My first spawn of L134

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 28 Dec 2007, 23:48

I had begun to think I would never get past Bushy Noses and Sturisoma aureum in my fancy pleco breeding attempts but today I discovered L134 fry running around their spawning tank.

Needless to say, I am really happy that one of my favorites have finally bred in my tanks.

Daragh · Post by **Daragh** » 29 Dec 2007, 00:26

Congratulations, you must be delighted. Looking forward to some photos.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 29 Dec 2007, 00:30

Well done Larry. You must be over the moon!

andywoolloo · Post by **andywoolloo** » 29 Dec 2007, 04:36

congrats!!

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 29 Dec 2007, 04:58

racoll wrote:Well done Larry. You must be over the moon!

Thanks all.
racoll knows me better than most and how deep I am into wild discus but this little batch(~15 fry) of the L134 means more to me than a 100 batches of discus. I been breeding wild and domestic Discus off and on for four decades but I have only been working with the small plecos less than two years and I'm not used to having to patiently pursue fish breeding breeding goals.
Barbie, our moderator, lives only 100 miles away from me but her success in breeding fancy Plecos casts a long shadow. She has encouraged me to be patient, do the prerequisite pleco breeders' "dance" and that one day, I'll spawn one of the species I'm working on. I have finally made some progress and have renewed enthusiasm for this project.
I won't be able to take photos of the fry with my camera that would show up on the screen well and all my adults are just tails hanging out of the ends of caves.
I will put more effort into their care from now on. I was close to giving up until now.

Post by **Barbie** » 29 Dec 2007, 06:41

Congratulations Larry! And with a species that I am still growing out even, so you've beat me to the punch! Put me in line for some of the fry to sell at the store, if you would. People are really enjoying the idea of buying tank raised plecos. I told you patience pays off in the end, but don't worry, I drove everyone batty myownself only a few years ago when I was getting started, hehe.

Barbie

cmstwc · Post by **cmstwc** » 29 Dec 2007, 08:03

Well done!! I hope mines can breed soon!

Richard B · Post by **Richard B** » 29 Dec 2007, 13:45

Well done Larry!!!

lealea · Post by **lealea** » 05 Jan 2008, 08:29

From one L134 breeder to another well done ech spawn of any type is an amazing achievement. Keep up the great work. Congratualtions

corydoras · Post by **corydoras** » 05 Jan 2008, 11:02

Well done Larry, good acheivement.

L134 are on my wish list for 2008, so I hope to follow in your footsteps with them.

Cheers

Matt

artemis1 · Post by **artemis1** » 05 Jan 2008, 14:48

Congrats, you accomplished something I sure didn't

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 05 Jan 2008, 18:18

Thank you all,
I only have 10 or 14 fry but a pair has been holed up in their cave for 3 days so I may have more soon. I dream of eventually having about 50.

It took a year for my various species to reach young adulthood. I think maturity has a lot to do with the spawning of the plecos I so maybe more will begin to spawn. Think my Panaque L204 Flash plecos are my most likely to spawn based on their current behavior, especially my male looks like a porcupine and has begun using a cave.
Maybe I just like to think since they might be easier L134 and others, too. In six more moths I will have had them all for 2 years so that should put most into young adults with plenty of time to breed?
I plan to keep a lot of any fry to grow out groups of tank raised F1' for future breeding. Sometime that generation can be easier to work with than the wild caught.

It has been going pretty well lately. I have 45 Red Turquoise Discus fry about to be removed from their parents and another pair spawned last night and then the new plecos. Sturisoma have reach 3 to 3-1/4-inches TL. Ultimate mortality was higher than predicted but I have about 70 Sturisoma. Plenty to replace my original breeding several times over. I get many requests for Sturisoma but they take many months to reach a size where they adapt to community tanks.

PlecoMania · Post by **PlecoMania** » 08 Jan 2008, 11:08

well done, Larry.
you are the Master.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 27 Jan 2008, 17:34

Eureka!
I have my second spawn of of Peckoltia sp. L134 only this one was planned. I don't know yet how many fry I have but it is over 24 of the little guys. I must have discovered my first ones almost ten days after they had left their spawning cave and I suspect I lost many due to starvation since i did not know they were there. I'm sorry I don't have any photos but my camera does do macro photos well on fry this small. I will ask my Nikon DSLR camera friend to help me get some of both sizes then post them.

