L333 Spawn (dialup beware)

Post by **Barbie** » 04 Feb 2005, 07:45

Well it appears this first spawn is going to be fertile! You can see their spines and eye balls in the eggs already on day 4.

I think all of Kevin's success lately inspired my fish to get busy and do something besides eat! That or all that patience really does pay off, but I just can't believe THAT! ;)

Barbie

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Feb 2005, 09:25

Congratulations Barbie.

--
Mats

Tristan · Post by **Tristan** » 04 Feb 2005, 09:59

Congratulations Barbie, is there any fish you can't get to spawn?

zebraplec · Post by **zebraplec** » 04 Feb 2005, 10:04

Congratulations Barbie! It would be great if you could post pics as they develop into wrigglers

kev · Post by **kev** » 04 Feb 2005, 13:52

Congrats Barbie

,
Remember i asked you a couple of month's ago about breeding 333's and you said ur's where just ornament's, well my 5 still are

. Any tip's?????? PLEASE

Kev.

Post by **Barbie** » 04 Feb 2005, 14:40

There are still 3 species of plecos kicking around in my fish room that think I'm not special enough to spawn them, don't worry!

I honestly just did everything with these guys that I do with the L260 and L46. Good food, the right cave, and rainy seasons once a month or so. I was actually not expecting him to spawn at all, and they got about it in under a day. No messing about figuring things out, obviously!

Barbie

madattiver · Post by **madattiver** » 04 Feb 2005, 14:40

congrats on the spawn.. and the great pics.. keep up the good work..

Tristan · Post by **Tristan** » 04 Feb 2005, 17:13

What are the species that you can't spawn at the moment - just out of interest

Post by **Barbie** » 04 Feb 2005, 19:46

Want to turn the knife or something?

L134, L239, and L182 are the 3 I haven't spawned that I intend to. The L134 are in condition, just aren't, the L239 need a cave and a tank of their own, and the L182 sort of just arrived so they need some TLC first, I'm sure ;). Keep in mind, I have colonies of L177 that I'm growing out, a group of L14 that are only about 4 inches right now, zebra otos and Otocinclus flexilis I keep threatening to spawn, and god knows what else!

My sterbai, aspidoras, and tatia cats are just more fish I'm not doing anything constructive with, also! With this many fish, I should HOPE something gives up and spawns occasionally!

Feel better now? ;)

Barbie

pleco_farmer · Post by **pleco_farmer** » 05 Feb 2005, 02:55

Every time time I click on the "Post Reply" button I am reminded of how frustrating L-177 can be. Five years with two groups producing all of three spawns. Glad to see another intrepid soul heading down that path...

Post by **Barbie** » 05 Feb 2005, 07:23

Thanks for wishing your frustrations on me ;). I'm not going to work too hard with them, to be honest. I've always liked them, and figured I'd grow some out. I've got a few good sized tanks they can inhabit with other swimmy fish that will remain nameless ;).

Barbie

Post by **Barbie** » 08 Feb 2005, 01:20

Here are some new pictures. It appears he managed to hatch pretty much all of that big egg mass. I checked last night, the TDS is at 273 and the temperature is at 84 degrees.

Now if only those dang L134s could read that I'm supposed to be getting more successful at this ;).

Barbie

zebraplec · Post by **zebraplec** » 08 Feb 2005, 09:45

Great pics Barbie! How many eggs did they lay..seems like more than the 260?

madattiver · Post by **madattiver** » 08 Feb 2005, 16:07

congrats on the fry hatching.. and thanks for the great pics.. i can;t wait for the next update... ;)

Yann · Post by **Yann** » 08 Feb 2005, 16:08

Hi there!

Great Job Barbie!!
Nice to hear more reports...
the list of Hypancistrus being spawn just keep getting bigger!!!

@zebraplec: the number should be around 45-50 I suppose, as it was basically the case with L66 and L28 that reach around the same size!!

Cheers
Yann

Post by **Barbie** » 08 Feb 2005, 17:32

It's definitely a larger spawn than any of my L260 have managed to date (30 was my largest). To be honest, those things are impossible to count in there under him. He's busy doing the very best he can to keep me from seeing them at all, let alone taking pictures ;). I'll know in a couple more weeks when I pull them!

Thanks Yann

. These were supposed to be easy to spawn, but didn't responsd to the normal triggers. Patience seems to have been the key, and everyone knows that's the hardest part of the process for me!

Barbie

Post by **Barbie** » 30 Mar 2005, 17:28

Thought I'd give everyone an update on these. I lost most of that first spawn after a water change where I dropped the temp and TDS in order to try to stimulate the zebra plecos that are in the same tank. I assumed that they just didn't handle the rains as well as the L46 and L260, and wrote it up as a learning experience for myself, albeit a hard one. Mind you, the parents didn't require a rainy season to get them spawning, and haven't yet responded to triggers.

The next spawn (yes, these fish have spawned 3 times since the first of February, just the pair!), met with the same tragic end. I did NOT do any large water changes or disturb them at all this time, but at the same stage, as their yolk sacs almost fully absorbed and they should start eating, they just dropped dead. I lose VERY few of the other Hypancistrus I keep, so I was stumped. The ones that lived are growing great guns and doing fine on the normal fare that I'd tried to get them all started on. Any suggestions as to the source of the problem? Can higher TDS be impeding some developmental stage I haven't thought about? I swipe the fry the day I can no longer tell they have any yolk sac left. Sometimes a few of the fry escape, as they did on the second spawn. The ones loose in the tank died at the same rate the ones in the fry condo did.

This third spawn was laid yesterday. I am going to be devastated if I lose all of these also, but I'm not sure exactly where to start with changing parameters. The DO is high in the tank, all of the fish are healthy. There were also no losses from the L46 fry that I removed from the tank at the same stage of development. Temp is 84 (I've kept the L333 as warm as 90 degrees with no distress for the adults). Any suggestions? I'm going to do some small changes and lower the TDS over the next week, but I can't see them being fertile, hatching, and developing that far if just the hardness was an issue. I'd love to hear if anyone has had any similar experience. These fish just aren't well documented enough yet for me to find any reference to potential problems.

The good news is I'll be able to get more pictures for a spawning article for Jools, I guess. I'd WAY prefer having a nice picture of a whole batch of partially grown fry. These guys are VERY cute babies with their wide striping.

Barbie

Maarten · Post by **Maarten** » 30 Mar 2005, 18:29

You've got my best wishes for this batch

Kenneth Wong · Post by **Kenneth Wong** » 31 Mar 2005, 03:58

Hi Barbie,

sorry to hear about your losses again. Like you, I also lost my first spawn of around thirty at that same time when the yolk was nearly gone. I'm still waiting for another spawn to see what can be causing this. There must be someone here that has more experience spawning these guys. Sorry I don't have any suggestions. Maybe it is TDS, but I would have thought it would only effect the fertilization stage or the embryo stage.

Ken