat on his back on the sand, sound asleep. I thought he was dead the first time I saw it, but he does it regularly, so must be a normal thing

That is so sweet! my little girly betta sleeps on the sand, we often thought she was dead before we got use to her.

I love your albino bristle

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Aaaw, Bex. I am dying to see pics of all your little plecs. Bet they are all too cute. They sounds adorable, especially at their sizes. Alex likes the Snowballs too.

Thanks SuzieQPlecMama

I'm gonna have to take a good pic of Albi when he falls asleep and looses suction. It looks too weird. I totally freaked out the first time, calling Alex to come see our dead BN. Then he slightly switched, woke up and attached himself to the log. A few minutes later, he'd fallen asleep and let go again. Typical man.

 

[Bex]

Ha Ha! Would love to see it. When we get a bigger tank I'm going to ask my LFS if they can get albino bristlies cos Albi is awesome.

Really need to get a camera so I can get some pics of our plecs while they are small. Think it will be impossible to get one of Brian L260 cos he is very shy. Shame, he's so tiny he's adorable!

Our Snowball is amazingly active considering his size. He's all over the place.

If we get a camera soon I will post pics of all of our babies!