My new L397s and Peckoltia compta, imported from the UK to California

[wayne the pain]

Great video of a stunning sp, you must be very proud.

[Jobro]

Congrats on another spawn meanwhile my L204 are still doing nothing

They grow nicely. getting bigger really fast. Almost like the L134 fry does. Wish Hypancistrus grew like that...

[bekateen]

At least one of the wigglers that escaped dad's cave from the first clutch survived in the big tank, in spite of still being ripe with yolk (at the time it escaped) and surrounded by lots of other hungry fish.

[bekateen]

(... my eyes have been on your 134 all the time...)

@nabulus, Your wish is my command... Okay not actually my command, but my fishes' command.

The moment you've been waiting for - My

Peckoltia compta

spawned today!

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Oh my gosh! What a day! In my

L397

/

Peckoltia compta

tank, in less than 12 hours I had two L397 pairs spawn and one P. compta pair spawn. YeeeHaw!

In just over a month, these are my fourth and fifth L397 spawns, and my first P. compta spawn. Honestly, I didn't think the P. compta would succeed because the male is barely about 60-65mm SL. He's a tiny little guy!

Direct link to YouTube video: A busy day in the fishroom: Peckoltia compta and 2 L397 pairs spawn

[Jobro]

Congratulations Eric,

like I said, the L134 are big enough to spawn at that size

Any triggers? Or just business as usual on your side?

[bekateen]

Hi Johannes,

Thanks! No special treatment.

Cheers, Eric

[Fundulopanchax76]

Gongrats happy granddaddy !

[nabulus]

Wow! Congrats, Eric!
This is amazing as you had three spawns in 12 hours!

How often do you feed them, once a day or twice?

[bekateen]

Thanks guys. I feed the adults about once every day or two. Not even daily. The L397 fry get fed 2x daily - my morning and my bedtime.

Cheers, Eric

[nabulus]

Thanks guys. I feed the adults about once every day or two. Not even daily. The L397 fry get fed 2x daily - my morning and my bedtime.

Cheers, Eric

Thanks Eric.
Interesting! I fed my L201s twice a day. The food always disappeared after a while. I might have fed them too much...

[Narwhal72]

Congratulations Eric. Two species that are definitely on my bucket list to keep and spawn someday.

[bekateen]

Congratulations Eric. Two species that are definitely on my bucket list to keep and spawn someday.

Thank you.

For what it's worth, I just looked at your list of breeding logs and it is impressive. You've already spawned multiple challenging pleco species. When you finally get some of these, I'm sure you'll have no trouble.

Cheers, Eric

[Narwhal72]

Thanks. Breeding fish is really fun for me. I like the challenging ones.

I need to update that list. I have a few more to add I think.

[nabulus]

Eric, for L134 do you find any females aggression at all? Or only males are aggressive?

[bekateen]

Actually, I've seen none (significant) from either gender so far.

Cheers, Eric

[Marine590622]

Thanks. Indeed I have nothing but praise for the USFWS in this case. About the future, the USFWS inspectors were very clear that by allowing this import as "personal" (vs. "commercial"), they required all three of us to sign letters of intent with explicit understanding that neither the fish nor their progeny will be used now or in the future for profit or gain. So if any of the three of us are fortunate enough in the future that any of our fish breed, and if we seek to share them with others, as I understand the rules, we cannot gain or profit from them; we will have to go back to USFWS to find out what our options are. I'm fine with that.

Nothing prohibits you from giving the fry away, right? So once they start producing you can start sending out gifts of 7 fry at a pop. I am sure you would soon be receiving gifts of other species in return.

[bekateen]

Indeed.

[Dis]

That's a great video. So much action all in one day. How are the fry coming a long? After they hatched did you move the fry to the fry containers?

[Fundulopanchax76]

What are exact water parameters ? I have a friend who owns L 134 but they dont show breeding activity ?

[bekateen]

Thanks @Dis.

Alas, on the day the eggs were scheduled to hatch, the filter clogged in the tank and all three males lost almost all their eggs and some hatchlings at the same time, I suspect due to hypoxia (low oxygen). The dads kicked them all out of the caves. None of the adults died that night, and only one of the smallest babies from earlier spawns died (they were in fry baskets in the same tank). Thankfully, the hypoxia appears to have been mild enough that it really only impacted the eggs and new hatchlings which were all in caves rather than in open water.

I cleared the filters within hours, and some of the hatchlings survived and are now loose in the tank. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any baby P. compta yet, so maybe only L397 hatchlings survived.

@Fundulopanchax76, I'm using municipal water treated only with Aquavitro alpha (like Seachem Prime) to remove chloramines. The pH is about 7.5 and the TDS is around 350ppm. The temperature is 84F.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

I forgot to mention that the first male L397 to spawn in August is currently sitting on another clutch of eggs. If you count the clutch lost when the filter clogged, this is his fourth clutch in two months.

[Dis]

Wow sorry about the filter. Such a pain but I guess it can always be something.

Good luck with this spawn

[Fundulopanchax76]

So how many juveniles have you got now Eric ?

[bekateen]

I presume the numbers are about the same from the first two clutches - 60 fry plus or minus a few.

[nabulus]

I presume the numbers are about the same from the first two clutches - 60 fry plus or minus a few.

I feel that L397s (and maybe other species) are breeding like guppies in your tank... so natural and easy.

[bekateen]

I feel that L397s (and maybe other species) are breeding like guppies in your tank... so natural and easy.

I can't validate the other species, but yes the L397 seem to like this tank. Just last night I pulled an additional 18 babies out of a dad's cave and put them in a fry basket as I did with the first babies. A few days ago, another male spawned and was sitting on a pile of eggs, but when I came home from work a day or two later, all his eggs were gone, nowhere to be seen.

However, perspective is needed on the "guppy" comparison - while these do seem to breed readily, they don't produce a lot of fry at a time. So far my biggest clutch is about 40 eggs. But if you think about it, other plecos can easily put out a couple of hundred eggs at a time. So frequency of broods is very high, but overall production is pretty modest.

Cheers, Eric

[nabulus]

Eric, what was the temperature before you did 90% water change and what was it after? At Barbie's presentation she mentioned something like 85F -> 75F (?).

[bekateen]

My tank is heated to 84F. When I do water changes, the magnitude of the temperature drop in the aquarium varies from summer to winter, based upon how cold the water coming out of the faucet is: In the summer, even my "cold" tap water is nearly 80F, so there is little change in overall tank temperature. Currently (in late November), the tap water is very cold, so after refilling the tank, the final aquarium temperature is 72F.

Cheers, Eric

[nabulus]

My tank is heated to 84F. When I do water changes, the magnitude of the temperature drop in the aquarium varies from summer to winter, based upon how cold the water coming out of the faucet is: In the summer, even my "cold" tap water is nearly 80F, so there is little change in overall tank temperature. Currently (in late November), the tap water is very cold, so after refilling the tank, the final aquarium temperature is 72F.

Cheers, Eric

Thanks for the info!