L129 Tankmates

[Alex.]

Hi,

I'm setting up an aquarium for a trio of L129s. The decor will be relatively simple; sand, slate, a few bits of wood with anubias attached etc.

Could anyone please suggest any suitable mid-dwelling tankmates that would appreciate the higher current in the tank, not require much planting and most importantly, not bother the 129s.

Thanks in advance!

[Alex.]

Bump.

I was thinking dicrossus as they're also from the Orinoco, but they're from a different biotope in that river... (not that it concerns me that much lol)

Hatchetfish also caught my eye, but I don't know if they'd be OK?

[MatsP]

This sort of question comes up quite a bit.

I would suspect that in nature, you would not find ANY fish swimming mid-water where you find most of the Hypancistrus species. That is based on the fact that Loricariidae and Hypancistrus specialize in "being sationary in fast-moving water", and most mid-water swimming species do not like that strong current.

Now, you wouldn't have that much current in a home aquarium, so it's a different story.

--
Mats

[Alex.]

The flow would be provided by the standard Tetra Art 60L filter and an Eheim 2208 Aquaball. Not sure how many gallons per hour that would be, but there would be calmer areas in the tank due to the hardscape.

Thanks.

[MatsP]

Yes, my point was more that there are no "midwater fish" that share the habitat with the L129. So whatever you put in with them, they would never have seen each other in their usual habitat.

So, what you pick as your cohabitants isn't important from that perspective.

Dicrossus would be a candidate, but I expect they will eat Hypancistrus fry when they are just hatched. Certainly other medium-sized fishes do - Lemon tetras eat newly hatched

Sturisoma aureum

, for example. So if you are planning on breeding the Hypancistrus, I'd recommend either very small fish, or "nothing".

--
Mats

[Alex.]

I got this quote from another forum, but I believe it was originally posted here by Apistomaster, who keeps dicrossus with breeding plecos:

"I am keeping six Dicrossus maculatus, Spade Tail Checker Board Dwarf c*****ds in with my 7 L333 breeders and a couple 4 inch Sturisoma aureum. They are housed in a 40 gal breeder style tank. They leave each others youngsters alone. The tank has many standard rectangular caves, pieces of Malaysian wood, floating Ceratophyllum(Hornwort) and potted Echinodorus hybrid var. Kleiner Bar Sword plants. The Dicrossus spawn on leaves of the sword plants and the L333's rarely leave the bottom. I remove the Dicrossus eggs by snipping off the leaf with eggs and hatch them out artificially in a different set up. I trust these Dicrossus around Hypancistrus fry but I would not recommend Apistogramma spp as tank mates. Apistogramma spp are bottom oriented cave spawning c*****ds with too much attitude. They will kill a newly emerged Hypancistrus fry, Rat Terrier style."

That is one of the reasons why I was looking into dicrossus as a suitable tankmate.

And I would be looking to breed the hypans.

Cheers.

[MatsP]

I have not kept the species, so if Larry (Apistomaster) says different from me, I'd trust Larry.

--
Mats

[Alex.]

OK, thanks

I picked up my 129s today, 1M, 2F it looks like, but they're still sub-adult. Fingers crossed for the future.

I will get the dicrossus some time later, and pot back here regarding their suitability with the L129s.

[Alex.]

Set up the tank today, there's more hardscape and some plants to go in, but any comments on how it is so far would be great

[Jon]

Yeah, that's way more current than any dicrossus would be able to handle, imo. How about some teleocichla?

Debiliterra like it on the cool side relative to its congeners, ime. 80-83 F has produced healthy fry for me, whereas spawns occurring in the high 80's (86 or so), resulted in mass premature hatching and subsequent mortality. With that in mind, I still say goodeids would be great for the tank (ameca).

[Alex.]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. At the moment the tank is around 26ºC/78ºF, I will be slowly increasing that to around 28ºC/82ºF.

Teleocichla look like nice little cichlids. I don't know if I'd be able to find any over here in the UK.

EDIT: Wildwoods have teleocichla monogramma I think. What male:female ratio is best to keep them in, and would they be suitable tankmates?

Or I may get pygmy cories? So much to choose from lol.

Thanks.

[Bradb]

Any up dates on this tank, have you put anything in? Have you had a spawn or any interest in the breeding caves?