Frogs

Question
QUESTION: How can you tell the gender of a Plecostomus? You know, the fish that suck the stuff off the fishtank?

ANSWER: Hi Cassie,
 It depends somewhat on which species you have but in general females may appear fatter in the abdomen, particularly when looking down on them.  By and large, it is not easy to tell the sex of many plecostomus unless you have some practice at it.
For some species, the males get bristles on their pectoral fins -- the ones on the side -- which the females don't get (or don't get as well developed).

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I just got an African Dwarf Frog. It has a bump on it's butt. Is it a girl?

Answer
Hi Cassie,
 No a bump does not make it a girl.  Unlike humans in which the differences between the sexes are obvious, in many animals, there are no outward physical differences between the sexes.  In some cases, there are subtle differences (such as the bristles on SOME plecostomus catfish). In many of these species species, you simply cannot tell which sex the animal is.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>