PlanetCatfish.com

Hello all,

My King Tigers have always been very shy. I hardly ever see them. I have recently seen video's of other people L-066 out in the open hanging out with the other fish. I am wondering if there is anything I can do to see my favorite fish? I was thinking about maybe adding a couple Bristlenose to the tank. Perhaps a school of Cory's. My thought was, maybe if there is a little more going on at the bottom of the tank they might feel a little more comfortable. Maybe they will come out a little more. Here is my tank specs with its inhabitants.

I have a 40 US Gallon long (48x13x16 inches) SA tank set up for almost 2 years now. The tank has 3 L-066, 11 Penguin Tetra's, 4 Apistogramma cacatuoides, 3 Rummy Nose tetras. The Pl*co's, Penguin Tetras have all been in the tank for the entire 2 years. The 4 Apistogramma cacatuoides are 4th generation from the original 5 I had. The 3 Rummy Nose tetras are in this tank because they were terrors in my smaller 20 gallon long.

The tank has sand substrate with lots of driftwood that goes across the tank. I have a few fake plants and some ceramic caves.

Temp - 81.1F
Ph 7.7
gH 60ppm
kH 50ppm
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

I was thinking of taking 5 of the Penguins and the 3 Rummy nose out and replace them with the bottom dwellers. I think my water is plenty soft enough. My worry is perhaps my Ph is a bit too high. The cichlids breed fairly regularly in the tank. I believe my tank is quite healthy. I would just like to see my 3 favorites a little more.

Thanks

When I kept 6 each L66, L333 and L134 in a large tank of wild discus they would come out at feeding time.
If the have no competition and plenty of hiding places, you will mostly get to see their tails.

If the have no competition and plenty of hiding places, you will mostly get to see their tails.

that's my problem too, all tails. Pretty tails tho on my tigers. I am thinking now for the last few weeks what to add into my tank that has them also.

It was driving me nuts to have apparently empty pleco spawning tanks so I began keeping and breeding an awful lot of shrimp.
Mostly Cherry Shrimp, Neocardina arthropoda but also the yellow morph of the species. They handle the warm water and een make a little pocket change without them interfering with the plecos breeding. Pretty small consolation prizes. I end up with so many shrimp that I can keep my 125 gal Nhamunda Blue Discus tank stocked with shrimp. The Discus may eat a few but I loose most of them to my wet/dry filter overflow siphon. I have to add a bunch every few months to have enough to notice in the 125.

I'm sure a school of Pencilfish, Hatchetfish or Tetras would be safe to keep in the breeding tanks. Green Neon, Parachierodon simulans are smaller than Cardinals and handle warm water better than regular Neons. I am not sure I would trust Cardinals around new Hypancistrus fry because Cardinals can get pretty big in the quality of water Hypancistrus need.
In a community tank, I think only adding more plecos with fewer caves will bring them out regularly. You basically create a setting for them to play musical caves. Combine the competition for food with that for caves. That was the how I got to see them more often.
I have a lot of Discus and I keep either Hypancistrus spp or L134 with them instead of warm water Corydoras spp. These spp of plecos like the same foods and water conditions as Discus and they are really good at cleaning up food that the Discus can't eat. The Discus and Plecos are both fun to watch when they are competing with each other for food.
It is either some kind of compromise or acceptance of the tails in a cave all the daytime.
You might try a LED Moon Light or red light bulb for night viewing; that is when they are most active. I think they can read minds.
I have been trying to get some photos of babies. From the other side of the room, I can see my L260 chasing each other all around the tank...until I get out the camera, then they all dash for cover.

what about bolivian rams? or apistos?

I have breeding apistos in the tank with mine. The L066 still hide. I am lucky if I see a tail. About the only time I see them is when I am cleaning the tank.

Apistomaster, you recommend L134 in a community setting over a school of Cory's? I am not sure I have room for too many more so perhaps Cory's would be out anyway.

I was thinking 2 L134's and two long fin BN's. The long fins are just so pretty. My only concern would be how do I get them to not eat the meatier food for the L066 and L134.

I have 3 L333 which are basically a color variation of L66 and i can't even see tails most of the time rofl. They hide all day. However i have a night lamp installed and they stick out like sore thumbs when you use a black light.
I feed them around 9pm and turn the black light on and watch all my fish eat. They are quite the entertaining bunch.
As far as cories it won't help i have a school of 6 corys , 1 albino cory, 1 L411, and 2 Ottos in the tank as of now. They don't help much. Occationaly the L411 and L333's with "school" with the ottos and suck on the glass together. that's more like a once a week event tho.

