Breeding L240, Leporacanthicus cf. galaxias

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hello!

I finaly got som pics of a breeding of L240! I'm have been waiting for a long time for see this live!
Amazing to see so large fishes breed!







It's not be best quality but the aquarium is very deep so it's quite hard to get good images!

Regards
Cristoffer

[ElTofi]

Nice shots !

I think you succeded several times with Leporacanthicus, right ? Could you tell us more in this topic ? or maybe there's already another one where I could find informations about this specific reproduction ?

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hi

Yes, this is not the first time i bred Leporacanthicus species.

I'm starting to feed them quite much under 3 weeks untill I see that the females are gravide.
At this time the temperature is around 25 degrees. Conductivity is between 300- 350 uSm. pH around 7,2- 7,5
Whatercahnges 1-2 times/week 30%

After this 3 weeks i start to increase the watercahanges and lowering pH and conductivity to 5,8- 6,5 and around 150- 200 uSm
I clean the filters and starting to make 50% waterchanges. I increase the temperature to 28- 30 C.
I changes with cold water at this time so the temperature drops to 25C. I put out the heater after the change and let the temperature increase to 28- 30C 24 hours after the change.

At this point, I dont feed so much. Every other day with wafels to make the water a bit more cleran.

The caves I use is 30 cm and 10cm/dm. I normaly use a bit samler caves 25cm and 7cm/dm.
I always keep some big rocks around the caves and a big root over the cave to make more shade.

I prefer to let the male guard eggs and fry!

Regards
Cristoffer

[CanadaPleco]

great pics. Would love to see a tank shot if possible. I have a group that I am trying to get going in a 475L tank. Do you keep just the pair in there or many males and females?

Rich

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hello!

I have one male and two females. I also got 3 possible F1 females.
I just keep one male in the aquarium. I think you need a really big aquarium if you keep more than one male. They are very agressive.

Sure, I will take a photo of the aquarium. Commig soon!

The aquarium is 100*120*50 cm

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Here is the aquarium. I don't thinkt the setup is that important. God current, god water parameters and good caves with shade is the post important factor and also a lot of space.





I hope to share some images of the fry and the development.

Regards
Cristoffer

[Griparn]

Nice tank! Looking forward to see the coming photos

[vriesea]

Cristoffer:

Great pictures. Like the tank set up plenty of area to move around.

Never thought about changing the filters and reducing the feeding after the introduction of water changes. Thanks for the information. Look forward to seeing the pictures of the fry.

Happy hobbying,
Vriesea

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Yes, I always chages filter to keep the water more clean when I trying to get them to spawn.

I will share some images of the fry soon. I'm a but unsure about this new male. He fans the fry. Then he goes out for laying a moment in front of the cave for a few seconds. Then he goes back again.
Of course he spent most of the time whit the fry, but I never seen a Leporacanthicus male leave the fanning for one moment... perhaps he's just lazy.

Here is one older pics with the female and one older F1




/Cristoffer

[mike604]

How large are your l240's? How big do they need to be to start breeding? I just bought about 5 of them and im going to attempt to breed them.

Also from a 5"fish, how long does it take to get to a 7" fish? Is the growth really slow?

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hi!

I measured the female to 25 cm TL, (don't know what that is in inch... over 9"!?) Male is probably around 11" (27- 28 cm TL).
I think they are mature around 12 cm SL (I was breeding two L241 some years ago that where around that size the first time).

As far as I've seen, Leporacanthicus species is quite fas growing.

From my experience, it's onley when the males gets at large size that you are able to clerly see the odontodes on the nose front.
(have a look at Janne Ekströms image of L91 male).

So, if I'm rigth, you're fishes are about to be ready for breeding.
If you feed them well, we sould be able to sex them after Christmas and New Year.

From 5" to 7" ... perhaps a few month with good waterquality and food.

It's more easy to sex them when they get a bit larger!

[mike604]

Do you think a a tank that is 48x18x21 is sufficient to breed them? Im going to house 5 of them in there. Also your caves that you use made out of clay or terracota or whatever?

In terms of water current how strong isit? I plan to use a rena xp2 and a really strong power head on the tank, and maybe put a air tube in the xp2 outtake to spit out bubbles for high oxygen.

I was planning on loading them up with krill,bloodworms,carnivore pellets,algae wafers to get them in breeding condition.

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Do you think a a tank that is 48x18x21 is sufficient to breed them? Im going to house 5 of them in there. Also your caves that you use made out of clay or terracota or whatever?

In terms of water current how strong isit? I plan to use a rena xp2 and a really strong power head on the tank, and maybe put a air tube in the xp2 outtake to spit out bubbles for high oxygen.

