Breeding Hoplosternum thoracatum (Hoplo Cats)

[daddyseal]

can anyone give me details on how to breed Hoplo Cats?
I know the male makes a bubble nest on a leaf, or green plastic "cover" floating on the surface...but that is all I know.
Please help me, if you know the full details, please.
I have males and females in a community tank, and will put them in their own tank, if someone can tell me...please?

[Lars Jamne]

When I want my pair of Hoplos to breed, I add 30% fresh cold water and feed them with red mosquito larvas and adds a bunch of big Catappa leaves and makes sure the current in the tank is to a minimum.

The next day there is normally one or two leaves full of eggs in a bubble nest.

If I want the fry to live I move the leave(s) to a 20-30l tank with a small fry-safe filter and start feeding with Liquifry No1 and after a few days I change to newly hatched artemia. After a few months then you'll have a couple of hundred swimming around…. The fry are real strong and they survive almost anything it seems.

Here's one of my younglings from my last batch. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=8019

[minkweir]

At what age do they breed?

[Aquatic-Discoveries]

See if you can get your hand on this article:

Reproductive seasonality and nest-site differentiation in three closely related armoured catfishes (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) by Prof. Jan H. Mol

[Taratron]

When you say low current, do you mean almost none? My hoplos are in a tank with sponge filters, but if I turned them off, I don't think the plecos would survive.

[MatsP]

Moved to Callichthyidae section.

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Mats