L134 leopard frog

[pointpleco]

Hi, in a few days I will get 3 pairs is L134 ‘s. If anyone can pass on anything that would help me to breed them. These will all be 8-9cm and approx 4 yrs old. Best water conditions, tank setups etc. Will my 3ft of 130 litres be enough space for 6 adults.

Thanks macrae

[MarcW]

Hi Macrae,

Have a read through this, it's my experiences of buying and breeding L134: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=32242&hilit=l134

Good luck!

[pointpleco]

Hi, thanks alot for that. Sorry that you had one die early on.
I hope i don't have the same here as they cost me $250.00 per fish, not cheap in australia.
I will have a good study over that link you sent and hope at least for now they settle in and think about breeding when they are ready. They are coming from a guy that has bred them so i hope that continues.

At moment its a 3ft tank, 2x air powered sponge filters. 1x internal filter and i have a external that i can put on. About 10x caves, lots of driftwood and some plants.

Thanks for that, Macrae

[MarcW]

Sounds like you have a good setup for them. I think i tried to trigger them to breed too soon. You have the right idea, get them settled and feeding well for a few months and see how things go.

[pointpleco]

Ok thats good to hear, as i am a little worried as this is a stepup for me. Only been properly into aquariums and catfish for just over 1 year. Up until now its just been Bristlenose commons, Albino longfin and peppermints. Also a few cories and glass catfish.

So i'm not so experienced, but had to stepup to another level of pleco eventually. Just hope i at least keep them alive. Which i am pretty good at doing with my other catfish so far.

Thanks for the help

[Jobro]

I have not found a foolproof way to get these to spawn. They seem to be pretty random. I would offer a lot of structure and hiding places and possibilites for males to find their territories. I found to have way better results with only 1 male in a constrained tank of only 1m/160litre compared to having 2 or 3 males in there.

They will breed well in harder alcalic water. Mine are on 320ms, GH 14°, KH 13°, PH 7.5-8.0

They will spawn in temperatures ranging from 26°C to 30°C and maybe higher. I lately found that warmer works better for egg development.

These are my experiences and might not hold true for other individuals as all plecos seem to be different and many ways will lead to success.

[panaque]

I posted a thread with my experiences breeding this species 'a while' back: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34826

[pointpleco]

I have not found a foolproof way to get these to spawn. They seem to be pretty random. I would offer a lot of structure and hiding places and possibilites for males to find their territories. I found to have way better results with only 1 male in a constrained tank of only 1m/160litre compared to having 2 or 3 males in there.

They will breed well in harder alcalic water. Mine are on 320ms, GH 14°, KH 13°, PH 7.5-8.0

They will spawn in temperatures ranging from 26°C to 30°C and maybe higher. I lately found that warmer works better for egg development.

These are my experiences and might not hold true for other individuals as all plecos seem to be different and many ways will lead to success.

Hi Jobro

Thanks for the info, yes like you said they seem to differ between breeders and their reports. I have heard higher and lower PH levels aswell. I suppose it just what will work, I will have to try a few different things once they settle into the tank.
I will have them this saturday and i will be happy then, being my first real L-number.

Thanks Macrae

[pointpleco]

I posted a thread with my experiences breeding this species 'a while' back: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34826

Hi Panaque

Thanks for the link, so much good information i'm sure to try.
I will have a good study over it and once the fish are settled in i will work on them.

Did you keep lights on much, i have read they like it darker and quieter.


Appreciate that.

Macrae

[panaque]

Lights were on for about 8hrs a day and they seemed fine with that but they had a lot of wood and rocks and plants to hide under.

[pointpleco]

Ok thanks, yeah i have alot of caves, wood and some plants that are starting to grow abit more now. So i'm sure the light shouldn't affect them to much.

[Ruud109]

Wow post some pictures please. L134 is one of my favorite small place's, along with the L260 and I am really hoping I can keep both species soon again in the near future!