I was planning on loading them up with krill,bloodworms,carnivore pellets,algae wafers to get them in breeding condition.

48*18*21.... inch? Yes I think thats sufficient. My aquarium is 120*100*50 cm
I use one big Ehaim streamer, 3 extern filters, 2 Ehaim professional 3 and one Fluval FX5. Some tipe I put in a aqua bee...
I dont think strong current is the most important factor for breeding them... but some current is needed.
I have a quite strong current.

I make my caves of clay. 6-8 cm/dm and 20- 35 cm long, depending on the males size.
The oxygen is most important!!!

The food is good! I don't use bloodworms! Fresh shrimps is also good frome time to time!

[CanadaPleco]

I am finding this thread very helpful so far! I have a group of about 8 L240 in a 2 metre tank, around 500 litres. I was thinking of separating 1 male and 2 females into a 1 metre tank x 45cm (150 litres). and condition in there for breeding, but do not know if that tank is large enough. All of my fish are at least 15cm TL up to 25cm TL. Would love to know what you think.


haha i just saw your post about the other guys info. I think my caves are about the same size as yours as well. And I can give them lots of flow and lots of bubbles for oxygenation.

Thanks

Rich

[mike604]

Do you think a a tank that is 48x18x21 is sufficient to breed them? Im going to house 5 of them in there. Also your caves that you use made out of clay or terracota or whatever?

In terms of water current how strong isit? I plan to use a rena xp2 and a really strong power head on the tank, and maybe put a air tube in the xp2 outtake to spit out bubbles for high oxygen.

I was planning on loading them up with krill,bloodworms,carnivore pellets,algae wafers to get them in breeding condition.

48*18*21.... inch? Yes I think thats sufficient. My aquarium is 120*100*50 cm
I use one big Ehaim streamer, 3 extern filters, 2 Ehaim professional 3 and one Fluval FX5. Some tipe I put in a aqua bee...
I dont think strong current is the most important factor for breeding them... but some current is needed.
I have a quite strong current.

I make my caves of clay. 6-8 cm/dm and 20- 35 cm long, depending on the males size.
The oxygen is most important!!!

The food is good! I don't use bloodworms! Fresh shrimps is also good frome time to time!

yep its in inches, woah u got a alot of filteration going on there lol....

6-8cm thats a tight sqeeuze do they like that?

This thread has been very helpfull, i couldnt find much info on breeding these guys. Hopefully me and Canadapleco can get something going on here.

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Hi

No, 6-8 cm/dm is qiute enough. A diameter of 8 cm sould be enogh for a fully grown male. They breed tail to tail, not like peckoltia and Hypancistrus. They like to sqeeuze!
I can't say that so much filtration i nessicary, but you sould provide good filtration!

Leporacanthicus is not that hard to breed... you need a good, group, good food, good oxygen level and good filtration.

Keep the cave where it's a good current stream. Provide som shade over the cave with some roots!

Cristoffer

[Haavard Stoere]

No fish gives me more pleasure to watch these days than my L240s. They grow so fast are easy to feed and are not shy.
I will follow this thread closely

[mike604]

I have a question about l240's, they are referred to as galaxy plecos or vampire plecos right? Are they a different? Cuz arent there small spotted ones and ones with larger spots?

[MatsP]

There are several variants of

Leporacanthicus

that are similar to

Leporacanthicus galaxias

. They (should) have differnet L numbers depending on what they look like and where they come from (as fish L-numbers are given to fish that aren't from the distribution range of the already described species, even if the described species looks very much the same - as it is up to the scientists to decide whether they are the same or not).

Here is a search for all Leporacanthicus that contain "gala" as the species name.

--
Mats

[Cristoffer Forssander]

There are several variants of

Leporacanthicus

that are similar to

Leporacanthicus galaxias

. They (should) have differnet L numbers depending on what they look like and where they come from (as fish L-numbers are given to fish that aren't from the distribution range of the already described species, even if the described species looks very much the same - as it is up to the scientists to decide whether they are the same or not).

Here is a search for all Leporacanthicus that contain "gala" as the species name.

--
Mats

And there are probably many more!

[MatsP]

And there are probably many more!

Oh, I'm not saying that this is a complete list of all Leporacanthicus that are similar to L. galaxias - it is the ones we have in the Cat-eLog. In a few decades, when the scientists have caught up with the backlog, perhaps we can give a definitive answer to how many of these there are. But then we may also have more new species to describe, so it's possibly a never ending story. And even when scientist have described a species, there may be regional varieties.

--
Mats

[Cristoffer Forssander]

Well, the male as probaply eaten the eggs cause there is no longer anything in the cave...
I have one more big female that is gravid to the limit so perhaps he will do better next time.

I will update the tread as soon there will be eggs and fry