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Hi,

Have a question about 2 breeding groups in witch the males don't show any interest in the gravid females. They both share the same behavior. The females will lie in a cave but the males will stay far from it.
At first the males would take a cave and fan all day for months but now all of a sudden the females take the caves and the males won't.

What could be the reason for this sudden change of behavior??

Thanks in advance.
Jacqueline

I have noticed that removing fry from a spawning tank is akin to catfish viagra.

well maybe you could think from the males perspectives. if your in a tank and all you do is eat and have sex, you would think there is no point anymore.

so maybe you could take the males out and put them in another tank. wait a few weeks and put the males back in. it seemed to work with my bns

Hi Jac,
How has your temperature varied over there at the moment?
Could be that the increase in temp has helped with the gravid situation, but the increase in temperature too far is signaling the "wrong season" to the boys.

Perhaps a couple of agressive colder water changes may send the boys back to the cave?

DJ-don wrote:well maybe you could think from the males perspectives. if your in a tank and all you do is eat and have sex, you would think there is no point anymore.

Where do I find one of those tanks? Need to test that theory out.

krazyGeoff wrote:Hi Jac,
How has your temperature varied over there at the moment?
Could be that the increase in temp has helped with the gravid situation, but the increase in temperature too far is signaling the "wrong season" to the boys.

Perhaps a couple of agressive colder water changes may send the boys back to the cave?

That sounds like a good one Geoff. The groups that show this behavior are the L46 and the L204. Especialy with the L204 males won't ly in caves unless there is some action to be done I had one definate large male who guarded a cave and fanned all day. The female would sit on top or near the entrance. I was very hopeful but than it suddenly all stopt.
We had a very hot few weeks here, up to 35 degrees!!! And the last 2 weeks we had violent tunder storms after a hot and sticky summers day. All my plecs went crazy and were in caves fanning, had 4 spawns of different fish (L66, L201, L270 and L260) and the L134 females went all fat and gravid. The L204 female is also very gravid, as is the L46 female!
The water temperature was around 33-34 degrees due to the hot weather, no heating on the tanks. I (had to) cooled them off each day in the evening with a cold water change (25%) to about 28 degrees.
Now the weather is cooler and the tanks are back to 30 degrees.

You would surgest some cold water changes? How many in a week and how much or to what temperature should I cool down the tanks?
Could it also be that I'm maybe feeding the fish to much? I feed them every day. Maybe skip some feeding sessions in the week?

jac wrote:

krazyGeoff wrote:Hi Jac,
How has your temperature varied over there at the moment?
Could be that the increase in temp has helped with the gravid situation, but the increase in temperature too far is signaling the "wrong season" to the boys.

Perhaps a couple of agressive colder water changes may send the boys back to the cave?

That sounds like a good one Geoff. The groups that show this behavior are the L46 and the L204. Especialy with the L204 males won't ly in caves unless there is some action to be done I had one definate large male who guarded a cave and fanned all day. The female would sit on top or near the entrance. I was very hopeful but than it suddenly all stopt.
We had a very hot few weeks here, up to 35 degrees!!! And the last 2 weeks we had violent tunder storms after a hot and sticky summers day. All my plecs went crazy and were in caves fanning, had 4 spawns of different fish (L66, L201, L270 and L260) and the L134 females went all fat and gravid. The L204 female is also very gravid, as is the L46 female!
The water temperature was around 33-34 degrees due to the hot weather, no heating on the tanks. I (had to) cooled them off each day in the evening with a cold water change (25%) to about 28 degrees.
Now the weather is cooler and the tanks are back to 30 degrees.

You would surgest some cold water changes? How many in a week and how much or to what temperature should I cool down the tanks?
Could it also be that I'm maybe feeding the fish to much? I feed them every day. Maybe skip some feeding sessions in the week?

Sometimes we just need a helping hand from mother nature. I had a trio (1:2) of discus that despite feedings & water changes just wouldnt spawn until there was a heavy rainstorm. Then the male blue diamond would spawn one day with one sister red turquoise & the next day with the her sister.

jac wrote: The groups that show this behavior are the L46 and the L204. Especialy with the L204 males won't ly in caves unless there is some action to be done I had one definate large male who guarded a cave and fanned all day. The female would sit on top or near the entrance. I was very hopeful but than it suddenly all stopt.
We had a very hot few weeks here, up to 35 degrees!!! And the last 2 weeks we had violent tunder storms after a hot and sticky summers day. All my plecs went crazy and were in caves fanning, had 4 spawns of different fish (L66, L201, L270 and L260) and the L134 females went all fat and gravid. The L204 female is also very gravid, as is the L46 female!
The water temperature was around 33-34 degrees due to the hot weather, no heating on the tanks.
Now the weather is cooler and the tanks are back to 30 degrees.

You would surgest some cold water changes? How many in a week and how much or to what temperature should I cool down the tanks?
Could it also be that I'm maybe feeding the fish to much? I feed them every day. Maybe skip some feeding sessions in the week?

Hi Jac,
Very interesting information there.
I have very little experience with Hypans, but from what I have understood, read etc they seem to be more reactive to the extreme weather shifts. My panaque on the other hand seem to react more to subtle weather shifts. perhaps hypans spring and autim (fall), and panaque in summer?
Based on Farid's experience I think the time is right for your L204.
If I was going to do the water change thing then I would Start with the tank at 30. Then do a 40% change at 24-26C for up to 5 days in a row. Letting the water in the tank get back up to 30C every day. Add another powerhead pointing in the same direction as your filter outlet, and have the filter outlet at the surface of the water.
Therefore we have flushed the system with cooler water, increased the oxyegnation, and the flow rate.
This is what I intend to do when our summer starts up.
I have never quite been able to calculate when the breeding season is in the wild?
Another option is to just keep on with your regular maintenance but add the extra powerhead and lower the water to be the same level as the filter outlet.

I do not think you are feeding too much, I feed mine every day. If they were overfed rather than gravid, then the males would look gravid too
Best of luck

Geoff

Thanks again Geoff!

I'm going to try the extra powerhead. I put a small internal filter in for the weekend (to get some extra flow) and already I see a difference with the L204 male I just bought an other larger powerhead, I'll put that one in instead.

Hope this will help!!

The zebra's are put on a diet for now. The male was a bit to fat and maybe that's why he's gone lazy