Cheers
Ruud

[Jobro]

Here is a video of L134 spawning/mating behaviour


A breeding pair

Adults:

On my hand

Some of my youngsters:

[Ruud109]

Thanks for sharing, they are gorgeous!

Just see your instagram name and have been following you (and liking your pics) for a while already


Ruud

[MarcW]

They are really nice, makes me tempted to get some again!

[pointpleco]

Wow post some pictures please. L134 is one of my favorite small place's, along with the L260 and I am really hoping I can keep both species soon again in the near future!

Cheers
Ruud

Hi Ruud, Yes i will post some pictures tomorrow or sunday. Tomorrow they will arrive to my local airport, so i'm also hanging to see them up close. They have been on my wishlist for a longtime. Also the 260's are very nice aswell. Good luck with finding them for yourself, i will post some pics as soon as i can.

Macrae

[pointpleco]

Here is a video of L134 spawning/mating behaviour


A breeding pair
1E7A6ABB-166C-4285-A2DF-E05F42A32E56.jpg

Adults:
F453B3FD-4B8F-45E8-98D8-D7ACEAF2CE86.jpg
B329BBEF-70FB-4E7A-8CE1-FD272FD54A1F.jpg

On my hand
0D60B730-377F-4653-8B70-3C1C9688E904.jpg

Some of my youngsters:
9F638E4E-ADB6-4D6A-A0EB-3C1887CAF878.jpg

Thanks alot Jobro, some great info and pics there. Appreciate it and all the help from everyone.

Macrae

[pointpleco]

Wow post some pictures please. L134 is one of my favorite small place's, along with the L260 and I am really hoping I can keep both species soon again in the near future!

Cheers
Ruud

Here is the only photo i have so far. Still in the bag as i acclimatized them. They still need to colour up as they are a bit stressed. The water in bag had a high ammonia level and also nitrate was abit up there. My tank had no ammonia and a lower nitrate. So i slowly added tank water over 2 hours. I wanted to put them in faster but the PH was also different so i had to get that adjusted. Was a stressful few hours, i think i even lost my colour a bit.

So now fingers crossed they got through it ok, will watch them over the next few days. And when possible get some more pictures. Apart from all that i'm very happy with them.

Macrae

[dw1305]

Hi all,

he water in bag had a high ammonia level and also nitrate was abit up there. My tank had no ammonia and a lower nitrate. So i slowly added tank water over 2 hours. I wanted to put them in faster but the PH was also different so i had to get that adjusted. Was a stressful few hours, i think i even lost my colour a bit.

Hopefully they will be all right.

Not every-one is going to agree, I like to get the fish into the tank within a couple of minutes, the reason is that I'm infinitely more worried about the ammonia than the pH or nitrate.

It is a matter of priorities. Ammonia is a rapid killer and pro-longed exposure to non-lethal levels can cause long term gill damage. This means you can't leave the fish in water with measurable amounts of ammonia in it. There is no point in drip acclimatizing fish, if they are sitting in a soup of toxic ammonia.

It is a bit like triage at an accident, there is no point on bandaging an arm if the patient need CPR.

cheers Darrel

[pointpleco]

Hi all,

he water in bag had a high ammonia level and also nitrate was abit up there. My tank had no ammonia and a lower nitrate. So i slowly added tank water over 2 hours. I wanted to put them in faster but the PH was also different so i had to get that adjusted. Was a stressful few hours, i think i even lost my colour a bit.

Hopefully they will be all right.

Not every-one is going to agree, I like to get the fish into the tank within a couple of minutes, the reason is that I'm infinitely more worried about the ammonia than the pH or nitrate.

It is a matter of priorities. Ammonia is a rapid killer and pro-longed exposure to non-lethal levels can cause long term gill damage. This means you can't leave the fish in water with measurable amounts of ammonia in it. There is no point in drip acclimatizing fish, if they are sitting in a soup of toxic ammonia.