Easystreet wrote:I have breeding apistos in the tank with mine. The L066 still hide. I am lucky if I see a tail. About the only time I see them is when I am cleaning the tank.

Apistomaster, you recommend L134 in a community setting over a school of Cory's? I am not sure I have room for too many more so perhaps Cory's would be out anyway.

I was thinking 2 L134's and two long fin BN's. The long fins are just so pretty. My only concern would be how do I get them to not eat the meatier food for the L066 and L134.

My reason for using Peckoltia L134 or Hypancistrus has a lot to do with the fact that I keep and breed Discus, Sturisoma, Peckoltia L134 and more recently, Hypancistrus sp L260. All these like the same foods and water conditions as Discus an the fact that I have plenty of youngsters. The Plecos reach foods that are inaccessible to Discus at least as well as Corydoras and they love warm water while many Corydoras do better when kept 80*F or less. There are Corydoras that do alright at temps warmer than 80*F, of course, but one 3-1/2" Pleco eats as much as several average sized Coyrdoras. I breed plenty of Corydoras but i do not keep them with Discus very often.
I usually keep a common Bushy Nose, Ancistrus cf cirrhosus per non pleco breeding tank. They eat protein rich foods and do well as long as there is some algae and occasional plant based food in their diets. Today, my Bushy Nose ate the eggs as fast as a pair of Sturisoma could lay them in my wild Blue Discus tank. They are very opportunistic feeders.
I also kept about 40 Sturisoma aureum I had hatch out last year that love live worms and earth worm sticks but they also eat any algae they can get.
I am breeding Albino Long Fin Bushy Nose and I mainly feed the adults and fry earth worm sticks. These sticks contain enough Spirulina to apparently satisfy their needs. This is my staple prepared food for all my fish. Even Discus eat it well. Sometimes new Discus need a couple weeks to get accustomed to it. Discus are that way with any food that is new to them. It is my Heckel Discus' #1 favorite prepared food and my wild Blue Discus' #2 favorite prepared food; Tetra Color Granule is their #1 prepared food.
Earth worm sticks are 42% protein according to the label. The Spirulina Sticks I also use say 45% protein. I use 10% as much Spirulina annually as compared to Earth worm sticks.

Larry
Do you ever find hypancistrus aggressive towards peckoltia or ancistrus, especially if a pair of hypancistrus start breeding ?

The reason i ask is i have had two different hypancistrus that i kept as trios in a 2ft * 1.5ft * 15"(High), and when they started breeding i ended up moving the spare fish as the breeding female would not give the non breeding female a minutes piece if she came out of her hiding place, so i moved the non breeding fish just to make sure they were getting some food.
They were in minimum sized tanks, but i was wondering how you found breeding hypancistrus react to other plec species when they start to breed ?

Hi Andrew,
Yes, I do see aggression between species within species and between spawning fish. Scraped sides aren't unusual at all, especially females are apt to get dinged up during spawning. Rival males definitely fight, especially over a prime spawning or hiding cave. I think most here would agree that 1 male to 2 or 3 females is an ideal balance. I have never tried keeping more than one species per breeding tank. I have only kept groups of different species in large tanks of 75 gal and up.
My L134 juveniles try to keep about 3 inches apart. They seem to like to see each other. Their bright colors may serve some purpose of being able to identify their own species from some distance. That is what I think. However, if they get any closer than three inches and if there is some food to fight over, they often tangle and it is like a "cat fight." Very funny to see because no real damage is done. Larger species can kill smaller ones. Be careful about crowding them. I never keep more than six L134 or L260 in a tank smaller than a 12 X 30 inch foot print.
I allow a 40 gallon breeder tank for 7 specimens of the slightly larger species, L333. I would guess that a 40 gal breeder, 18 X 36 inch foot print would work for 2 trios of L66. L66 is just enough larger that i don't think even L333 would cope well if they were forced to share a 40 gal breeder.
I'm sure there are many others more experienced than I who could help answer any of your questions I could not.
Some members have posted some Youtube videos of larger Plecos fighting and it can be an impressive sight.
Most of the time these fights end in a draw but if there isn't enough room and cover, it can end badly.

Thanks Larry
It was the groups of different species in a large tank that i was thinking about, and how any aggression was.
I have only kept hypancistrus species only tanks, whether it's a pair/trio or group of fish, and see the general aggression between the same species, and i think of hypancistrus as a shy species that would be bullied when in with other plecs and have trouble getting to the food, probably way off the mark, having only keeping bristlenose catfish before hypancistrus, but it has me wondering how hypancistrus fair with other plecs ?

Your L134 sound amusing to watch at feeding time.