Spawning L66

[Lframe]

Greetings fellow aquarists.

I was fallen in love with Hypancistrus genus and started to rearing L333 and L66.

Then I was in to breeding them and setup a 2ft tank for breeding L66. This is a picture of my 2ft tank;



Description of tank : It is a bare bottom and have a piece of Driftwood and 4 caves. Caves stabilized with 2 rock slates. And there is one Anubias Barteri plant. Other than that no decorations. Tank have background and one side paste with blue oyama paper.

Fish : There are 4 white based Adult L66 and one yellow based adult L66. All are wild caught. Ratio is 3M:2F. They are eating well and in good condition. one female is gravid.



Filtration and water parameters ;

Filtration : Eheim Ecco pro 2032 (500lph) with Seachem Matrix and Substrat pro
Aeration : Sera air pump (100 lph) and canister rainbar
Circulation : Newave 1000 wavemaker (750 - 1400 lph) - set to 750 lph at the moment
Heater : Jager 50W heater
Water change regime : every 3 days 30% with slight cool water plus 1.5L of 'Life' distilled water to lower TDS
pH : 6.6-6.8 (Pinpoint pH meter)
Nitrogenous level : NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 20-30ppm (API liquid test kits (weekly measure))
TDS : 85ppm (HM digital AP-1 TDS pen)
Temperature : 29C (Dimax digital thermometer, GEX analog thermometer)
Clear poop : Everyday with Eheim gravel cleaner 3531 (battery)

I would be glad to hear from people who already bred L66 that is there any thing to change or improve in this setup to make them spawn? If I acquire 2-3 females to make a ratio of 3M:5F will it have effect?

[Zeno]

Looks like your tank is perfect to breed L66.
I would not put in extra fish.
Now you have to be patient. The hardest part of the game

Greetz, Zeno

[Lframe]

Thanks for the reply.
Teaching me patience in hard way.

[plecoboy]

I think a 2 foot tank for five adults is too small. Your males need a little more space, especially when they are ready to breed. I would bump up to a 4 foot tank. You would also have a little extra room for fry to grow up with the adults.

[Lframe]

I think a 2 foot tank for five adults is too small. Your males need a little more space, especially when they are ready to breed. I would bump up to a 4 foot tank. You would also have a little extra room for fry to grow up with the adults.

Hi Plecoboy, Actually I have a 4ft tank but it is more for Arowana and Royal plecos. I was planning to remove one cave out of 4 caves since there are only 3 males. I want to order a 3ft tank with large foot print but still haven't finalized.

Also learned that gravid female will not gurantee a spawning and may consume eggs itself if not trapped in a reasonable time.

Being patient....

[Lframe]

Finally one pair bred and hatched too when i saw them. This happened in one of the round german clay cave. Now almost at last days in yolk sac and i transferred dad and cave to breeding box with airlift using same tank water. looks there are at least 15 fries. waiting to feed them solid food like hikari carnivore pellets.
I think adding the wavemaker helped to speed up the spawn. Next target will be L46.

thanks for all the advices.