L204 great success!!!

[Farid]

Hi folks...
while i'm still feedng my L200 babies..i finely found a little youngster of my L204!!! after three years of patience...and doing nothing special i found a little 14mm small striped baby just before...

i'm so happy

pics follow!!

farid

[Hitch]

congrats

[Farid]

thanks hitch...

here we go ...the last on in the cave...(it's a self made one )...i will check tonight how many babies wi'll find...





farid

[Hitch]

cute little dude, now you just have to fatten it up.

[Farid]

hi hitch,
i released it back into the adults tank...where i found 4 babies until now...the rest is well fed and very quick soon as the torchlight is on
of course i will feed more powdered food from now on...

farid

[andy75]

congrats,

I am in the process of breeding my L204 at the moment, so i am interested in what you have been doing?

How many do you have? What have you been feeding them? oh and if theres anything else you have to say would be great.

Sorry for all the questions

Cheers


Andy

[Hitch]

If you have another tank, move the babies to a grow out tank. Then you would able to better monitor and feed them.

[Farid]

hi hitch,
as i'm leaving in a week for 18 days flyfishing i decided to leave them in the big tank...i am raising at the monent over 150 L397...sometimes babies escape in the maintank (out of the "inhanging" one)...they manage great...of course the hatching tanks are my favourite...but not when i'm 18 days away...the risk of fail is too high...

@andy,
i kept them at a conductivity of 2.7 measured right now! temp. 29°C ,,,,a two weeks ago i gave some shrimps (asia food store)...if this might have been the egg producing komponent?? otherwise i did not looked at them for a long time...months!! just fed them well but never checked an of the caves...
the UV clearer was quite stuck because of too much mmud in the prefoamfilter ...so acually i made nothing spezial. i did not even made the obligatory 50% weekly waterchange...

it is quite a surprise. i had no view into the cave as the entrance looks to the back side of the tank...

farid

[Hitch]

ah, makes sense.

[Farid]

i once lost 30 L134 as the airtube from the babies tank got blocked by mal handling....!never again ;)

[Yann]

Hi Farid!!!

Great news !!! you are doing awsome with all these hard to break L!!!
Nicely done...what is next on the line
Catch you later!!
Cheers
Yann

[Farid]

hi yann,
i got 8 LDA33 growing

farid

[MatsP]

Congratulations.

--
Mats

[Farid]

thanks mats

[andywoolloo]

they are so cute!!! incredible!!

[Farid]

hi andy,
i've just looked at 3 of the babies...they already have quite dark strikes

this is how they look like hidden in the dark...


i had to get my torch to realise what stripes i've seen in the dark corner... the photo is taken with a top flash...otherwise you would not see anything...

farid

[Farid]

it's 2:30 AM and as i thought the night will show more of this mysterium.

i cleaned the UV-filter for a bit more current at midnight...and now there they are...i counted over 50 fry


i guess i will sleep very well tonight i still cant believe it...

farid

[apistomaster]

Hi Farid,

Congrats on this outstanding success. One thing I am beginning to learn is to be much more patient with species I am trying to spawn.
I regret having sold off 8 L204 I raised to breeding size because I think if I had kept them all another year or two they probably would have eventually bred. I only began collecting groups of L# plecos as something new to work with in May of 2006. I had been more involved with breeding Discus and Apistogramma when I first moved back to a warmer climate. I'm especially trying to breed wild Discus again after not having them for a long time. They take patience too but not as much as many plecos. It gets too warm for most of the Killiefish I used to raise. My list spawned plecos is growing longer but I know now I gave up on some species too soon.

[PlecoCrazy]

Good Job!!! I've had 7 for around 4-5 years and still have not had success with them. Too clean up after them for that long gets a little old with no reward. Glad you've had some success. Out of curiosity was it a round or square cave that they spawned in? Also what's the cave made out of? Thanks.

[Brengun]

Gosh! Farid 2009 certainly is the year of the pleco for you. Well done!

[krazyGeoff]

Well Done Farid,
Have a great time fly fishing, if you can relax that is
Like Andy I too am trying to breed my ones. Been through two cycles without much luck at the moment, althought everyone is behaving correctly there is just no action!

I can publish my attempt so far as I have documented it well, if anyone is interested. I think my tank may not be suitable? Too square.

