QUEEN ARABESQUE L260 PLECO BREEDING PROJECT

[Daisyduke]

Hello All!

First time on this site, and posting! So excited to see what kind of support it out there!

I am a pleco freak, and recently acquired a breeding group of l260s! I'll be my first time breeding but I am totally ready to make it happen! But the lack on info on these beauties makes it hard for me to know what I am doing right or wrong!

Currently: 2 Males, 2 Females
45 Gal, lots of driftwoon, 4 pleco breeding caves, barebottom tank
One bubble wall for added oxygen, cansiter filter with flow output closest to the opening of the breeding caves (I heard they prefer a stream like flow by the caves)

I am feeding them cucumber but they dont seem interested, dropping freeze died blood worms and pellets but i cant really tell if they are eating them? What can you guys tell me about a meaty diet? I know that what they prefer... but what is a "meat" diet consist of? Can you give me a bunch of recommendations??

Has anyone had experience with this breed? Have you successfully bred them? Any suggestions would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED

Thank you,

Mariah

[bekateen]

Hi Mariah,,

Welcome to PlanetCatfish, and congratulations on getting a nice group of L260s!

As to your question, I suspect there is more information on this website than you've found. As you learn to navigate the website, you'll find all sorts of crazy-good information!

• First, have you looked at the Cat-eLog entry for the species (here:
  L260
  ).
• Second, have you read the Shane's World article on breeding L260? (here: Breeding Hypancistrus sp. Queen Arabesque L260)
• Third, did you read the Catfish of the month article on them? (here: Queen Arabesque Pleco - Hypancistrus sp. (L260))
• Fourth, you can run a forum search. Here's an example: I searched the Loricariidae forum for these terms: L260 breeding spawned. I obtained these results: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/sear ... d%5B0%5D=5
• Finally, on the L260 Cat-eLog page, there is a section called "Breeding Reports" with a list of people who have bred L260 (see photo). Click on each of their names and you will see all the details they recorded of how they did it. The first names listed have the most points, which means they provided the most information. In my own experience, reports with 40 or more points are often very thorough. As the points decline (moving left to right, and downward), there is less info in each report... but you don't know what info they did provide, so you still might find some really helpful stuff even in the reports with few points.

Myself, I've never kept L260, but I have other Hypancistrus. I feed them a variety of foods: Raw veggies (mostly sweet potatoes, but also occasionally zucchini, button mushrooms, and red bell peppers), live black worms, (they suck these out of the sandy bottom in my tank), commercial dried pellets (shrimp pellets, NLS Thera A+ pellets, and algae wafers), and boiled (previously frozen) seafood (mostly clam, calamari, and jumbo shrimp). I think your L260 will enjoy some of these too. Keep in mind with plecos that they sometimes need to see a new food 3-4 times, or more, over a two week (or even longer if they're stubborn) period before they first taste it and figure out that it's food. So especially with the fresh veggies, you may add it to the tank (make it sink), and after a day or so you'll need to remove any uneaten food or else it will rot; then replace it with more fresh veggie of the same kind until they discover it.

Good luck!
Cheers, Eric

[Brian2014]

Hi Mariah

My L260 have bred for me a few times now stunningly beautiful plecs

Temp 28.5c (83.3F)
Ph 6.8
15%-20% Water change every week with H.M.A water

I feed a good mixed selection of foods & i rotate between frozen and dry foods the list of food i use are

Daphnia
Garlic enriched Brine shrimp
Tropical feast
And a great food called Repashy

Dry foods
Tetra Prima
Hikari sinking carnivore pellets
Algae wafers
Professional softgram mussels
Supersoft Artemia

They have just had a recent spawn few photos below of adults young and latest little guys ;)

[bekateen]

...but i cant really tell if they are eating them?

My philosophy is this - if you see them pooping on a regular basis, then they're eating something!

Cheers, Eric

[Daisyduke]

Wow. I am overwhelmed. You guys are amazing! Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond, I really appreciate it!

Funny, Eric - through Google i read all of those links but I totally didn't know how to navigate this site at all, so thank you so much for putting all the links in the thread, thats awesome!

Brian, gorgeous Male you have there he is huge! Loved seeing your set up, thanks for uploading those! And your specs seem to be in par with mine... i wonder what trigger I need to get them to spawn.... maybe you can suggest based of their recent behavior: Males both staying in their caves 90% of the time, females hanging around the entrances 75% of the day! But the males just keep scooting them out with their tales. Do you know if this is rejection? Or them showing their protection skills etc to impress the female?
I am not sure how to read it other then..."Can you just let her in an have babies already?!?!" lol
I AM SO EXCITED. I wanna make it happen haha, any triggers you found helped them spawn? I am going to do a big water change soon...

The food you both listed surprised me! I didnt know they liked such a variety, and i certainly wouldnt have thought to do actual seafood! I cant find live bloodworms, so I might try the frozen cubes they sell in the stores? Maybe thatll work the same?

Anything else you guys would like to add im sure would be helpful

Thanks again!!

Mariah

[Brian2014]

You are very welcome Mariah My very first spawn with these guys i believe was triggered by when i did around a 50% water change with rain water! I think the lower temperature and makeup of the rain water (tds) trace elements etc helped to finally get them going. But most of time it is just a matter of good food clean water and patiences. Often it seems the females are more eager to breed then the males Mine sitting outside waiting to be let in ;)