It is a bit like triage at an accident, there is no point on bandaging an arm if the patient need CPR.

cheers Darrel

Hi Darrel thanks for the message.

Hearing that does worry me, the reason i didn't put straight in was because they were in a PH of about 6.2 and my tank was 7.6. That was a big difference, but yes also the Ammonia they were in was bad. It was sort of bad either way, like you said i hope they will be ok.

Macrae

[pointpleco]

Hi all,

he water in bag had a high ammonia level and also nitrate was abit up there. My tank had no ammonia and a lower nitrate. So i slowly added tank water over 2 hours. I wanted to put them in faster but the PH was also different so i had to get that adjusted. Was a stressful few hours, i think i even lost my colour a bit.

Hopefully they will be all right.

Not every-one is going to agree, I like to get the fish into the tank within a couple of minutes, the reason is that I'm infinitely more worried about the ammonia than the pH or nitrate.

It is a matter of priorities. Ammonia is a rapid killer and pro-longed exposure to non-lethal levels can cause long term gill damage. This means you can't leave the fish in water with measurable amounts of ammonia in it. There is no point in drip acclimatizing fish, if they are sitting in a soup of toxic ammonia.

It is a bit like triage at an accident, there is no point on bandaging an arm if the patient need CPR.

cheers Darrel

Hi again, here is a better photo of one after being in the tank for just under 30hrs. I know ammonia and PH changes can affect fish a while later but does he look ok so far after going through the changes. The 3 males have all found their own caves. The females have found places under wood and being filters to sit.
I think they ate a little so far, but they are not so active at the moment. Even though they are a fish that hides alot anyway.

Thanks Macrae

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Hi again, here is a better photo of one after being in the tank for just under 30hrs........Thanks Macrae

That looks absolutely fine, best of luck with them.

cheers Darrel

[Jobro]

Just for a little add on. I move my fish between tanks without ever acclimating any. I never acclimate any fish, except for bigger differences in water temperature, which I basically acclimate within 1 minute from lower temp to higher temp. Going from higher temp to lower temp might need some more time. (if it is less than 5°C I don't even care at all - neither do my fish).

I even move newly hatched fry and youngster without ever doing any acclimation. PH ranges vary a lot between my tanks from lets say PH 8.0 to PH 6.0. None of my fish ever cared. Not a single fry ever died after moving them between tanks. But these are all south american fish and it seems only very natural to me that they would not really care.

Slowly acclimating a stressed fish will only stress it more. Releasing it into a tank so it can hide will mostly be the best way to release stress from the fish, too.

I am not saying this is how things should be done. But I can tell my plecos don't care about PH. They care for oxygen, temperature and little nitrates and this is where priorities should be on.

[pointpleco]

Just for a little add on. I move my fish between tanks without ever acclimating any. I never acclimate any fish, except for bigger differences in water temperature, which I basically acclimate within 1 minute from lower temp to higher temp. Going from higher temp to lower temp might need some more time. (if it is less than 5°C I don't even care at all - neither do my fish).

I even move newly hatched fry and youngster without ever doing any acclimation. PH ranges vary a lot between my tanks from lets say PH 8.0 to PH 6.0. None of my fish ever cared. Not a single fry ever died after moving them between tanks. But these are all south american fish and it seems only very natural to me that they would not really care.

Slowly acclimating a stressed fish will only stress it more. Releasing it into a tank so it can hide will mostly be the best way to release stress from the fish, too.

I am not saying this is how things should be done. But I can tell my plecos don't care about PH. They care for oxygen, temperature and little nitrates and this is where priorities should be on.

Hi Jobro

Thanks for the info, seeing some new comments lately i now realize i should have put them in quicker. I had air stones running into the bags as the temps adjusted. So i think the worst part of it was the Ammonia levels they sat in for about 2 hours. I just hope that 2 hours was not too long. In future the fish will be going straight into the tank alot quicker.

Thanks Macrae