True L10a breeding

[biotope69]

I have successfully bred the German non hybrid rineloricaria but unfortunately the first batch surprised me by hatching in my biotope setup......needless to say all fry were lost after about a week ( I am pretty sure due to the coral red pencilfish and the 5 1/2 inch wild discus I have). I planned better this go around and all have hatched in a 10 gallon fry rearing setup about 30 fry or so. I have looked all over the web and there is varying information on the correct diet to feed the fry. I have taken lilly pads valisneria and cabamba along with drift wood pieces from the main tank into the breeder 10 gallon they seem uninterested in any food I throw in and just nibble at the plants in the tank. I am just trying fry powder as of today which the main ingredient is spirulina as well as some cured lettuce which is starting to break down. Does anyone have suggestions or experience on what is best for them. please do not cut and paste what is on the varying blogs and worthless sites.
Thanks

[Narwhal72]

I have bred them before but did not have very good luck raising the fry. Since then I have talked to two hobbyists who have been successful and seen one presentation on a third method. Here is what I can share about the three methods.

1. After feeding an aquarium flake food, take the filter cartridge out and put it inside the rearing tank. The fry will graze on the food and organisms on the cartridge. (I tried this and didn't have any luck).

2. Keep the fry in a small Cool Whip container on top the aquarium with some ramshorn snails and feed them trout chow. (This will be the method I try next as it solves many problems such as, the fry don't move much so it's hard to maintain proper food densities in a larger tank, and it reduces the amount of food needed.) Change water twice daily.

3. Add some baby BN plecos in with them. The BN plecos "train" the whiptails on how to feed on cucumber, zucchini, earthworm sticks, spirulina wafers, etc...). I have not tried this method yet but it seems very practical to me. Of course you also have to have same age BN fry available at the time.

Andy

[apistomaster]

I have the other variety of L10a and they are carnivorous so don't worry about feeding them algae.
You should be able to raise them on earth worm sticks and shaved frozen blood worms without any problems.
The Discus definitely eats small Loricaradae fry.
I would start the fry out in a half filled ten gallon tank until they are one inch long. You can begin using deeper water thereafter.

[biotope69]

Thanks for the help! Now after I grow them out they are going to need homes>

[biotope69]

I have an update since their is really not too much on the web about a strategy in raising these guys. They are really only feeding at night!( i have always known catfish to be mainly nocturnal hunters... never put 2 and 2 together). At night, they congregate on the bottom of the tank when the lights are off. Because of this revelation I have been feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp and sera fry food before the lights go out. I check up on them after a couple of hours and "viola" full bellies on every fish; something that I do not see during daytime feeding. As of today I still have 0 fry deaths and it has been 2 weeks or so since they hatched>

[Lihn]

Hi

I have successfully bred the L010a for a couple of years ago. My experience is that the fry normally died because of their inability to find food in the aquarium. For me it was important that the water level was very low the first days of the fry's life. When the fry hatched I moved the fry as fast as possible to an aquarium of 12 litres but only with a water level of 4-5 cm high in the aquarium. Here was also an air stone and some oak leaves the fry could hide under and eat.
I used this method in the first 2-3 weeks after hatching. After that I filled the aquarium to the top with more water - a little bit every week.
When you keep the fry in so little water it is important to change water almost every day because of the heavy pollution. By me wasn't the fry very sensitive so I changed around 70-90% of the water every day (tempered water).

I feed the fry with Tetra Tabimin, which quickly dissolve in the water and spreads to the entire bottom of the aquarium. That means that all the fry can find food in small aquarium with the low water level. I also feed with decapsulated brine shrimp and other foods which are easy to dissolve. The diet is omnivore.

This worked for me and I raised 2-4 spawns of eggs - at all around 120 fry. The mortality wasn't very high.