Cheers

Geoff

[Farid]

hi guys,
i was also thinking to use the tank for another species soon as the 204 just lay around ...but actually they are quite activ...last night the female as the bigger male were at the front glass...not really shy at all...also my L200 are sometimes to the front soon as i start checking what's going on (no torch light of course) so i think the fish get used to me and sometimes are even curious... another important point to me that fishes should not be in a stress form...so if it get's even more quite they feel really comfy and who knows some of them "risk" to make babies

about the caves...i make them all by myself...i use clay dark burning...that means the hotter the oven will burn them the darker they get! mine were in at about 900-1000 degrees celcius...so these are more or less chocolate brown...i also dont make them perfect...means the surface is not smooth like the ones i usually find in the shops. there is also differences between the clay with fine and more rough "schamotte" density and size... the schamotte are little grains ...i dont know exactly what the name in english is...

here's a pic of the last ones i made


out of 12kg the bigger ones were for the L204 and L200
the smaller ones for L134 L66 L260 and so on...

u make my caves as large as the fsh is plus adding one side fin ...this is where they feel well...if the cave is too large they can't squeeze themselves in to defend the cave. what means they cant protect themselfes/the eggs/ or even later the fry... i always covers the entrances of all caves with flat stones (in german called schiefer)
http://www.natursteine-blog.de/wp-conte ... latten.jpg

this time the cave was not even covered...as i tried different things with my L204...i placed differend caves into the big peace of wood i got in the tank...different sizes shapes covered uncovered...

"the one" is 10cm under the surface, next to the airfiltersystem where the waterflow is. the tank is quite dark. i use only 13W in the center of the tank to most of it is really in the dark! i kaap about 300 of more red fires in this tank to have a good cleaner system some L181 babies... no sand or gravel at all..a 36UV cleaner that sometimes works more or less strong as the prefilter get's stuck with mud. the UV clearer works with a 1000L/h pump.

that's more or less it...

[andy75]

@ Krazygeoff

Would love to read what u have done so far, be good to comapare with what i have done

Thanks

Andy

[apistomaster]

Hi Farid,

I keep hundreds of Cherry Shrimp in my Pleco breeding tanks because they thrive on the leavings of the fish and help to contribute to a more complex aquarium ecology. For this reason I am pleased to see that you share in the same practice. As it is with so many contributing factors, I believe they aid to the success with breeding this group of fish, but in ways that are hard to demonstrate except in the actual successful breeding of the fish. When the shrimp thrive so do the fish and the plecos are somewhat unique in that they coexist so well with the shrimp and visa versa. The shrimp also contribute to making a pleco breeding set up more interesting by adding both their color and constant activity in what otherwise is often an aquarium often lacking in much immediate viewing pleasure as the tails of the fish of primary interest are often about all one can see.

I too am a serious fly fisherman, one who is looking forward to the snow run off to decline in my favorite streams so I can begin fishing them. So from this fellow fly fisherman to another, I wish you tight lines on your upcoming trip. I fish the streams of the west side of the northern Rocky Mountains for wild native trout.

[andywoolloo]

nice looking caves! what is the big mouth above them on the wall with teeth! looks cool.

[Farid]

hi apisto,
i also thought that it might be good to keep any of the tetra family (or simular spezies...i dont know the name for all of them) so it might happen that with the simulations (rain/dry season) these fisch will also spawn...what happened many times in different of my tanks...

so meaby this spawning of other fish micht activate the plecos...cause there's is something more in the water....maybe. even if i just keep guppies in the L204 tank...

with the L200 i keep about 80 (Hyphessobrycon columbianus)
with my L134 i keep 25 (Pristella maxillaris)

but of course this is just an idea that should not be forgotten...


@andy
it's a white shark head on the wall (fiber material) ;)

the tank below where u see the ALU...its a 900L tank not filled yet


farid

[apistomaster]

Farid,

I added a dozen Clown Killies, Pseudoepiplatys annulatus in with my L333 breeders. I have allowed a heavy growth of Najas and Ceratophyllum to cover most of the surface and I'm hoping the Killies will become a self-sustaining colony which I can occasionally harvest any excess fish. The L333 breeders and fry use only the bottom area and the P. annulatus are surface oriented fish. Of course, they don't ever occur together in nature since these are West African Killies but the combination is pleasing.
I would like to try using Rivulus xiphidius but they are hard to get, even within the membership of the American Killiefish Association plus pairs can run up to US$20/pair or more. I may try a more common Rivulus sp instead not that any Rivulus can be called very common. At least they would be S. American fish.
Rivulus spp are even harder than most Killies to keep from finding ways to jump out. They even rest on floating leaves partly out of the water sometimes. They are unusual fish but some are quite beautiful.
Plecos are aware enough of their surroundings that the use of harmless tank mates as dither fish is something that may help put some plecos that much more at ease and contribute to helping them feel more comfortable to spawn?

[krazyGeoff]

Andy,
I have posted my attempt in another post called http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 76&start=0.

Thanks

Geoff

[Farid]

geoff,
as u did, I also listed all parameters in the beginning...that's 2 years ago ...i stopped after a while...cause i think if nothing special happens it's not nessecary to note anything...

my female had a time she use to lay around the male's cave for weeks...until he let her in ...but nothing happened...

think about the weatherpressure aswell!

;) farid

[Farid]

i could catch some of the babies today...


i will at least put some of them in a seperate well running raising tank...

farid