PlanetCatfish.com

To all:

I am in the process of trying to breed L260s and I need some help. I've read your articles and still have questions:

1) Most basic, how do you arrive at a pair?
2) At what age or size do they arrive at their sexual maturity.

I've taken some pictures of my L260s with an inch ruler. Need to know if they are the right size and sex. Here are the pictures:

#1 picture, all L260 in same photo.

#2 picture, All L260 similiar photo.

#3 picture, All L260 but the smallest


Thanks for your help,
Vriesea

When they hit 3" and have been conditioned (fattened up after you've had them a while), they should be reasonably sexable. Yours look a little small yet, though some males are probably apparent. You'll be looking for spines on the end of the pectoral fins (larger in males), interopocular odentodes (cheek spines, longer and thicker in males), and overall body shape (females wider across the belly/ventral area). Females will also be overall smaller, but fatter.

Your pictures aren't sufficient, either...sorry. You'll need to get a picture of each fish directly from above. Having them at an angle will distort the view of the body and head shape.

Here is a pair of mine, for your reference:

It does look like there is a mix of sexes, however, just based on differing head shapes. So you might be on the right track. Just need to put some time and weight on them.

I need a male, so if you find out you have two extras, just send them to me. I some how ended up with five, now very fat females raring to go.
Your L260 appear to be adults just needing some time to become conditioned.

I've got males to burn - PM sent!

Andy

To all:

Thanks for the quick reply.

Sounds like I need time to condition them. What food do you all feed that has been sucessful in conditioning and fatten them up?

drgold - Thanks for the photo showing your pair. Now I know what to shoot for. Sounds like you have had success in breeding. Do you still breed these?

Vriesea

no success yet - I'm just growing them out and fattening them up. They're in with groups of 201's and 333's so it's a bit crowded for breeding. Barbie (one of the moderators on this forum) has had success breeding them, however.

I feed live blackworms about once a week, frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, and brine shrimp. The staple diet that they get daily is New Life Spectrum pellets (1mm cichlid formula). I've found this to be a great food for plecos as it has great nutrition and does not cause any intestinal problems for herbivorous fish. It takes about a week of mixing with frozen worms for the plecos to fully accept the pellets, but then they're hooked. The theraa+ formula has garlic in it, and that's a good food, too.

I feed zuccini once in a while, but my hypancistrus generally only eat the skin.

Can't go wrong with frozen blodworms, though. All fish seem to LOVE them!

Hello,

I see 4 male and 2 female. This is a determination with reference to the head shape.

Regards Michael

mostly NLS grow formula (my fish refuse point blank to eat the thera formula!)

I have just recently noticed this as well with my A.claro juveniles...not a total refusal but they definitely prefer the grow for some reason...(over the 1mm Cichlid formula in my case)I do not know if it is the size or the taste...I always thought they were almost the same product

Birger

Thanks for all your support and help.

Barbi mentioned the difficuly to simulate a dry season. I have a PH of 8.7 and a TDS of 34 right out of the tap. My tanks TDS is around 67 prior to weekly water changes. So initiating a difference in hardness would be rather difficult.

Thanks for the suggestion on foods and the increase in temperature. That I will start.

Now I would like to toot Barbi's horn .

For those who are interested in breeding L260s (or similiars) she has a CotM (September 2007) article that covers her breeding process. But another great source of reading is the thread she initiated http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5334 4 years ago. It more than suppliments the CotM article as it is a timeline in the breeding and rearing process complete with photos. It even has a photo of her 10 gallon breeding setup (she now recommends bigger).

Barbi, hope I'm not embarrasing you but thanks for all your help it is really appreciated .

Happy hobbying,
Vriesea