Recently purchased LDA72s

Hi all,

I recently purchased some LDA72s W/C out of Colombia from an individual who gets in wild caught fish all the time. My only problem is that I can't sex these guys like normal bristlenose. I am unable to find information about them. I know, in general, that males have plenty more bristles than females but a few pictures online show female LDA72s with more bristles than I am accustomed to seeing in a female bristlenose.

For instance aquaterralive.com shows a picture of a female with a fuller face of bristles than most females (they also have a youtube video).

Then there are images where females of this pleco have very few bristles.

What are your thoughts? Experiences with them if any? I bought 4 of them and they're all the same size. Two of them have a nose full of bristles up to the top and then the bristles branch off. These two are males for sure. But then two of them have bristles similar to this:

http://www.aquaterralive.com/catalog/images/Plecos%20Xenocara%20LDA72%20Female.jpg


They're settling in so taking pictures of them right now is not the best for them.

I'm hoping that out of the 4 I have at least one female in the group. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch!

use body shape rather than bristles to sex them. Females are more fuller in the body while the males are more straight sided. There are diagrams in my book (link in my signature).

The picture you linked i would say is a male because i do not know many bristlenose species where the females have bristles running up there nose. but there are apparently a few. So, as i mentioned, use body shape

Thanks Doug.

I'll have to wait a month or so to fatten them up before I can tell. It's easy for me to sex other bristlenose at 4" but these guys, not so much.