L134 conditioning food ?

[xinguinsis]

Hi All,
Due to my laziness in feeding a varied diet in the grow out of my L134s I now have fish that wont take to the conditioning foods I'm trying to give them (have tried fasting them for a week plus ).They pretty much take to frozen brine,frozen bloodworms,hikari carnivore pellets and live blackworms.I'm wondering if gut loading the blackworm on pumpkin will deliver any worthwhile quantity of pumpkin to my L134s if fed 3 times a week.
Regards Chris

[Barbie]

The high protein and fat is going to condition them faster than any vegetable could. If they are eating, and happy and healthy, fasting them is pretty much defeating the purpose of trying to get them to gain weight and fill with eggs ;). Just keep doing what you're doing. Offer them a varied rich diet and they should condition on their own. This female had never eaten squash, or actually taken to much in the way of veggie matter at all. She was definitely conditioned though ;).



Barbie

[xinguinsis]

Hi Barbie,
I didn't give enough history .I've read that things like carotenoids etc(passed on to the egg) can greatly affect egg viability having had problems in the past with failed spawns and reading Jannes article feeding a shrimp and vege mix I thought I'd give this a go to add something extra to their diet as I couldn't get them to eat the shrimp\ vege mix when I fasted them several months back.What diet do you have your L134s ?
Regards Chris

[PlecoCrazy]

My L134's have never seemed to be too intersted in Veggie's. They eat some but never alot, I am always having to remove the extra. From my experience they tend to prefer the more meaty foods over veggies. The stuff your feeding them is what I use for conditioning. I typically just feed them shrimp pellets and Omega One Veggie Rounds with veggies and bloodworms a couple times a month. I focus a lot more on giving them shrimp and bloodworms to get them conditioned.

[pureplecs]

Mine are mostly fed meaty foods, but they do quickly go in for the veggie pellets or algae waffers I put in as well, and I find it interesting that every single tank I have kept them in does not have any algae on the glass (once I have moved them it comes back so I am sure it is them keeping it clean).

As far as conditioning them, as usual you cannot go wrong with Barbie's advice above. Let us know how it goes!

[Barbie]

I've not spawned L134, as the male killed this female and crashed the tank about a month after the photo was taken. I guess that taught him a lesson he won't forget. Me too, for that matter. I feed a wide variety of meatie foods, along with offering zuchini, hikari algae wafers, and green beans. I never noticed my L134 really consuming much in the way of vegetable matter. They obviously found enough food to thrive and condition to the point that the female looked like the eggs were pushing her "guts" up into her nose when I peered into the tank from the bottom though ;).

Barbie

[Janne]

I cant really agree to feed L134 or any Peckoltia species to much meaty foods on a reagular basis, I never give bloodworms to small species and only to big carnivore species. Peckoltia species can eat cyclops every day combinied with veg.tabletts and shrimp pellets and on that diet the females will be ripped with eggs in 25-35 days cycles, some Peckoltia species needs soft water to spawn and also L134...between 120-150 µS will make them interested.
I dont longer use or make any shrimp mix...it's poluting the water to much

Janne

[xinguinsis]

Thanks for the input.I suppose I'm looking for conditioning beyond gravid looking fish. I'm reading a book titled Conditioning,Spawning and rearing of fish with emphasis on marine clownfish by Frank H. Hoff.(Worth reading)Which goes into egg viability due to broodstock nutrion .Have you experienced many failed spawns if so did you attribute this to anything in particular.
Regards Chris