My L114 have finally spawned!

[Barbie]

Woohooo! I took the absolute worst cell phone picture of my life, just so I could reassure myself that there really are eggs! I've owned 3 of the fish in my group since 2002, when I was still in Anchorage. I just had a laugh when I looked at the catelog and realized one of them is in there as a teeny tiny youngster!

Pseudacanthicus cf_leopardus

I promised I would detail what I have done to date, so here are the current conditions, and the conditions leading up to spawning.

For the last 4 months they have been kept at 82 degrees, sometimes a bit more, if the space upstairs was too warm. Mild fluctuations in temperature, but nothing that brought the tank under 78 degrees. I fed a rich meatie diet of Repashy spawn & grow, with NLS community pellets, some new Era tropical pellets, and Repashy Soilent green or wafers for the veggies.

The tank is a 6' 125 gallon on my centralized system of 800 or so gallons. Filtered using air driven sponge filters, and the fluid bed and matten filters on the whole system. The pH of our tap water is 7.8, TDS is 140ppm, and kH is 3 degrees (ish). The tank itself was 7.8, 160ppm, and 2 degrees kH on the day the spawn occured, and 78 degrees, up from the 76 I pulled it down to the day before with a large volume, cool water change. This was only with tap water, as my RO holding tank holds 65 gallons. That can manage a good rain for the 125, but doesn't budge the system much at all. I like the security of the water volume, and thought it couldn't hurt to try a cycle or two with just the tap water. It seems to have been enough!

The tank is bare bottom, as almost all of them are on the system. It currently has 30 or so ancistrus of different types that have escaped from condos and are nearly grown to adulthood in there. I've been threatening to net them, but will leave it alone now until dad is ready to let the fry out of the cave. That, or until I can't bear it and swipe them ;).

Barbie

[Shane]

Awesome news Barbie!
-Shane

[Matt30]

Congratulations Barbie ! , is dad one of your original fish you had in 2002?

[Barbie]

I think so, Yes. In looking at the tail today (and looking for all of the other fish in the driftwood and decor) I am not as sure now that it isn't the big fish I bought as a female a few years ago. I am not risking disturbing anyone to find out! It took so long to grow them because I didn't give them a big enough tank. They probably could have been mature in 3 or 4 years, I just didn't have the space (or didn't make the space) for them. Once they went into the bigger tank, they grew more than 4" (TL) in less than a year.

I can see the spines in the eggs today, so they are even fertile. It's a HUGE egg ball compared to other species I've spawned. I will probably swipe the fry after hatching and try to document their development with pics .

Barbie

[Matt30]

Twelve years of waiting, I wouldn't risk disturbing them either lol.

[franco68]

[jac]

Looking forward to more pictures of the babies

[Linus_Cello]

Congrats! (I guess I have to wait 7 more years for mine to breed...)

[Jools]

That's brilliant, well done! It appears it's L114 season!

Jools

[Barbie]

Can I just donate a couple hundred development pictures without an article?

Barbie

[Jools]

You have admin rights...

Plus, we don't have hour by hour egg development photos! Seriously though, we don't have video...

Jools

[CoryWally]

Congrats Barbie, wasn't trying to steal any thunder with my post, looking forward to your pics which should better than my attempts!

Cheers,
Mark.

[camtang]

Thats fantastic, congratulations!
They are one of, if not my favorite plecos.

[mcaquatic]

thats fantastic. congrats

[rroomm11]

Great news! Congratulations!

[David R]

Good things come to those who wait eh, well done!!

[flatfish]

Congratulations. Very Cool news . I might have to go and give mine a big water change.

[PseudaSmart]

Nice! Any update?

[Barbie]

The day before yesterday, when I got to the shop, there was only about 1/3 of the egg mass left. I fed them, and decided to leave them with him. That was probably a mistake. By 7 hours later, there was only 7 eggs left, and 3 of those were badly damaged and fungused overnight. Today, I helped 3 hatch. The 4th was no longer viable, although I'm not sure why. I took a video of the one fry that I will upload from my phone later. I was very bummed about it, but the male is already back in the cave, advertising, so at least there is hope they may repeat the behavior.

Barbie

[2wheelsx2]

Too bad. But as you suggested, now that he's done it once maybe he'll be a better parent the second time.

[David R]

I might have to go and give mine a big water change.

Would love to see someone have success with them here, sadly haven't seen any in the LFS for some time now. Put me down for a few when you crack it!

[flatfish]

Thanks David. I dont want to hijack this post but hopefully they will spawn in not-to-distant future. The males are 22-25 cm now and two females of three females are often gravid. I just need to get them going.

[verbal]

Congrats on getting them to spawn. Good luck on getting another one.