Spawning L128 and L200

[MonsterFishMonger]

Hi everyone this is my first created thread so bare with me.

I have a fairly decent sized colony of L128s commonly Blue Phantoms and about 4 L200s Hifin green phantoms. I ve been doing a lot of research for the last 2 months on requirements for keeping them. I ve found a few contradictions on how they spawn in regards to cave position. On one report someone said they like the entrance of the cave to have the flow running across the openning and in another it says they like the flow to run into the front and out of the back through a small hole. Has anyone ever had either spawn and if so how was your cave positioned.

I’m designing a custom river flow system in a 65 gallon and knowing how to position the caves will help me to complete this settup.

Anyone know the difference in their vents is it still pointy for male and rounded for female ?

[MarcW]

Hi,

I have spawned L128 see the thread here: viewtopic.php?t=44245

They have spawned 4 times now but I have only been successful raising 6 young from one of the spawns.

They have some current going across the entrance to the cave, but it's not particularly strong.

I had a long search for a female, it was only obvious to me she was female when eggs were laid! After that I noticed she looked gravid as she spent more time around the entrance to the alpha males cave. I think feeding often with repashy foods helped to condition them. I mainly used fruut lupus, bottom scratcher and soilent green, sometimes mixed together.

Good luck with the project, it would be great to see some pictures once you have it set up.

[MonsterFishMonger]

Awesome !!! Figuring out the sex is why I decided to get 10 of them as I let the odds work in my favor cause no way in hell out of all these wild caught I didn’t get at least 1-2 female or 1-2 males. The current you have is it created by a powerhead or just by your filter. Could I see a photo of your tank please?

[MarcW]

Hopefully with 10 you should get a female or two. With them being wild caught and not in great condition at the point of purchase is why I think it took me so long to get a female. I didn't have a huge amount of tank space, so I was buying the most female looking from a group then seeing what happened after a few months! Your approach is much better .

The current is a mixture of the output from a fluval fx5 and a small power head, although the power head isn't on all the time, it comes on for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening.

There are pictures of the tank they spawned in on post number 13 of the thread I linked to above. It isn't a typical breeding setup with a few caves, I was trying to spawn them for a long time, then I gave up and thought id just try and make things natural for the fish, with lots of crevices, overhangs, as well as caves, all of the rock is slate.

[MonsterFishMonger]

Great !! Thanks I appreciate your help and experience. It’s a possibility your tank and mine are the same length it looks similar how big was it ??

I’m gonna see if I can get some RO water just in case but I don’t think I need it because I ve had to add crushed coral to my filtration just to get it to buffer the water and hold it from 7.2-7.6 for my cichlids. I have a friend coming to take the fish I have stocked currently in the 65 so once they are gone I will begin prepping the tank and the water for the colony. I wasn’t goin to use slate and have about 40 lbs of river rocks and 2 large peices of drift wood so perhaps I ll find a way to add some slate and will trim down one of my large amazon swords and buy some anubias to place here n there. I ve also got a thick sand bed.

[MarcW]

The tank they are housed in is 34x18x18 inches, they'll soon be moved into a larger tank and I'll separate the youngsters out into their own tank once my fish room is ready in 3-4 months.

I only used slate as it was easy for me to split and create caves with. river rocks should be fine, just make sure you have a variety of caves, either clay, bamboo, pvc, tiles, rock, etc.!

It sounds like you should be fine using local tap water, firstly focus on getting them acclimatised and eating well then when they are in good condition (3-6 months time), maybe you can use some RO or rain water to try and encourage a spawn.

Just keep an eye on the thick sand bed, I personally wouldn't use one more than an inch thick, some people have had issues caused by decomposing food/waste in deep sand beds, some people swear by them! Just something to think about .

[jeremybasch]

Hope to collect some L128s next year. We will see...

[MarcW]

It would be great if you could report back on that. I'd be especially interested in any colour/spot pattern variation you see at different catch locations. Personally I've seen almost black, blue, and greenish full spotted versions of what I assume are all L128.

[MonsterFishMonger]

The tank they are housed in is 34x18x18 inches

Just keep an eye on the thick sand bed, I personally wouldn't use one more than an inch thick, some people have had issues caused by decomposing food/waste in deep sand beds, some people swear by them! Just something to think about .

Yeh the tank they re goin in is 36 long 24.5 high and 18 wide so def have nice floor footprint. I have a deep sand bed because the tank is planted with 2 large amazon swords with huge root systems they ve been in this tank since I set it up. A few years ago. It’s typically stocked with fish that pick up and sift it and as of late been growing out some peacocks in it so it’s constantly being turned over and moved around.

I noticed yours spawned in a tighter fittin cave. I wonder if they like tight fits over more spacious ones as the caves I have now are spacious even for the largest. They can fit in cleanly without having to pull back their pectoral fins. But I definitely do plan on offering variety of different caves sizes and materials. I’m just choosing the river rock in hopes it provides a more familiar ambiance and environment for them inorder to make inducing them easier. I have a bunch of spare slate as well that I was stocking for “breeding pads” for my peacocks.

