Breeding L260

[jac]

Hi there,

Well, an other great succes has taken place Today my first fry hatched of my L260.
I haven't had the fish for that long, I think about 3-4 months now. They are 9 WC adults, 3 females and 6 males.
Haven't done anything special just the exact same treatment as all my other fish. They share the same waters. The last 2 weeks there has been very heavy thunder storms and extreem hot weather. I refresh there water every day to cool it down a bit.

Here some pictures:

I caught some out 2 months ago to see how many females/males I had. Here is 1 male and 2 females


Male


Female


Fry trying to break free of his shell, not a great picture sorry....


Job done




Two other fry behind the cave. He kick 3 of them out so far, picture taken from under


There is some heavy love making....female after spawning

[MatsP]

Great work.

--
Mats

[Suckermouth]

Wow, congratulations! What a coincidence, mine just bred too! No pics, though.

[Birger Amundsen]

Nice work, congrats

[jac]

Thanks guys
Also congratulations to you Milton

[corybrummie2010]

Congrats,Jac and well done. Your L260 looks absolutely awesome
Congrats to you also, Milton

[Barbie]

Congratulations! Those fry are so fun to watch as they develop their colors. I too pulled a spawn of L260 from my new colony (ok, I've had them almost a year but finally set them up in a tank to give them caves last month ). The spawn was a big surprise for me, as there were two different ages of fry in there. While I've had a few male Ancistrus that would spawn any time in the rearing process, I've not had Hypancistrus that would previously. It was a very nice surprise .

Barbie

[jac]

Thanks again

1 day old:



The other fry are still with dad in the cave

[jac]

There are also sad things to tell Found the female today in a bad state
Earlier this week I already saw she had some scratchings on her back but I see that ones in a time and thought it was from spawning. So didn't think it would be a great problem and heel on it's own again.



But just now I found her lying half in the cave with much more damage I was shocked and started to get a tank ready for her, to treat the wounds and hopefully save her from dying



I think the other males might have attacked her last night. As I only have 3 females and 6 males I think I have to get the other males out of the breeding group. What would you do???

I hope she pulls trough......

[MatsP]

My first reaction would be to move the female to a hospital tank to recover, and then if you have somewhere to put the other males, separate them out, f'sure. One or two females per male.

--
Mats

[jac]

That was the first thing I did. Set up the hospital tank and put her there with the cave she was in and some more cover.
I put some anti bacterial medicine in the water and some almond leaves. Hope she will get better.....

I was thinking of putting the dominant male (witch has fry but is separate from the group at the moment) and another male together with the 3 females. That makes the group to 5 fish.

Why would they attack her??

[Yann]

Hi!!

I would leave only 2 males with the 3 females...more males are not necessary!!
Cheers
Yann

[jac]

Sadly the female died

Thanks for the advice Yann.

[MatsP]

Sorry to hear. But I believe you still have a decent group, so that's the good news.

--
Mats

[Suckermouth]

Sorry to hear that jac! That really sucks. When I first saw the damage on the female I was surprised; my female took no damage but I only have a male and a female.

I'm not seeing anymore signs of my fry. I didn't have many to begin with, but maybe the last couple died somehow, or daddy is doing a good job covering the few with his body from my prying eyes! In another week I'll suppose I'll know if they emerge from the nest. However, I am hopeful since they have bred already in my care that they should do so again in the next few months.

[jac]

The 3 fry that were out of the cave went back in again after 2 days. So I don't know how far they are in devellopment or what they look like now
So, sorry, no pictures either of the upgrowing fry. I also suspect dad is doing a good job and will see he fry when it's time to come out

[jac]

I made a selection this afternoon in the group.
Caught the females (2) and then tried to select a male out of the 5 I had caught. Difficult because they are all so pretty
Eventually I selected a young male because I thought that the older males would be the ones who would fight more over the females.

I've put the remaining 4 fish back in the breeding tank, also the male with the fry. So now I have 2 males and two females. Really hope this will settle down into a nice breeding group. Not expecting any fry now for a long time because the female that died was the spawning female....

I did have a little surprise tho Amongst the fish was a tiny fry still with some yolksack but very healthy I didn't dare leave him in the breeding tank so put him in a little guppy breeder until his yolk sack dissolves, then I will let him go again.

[Liquid_Pyro]

Congrats on the spawn, but sorry to hear about your female...

That last picture of the little fry is great! Very cool

[drpleco]

sorry to hear that you lost the female. My leopard frog plecos get the same wounds and I've lost a few to secondary bacterial infections. It goes from a scratch to eroded caudal fin to bloody fins and flesh within about a day and then the fish dies. It can be treated successfully if you catch it in the early phase and use three tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons and tetracycline for 10 days. I add the salt 1/3 at a time 12 hours apart but start the tetracycline right away. Once the flesh starts eroding, then the fish will not survive. Keep an eye on your fish the next time they spawn and be ready to isolate the female if she has similar scratches.