Some things that may be of interest:
The first spawn came after doing a large water change using RO water which made sense to me. This second spawn, however, was in plain local tap water which is for me, pH 7.4 and TDS of ~340 PPM. This means, at least to me, that L134 is not a very demanding species when in comes to chemistry, at least within reason.

Breeders are fed mainly earthworm sticks(Larry's Mantra) as are the fry but the adults also receive heavy feedings of live black worms and frozen blood worms.
There are five adults in a 20 gal long, three rectangular caves, one powerhead/sponge filter and an air stone. Temps are 28*C/~84*F.
They also have a little company; about a dozen 2-inch Sturisoma aureum juveniles.

cmstwc · Post by **cmstwc** » 28 Jan 2008, 00:33

Well Done!!!!

This is my first time hear L134 spawn after a tap WC with 340ppm.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 28 Jan 2008, 06:42

cmstwc wrote:Well Done!!!!

This is my first time hear L134 spawn after a tap WC with 340ppm.

I found this to be interesting myself. I meant to try to trigger the next spawn with another large RO water change but they just took my tap water in stride.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 28 Jan 2008, 09:49

Congrats, and good luck for bringing the babies to saleable size.

--
Mats

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 28 Jan 2008, 16:34

Mat,
Thank you.
The L134 grow much faster than my Sturisoma fry of the same age. How long it will take them to reach a salable size is unknown but they appear to grow faster than Hypancistrus zebra fry. They sure are colorful little guys and quite scrappy amongst themselves.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 26 Feb 2008, 23:57

Finally, the photographs of juvenile Peckoltia sp. L134. Several different age groups ~5 different spawns are sharing the tank with the breeders, Red Turquoise Discus and a few Sturisoma younglings. Quite the nursery. I should have cleaned the water spots before the photos but I caught every one out feeding and didn't want to frighten them into hiding.

L134 has turned out to be the most rapid growing fry of any of the Loricarids I've been able to have spawned so far.
The colors of the juveniles are so vivid and to my mind few fry are as endearing as young Plecos or Sturisoma.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 18 Apr 2008, 17:17

After taking a break of a couple months the L134 have just released about two dozen new fry. This time they had the tank all to themselves so the fry only have each other with which to compete for food.

Jacqie · Post by **Jacqie** » 18 Apr 2008, 23:24

Great photo's! Really wonderful that breeding this beautiful fish is going so well now. The patience you had to have before sounds very familiar to me....it was the same here with the L26O, at the same time when I was giving up on breeding them..they surprised me with their first batch

Do you give the little ones a special diet?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 19 Apr 2008, 01:10

Hi Jacqie,
My special diet for feeding my fry is mainly earth worm sticks and some Tetra Color Granules. I also feed the adults a lot of live black worms, frozen blood worms, earth worm sticks and some Tetra Color bits. I never feed them vegetable foods but the earth worm sticks do contain Spirulina.

I really thought I would succeed with my L260 as the first fancy pleco or L333 but I had a catastrophe with my 12 L333 and lost them all over night while i was storing them during setting up new tanks. Something toxic was released from probably the plastic that the garbage can released into the warm water. I just hate it when that sort of thing happens. Nothing much fish wise galls me more than replacing perfectly fine fish. Then all I see is that they cost me twice as much as they should have. Oh well, there are many attractive Hypancistrus species I still haven't kept and I will probably try two new species. Which ones to pick is so hard because I like most of them. L400, L236, L340 and a new Hypancistrus that is jet black with big white polka dots are some I am considering. Space-wise I should only try no more than two new species and keep plugging away on the L260. I have a nice colony of young L134 I am growing out for future breeding stock so they will remain part of my standard production items and also Sturisoma aureum.

Plecos are a nice departure from breeding discus. I have been doing that for 40 years. I am going back to breeding only wild type discus except for my red turquoise since that color will always remain popular. I am still learning about raising Loricardids but my discus are done on auto-pilot.

Carp37 · Post by **Carp37** » 19 Apr 2008, 18:26

The fry juveniles look wonderful Larry- congrats

soltarii007 · Post by **soltarii007** » 21 Oct 2008, 08:41

What are e sizes for breeding size L134s?

My first spawn of L134

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