But my buddy comes this week for the fish still in the 65 that I no longer want and since he has a house and a private back yard we re goin to settup a rain collecting system that will collect in one drum and over flow to a second drum that we will place drift wood in to seep tannins and a similar but bigger bucket which will just contain rain water that over flows from the first as I don’t wanna do every water change with tannin filled water. It’s a benefit for both of us as it ll be great for his tank and garden and gives me a source of rain water that I can go and collect whenever I need it. He gets to learn at cost of providing the space and I get a free space to construct it. I’m still looking for the right house with a decent basement that I can build s fish room in so I’m picking projects that mean the most to me. These phantoms require more time hence why they re one of the projects and then my Ethelwynnae peacocks is my second main project as they don’t require much at all and are presently growing out anyway so by the time I find a place and move they should be bigger and I would have been able to select my 2-3 males relocated them to my 125 community display and have moved the plecos out of that same 40 breeder quarantine into the 65. My Ethelwynnae and phantoms all came from the same source hence why they are all in the same quarantine tank. With a cannister filter designed for a 100 gallon tank. The 65 has comparatively larger cannister as well.

All of my guys are strong and eating when I received them they were all physically fit and none had sunken stomachs even the 2.5 inch one that came. I ve been feeding them repashy on peices is drift wood - spawn and grow / morning wood / Soilent Green / bottom scratcher as well as some nutrafin pleco formula / omega one algae wafers (but they don’t eat these as readily) blood worms which I ve now started to add to the repashy now and then with some nutrafin bug bites. I ve tried feeding zucchini/ sweet potatoe and they didn’t touch it. Actually haven’t fed them for 2 days as I want to try some blanched cucumber and zucchini again and if this doesn’t work then I’m goin to start blending them up with sweet potatoe and adding it to some of the repashy as it seams to be their preferred choice to eat and I don’t wanna just offer them one set diet and would prefer to get some of these other foods into them.



I ll definitely still keep an eye on it I ve got them now in a 40 breeder (quarantine) that has about 2 inch bed i d say the sand bed in the 65 is about 3 inches on average as some parts are higher than others.

[MarcW]

Sounds like you are on the right track, I would take it easy on the blood worms, a few every now and then, maybe once a month or less frequently should be fine, but I wouldn't include it as a regular part of their diet.

I don't bother blanching Zucchini, I just wash them under tap water and dry them off with a bit of kitchen towel to remove any dirt on the skin, sweet potato goes in raw too, but I peel the skin off rather than washing it. Its been a while since I've fed these though I get lazy, as I find the Repashy to be a well balanced diet which they thrive on.

At 2.5 inches for your smaller fish, I wouldn't worry if the caves seem a bit big for them, just provide a range of sizes and see which ones they like. It's not all about the size, they may prefer one with different flow past it, with overhanging rock above it, or even one which faces away from the front of the tank so they aren't disturbed by shadows every time you walk past. You'll soon find out which cave they like!

I'm not sure at what size/age they reach maturity, but I can tell you my male first bred at about 6-6.5 inches TL, the female was closer to 5.5 inches TL.

[MonsterFishMonger]

The bloodworms I used to get them to eat something. They ve only received them 3 times in a month once. One was a treatment feed. The other was to add into the repashy on first feeding of that and the third was a feeding for some peacocks I also had in the tank that I received as well. The leftovers were cleaned up by the phantoms. But hearing that repashy is your base relieves some tensions about feedin regiment I had. I tried the zucchini first they didn’t touch it and that was served raw just washed off. Then I tried boiling the sweet potatoe a bit and they didn’t touch that. Then later I tried blanching a cucumber and I found some naw marks but I’m unsure if it was them or the peacocks as I d say 98% of the cucumber remained. SO I ll probably just blend up some of these veggies and add it into the repashy on occasion. I just want to make sure I feed them well and offer them as complete and as wide of a diet as I can. I’m hoping to move these guys into the 65 this weekend if my plans go well I ve been overlightjng the tank to grow more algae on the sides and back of the tank for them to graze on when they choose. I am goin to add some more biological media to the filter as well this weekend as I can. I have to remove the coral from the filter as well before I do all this tho so I can drop the PH down to their natural range as it’s now at 7.6. Removing that will free up a tray in my filter for more biological media.

[MonsterFishMonger]

Update 65 gal stock has been rehomed except for the vampire pleco which I ll move into my 40 breeder with my Ethelwynnae peacocks temporarily.

Removing plants and coral from filtration to lower the ph in the tank.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Removing plants and coral from filtration to lower the ph in the tank.

You don't need to remove the plants, the changes in pH, due to photosynthesis, don't change the carbonate hardness of the tank.

Vegetated soft water will always show swings in pH as the relative proportions of oxygen (a base) and CO2 (an acid) change, it isn't a problem for the fish.

Plants are a major factor in maintaining water quality and I wouldn't remove them.

cheers Darrel

[MonsterFishMonger]

Thanks I may have to replace them. I have a question as I ve found that my hifin greens are showing dark splotching.

[MonsterFishMonger]

Anyone know what this splotching is or could be from ??