[龙剑之峰]

great work
I am just a greenhand, learning~

[jac]

sorry to hear that you lost the female. My leopard frog plecos get the same wounds and I've lost a few to secondary bacterial infections. It goes from a scratch to eroded caudal fin to bloody fins and flesh within about a day and then the fish dies. It can be treated successfully if you catch it in the early phase and use three tablespoons of salt per 5 gallons and tetracycline for 10 days. I add the salt 1/3 at a time 12 hours apart but start the tetracycline right away. Once the flesh starts eroding, then the fish will not survive. Keep an eye on your fish the next time they spawn and be ready to isolate the female if she has similar scratches.

Thanks for your help.
I have treated more plecs that had simular wounds with great succes. But this time I think I failled on seeing the stress that she was in the first time. After the second fight she just gave up I think. Lying in the open is not something a L260 will do in a hurry
I also think this species is very prown (?) to stress and die easily is these conditions.
An infection was just waiting to happen......

Still sick of losing the fish

[jac]

Good news to share
Found the male with a new female in his cave this morning. It came as a big surprise to me because I sorted the group out last week and he still has his first fry in his cave. Not seen them come out yet.
I will be watching the female closely if she does spawn. Don't want them to fight an other female to death again There is only 1 more male in the new breeding set up, so hope this will help!

Keeping fingers crossed

[jac]

After 5 days together with the female he has a new batch of eggs

Even more great news, the female is not harmed in any way I hope it stays this way due to the new set up of the group.

I've seen the first fry swimming free in the tank. They look gorgeous with there black bodies and thin white striping
I took a crappy picture earlier this week but it shows the fry. I will take new pictures when I can!

[jac]

Update:

The second batch of eggs are hatching today. Dad has kick them all out I think. Due to the strong current they are everywere
Ones I pulled the plug on the powerhead I started collecting the newly hatched fry. I counted 9 but sadly 2 were dead. Now I have 7 strong healthy fry in a fry trap

Earlier this week I saw that the first fry are having some problems! They don't seem to feed as well and some were very thin!! I caught them and put them in a fry trap, started to feed them straight away. 3 days on and they are still alive but can't really see them eating. The fry still left in the tank look ok and I presume they are finding food no problem. But to be sure I started to feed them extra every day, now up to 4 times a day. I only feed my other fry (L66, L201, L270) twice a day.

Is this a common problem with L260?? What do you do to get the fry feeding better?
The newly hatched fry are in a fry trap so what can I do best with these fry before releasing them after a few weeks? How long can they stay in the trap?

[jac]

Here are some pictures of today:

Fry hatched today


Fry from the first batch, very thin...

[jac]

Is there no one who can help me???

First dead fry this morning.... The larvea from yesterday are also not doing well.

In the article of Janne there is noting about feeding problems with L260...

[aldare]

What are you using as a food?

[jac]

I feed all my fish the same. Frozen foods as brine shrimp, blood worms, mysis and cyclops. But also tablets such as Shrimp pellets from O.S.I., Viformo from Sera and green tablets with spirulina.

As I leave all my fry with the breeding group the first several months they always eat the same and do very well on this diet. Never had problems before, breeding L66, L201, L340, L270 and now L260.

I've taken a better look at the remaining L260 fry and they seem fine and have full bellies... I don't understand why??

What am I doing wrong



For the ones who don't know my breeding set up: 9 tanks of 160 liters each, filtered by one large biological filter of nearly 300 liters. Also filtering over a nitrate filter so nitrates are zero. Water changes every other day or every day up to 100% water refereshment in a weeks time. All fish breed/are kept in the same conditions, including the fry. No illness or deaths, except the one due to fighting.

If anyone would like even more info just say so

[jac]

Don't know if anyone is following this tread but here are some more pictures.

The latest fry, 3 days old. The 4 remaining are doing fine now, hope it stays that way. I counted an other 8 left in the cave with dad, so that makes a total of 18 fry this spawn


2 Of the older fry I caught because they were so thin. The rest seem to be doing ok and I've seen them eating. Hope these will survive....




The one in front seems not so bad yet, the other is likely to die....

[jbmm]

Hi Jac,
1st: congratulations on the success

My own (only) experience so far was that the juvies are vegetarian...
they ate my echinodoras in my community tank

Furthermore, in the Shane's world section of this website there is a (large) article about breeding L260... just search for 'feed'on that page and off you go...

btw, any chance I can visit once ? I'm from Tilburg ;)