L260 question

[Boots n all]

l am getting a little, hmmmm with my L260 currently

Standard 4 ft tank, 2 males 3 females, over head tickle filtration, 2400 ltr per hour temp is 27 and the Ph is 7, it is the top tank 1.6 meters of the ground with little traffic past it, they are fed twice a day, flake and frozen blood worm, sizes are 7cm to 9cm.

for the last 8 weeks, l have a female living in the entery of one of the males caves, she fans constantly, she tries to get past the male, he blocks but does not push her all the way out.
If another L260 comes in or even near he will push the small female out and chase of the other, return to his cave and then let the little girl back in.
She is as round as a ball with a tube quite visual, yet no spawning.

l have had the temp as low as 25 and as high as 31 and done 50% water changes when we have a rain storm......what am l doing wrong? if it was any other catfish it would have spwawned by now.
Not a real good quality pic but you get the idea

[jac]

Remarkable. Maybe try and lower the conductivity using osmose water. And check your nitrate level.

Mine spawn at: Temp 30 degrees, nitrate 0 (due to nitrate filter) and conductivity of 270 microsiemens. I don't work with osmose water because our microsiemens is already low from the tap. They seem to spawn after doing a water change with cold water, bringing the temp down to 25 degrees.

Saying this, I have learned from my L46 that sometimes partners just don't connect. Maybe try with the other male.

[jbmm]

never seen such a huge cave for L260s...

might try to put in some smaller ones (just a little bit bigger than the fish..)
works for me...

[Boots n all]

The cave gets quite tight further down, there are three caves and the one they have selected is the largest, there is a male in one of the smallest caves also, but she and the other female want this cave, this male

[apistomaster]

Boots, I never seem to understand what makes L260's tick.
I raised 6 young wild specimens which were about 8 cm/3" when they arrived and 2 years later they began to spawn. I had about 20 fry accumulated but still living in the breeding tank then a new brood was released adding close to 20 more fry. They were discovered just before I was about scheduled for water change. It was winter and I made a rather large water change using RO water, cooler than normal, but it didn't bother them last time. Apparently that last brood were still too new and small and the changes too great. I lost all the last brood overnight but all the older fry and adults were fine,

I moved them to a 20 L from the 29H; same surface area, 12 X30 inches to make room for a pair of Discus who needed the deeper water. I never noticed any subsequent spawn and I had evicted a thriving permanent breeding set up Corydoras hastatus colony numbering around 120 fish. I tried to get them to spawn but never saw any fry. This week I removed them and combined them with their now 2-1/2 to 2-3/4" F1 progeny and began preparing to start a new C. hastatus colony.
Two days later I was amazed to see a very new solitary L260 fry on the front pane.
I know others who don't seem too have as much trouble establishing a good rapport with their L260 breeders and their L260 spawn regularly but they have been a difficult species for me. I do well with some other small plecos but L260 just don't make much sense to me. But like has been mentioned above, I do use an assortment of cave of varying cross sectional areas so they have more choice. I make my caves out of stone finish ceramic floor tiles and my first cut is in the center-line so all my caves are 5-1/2 inches deep.
Since taking up plecos one thing above all that gets me through is patience of the Zen kind or this fish will drive you crazy.

[Boots n all]

l need some Zen also, l breed peppermints and L201's like nothing but these guys look so close but its just not happening, if was the L201 l would be certain to see eggs in the cave the same day or day after a female took up this position...l am missing something, but what is it, maybe they have spawned and l just cant see it, but l am sure he would have kicked her completely out by now if that were the case

[apistomaster]

Do you keep them in fairly soft water and then try partial water changes using RO replacement water?
That is the only thing that I could remotely associate with their spawns. All cues have been too vague for my perception. I never knew mine had spawned until I would find their newly released fry.

[jac]

Can't help you futher I think.
For me this species is no problem at the moment.... Up till now they seem to spawn very 10-14 days, still having the fry with the yolksack in the cave. They spawn over night so the next day I will have fry of 10-14 days old and a new batch of eggs.
My problem starts when the fry leave the cave. They seem to starve easily. Since I started feeding them powdered tablets with the seringe it's been better but still find the odd fry completly emaciated.....

I do give my L260 (and L46) a lot of black musquito larvea. They say it makes fish go into a better "sex drive". For me it works well so maybe try this with your fish

Good luck!

[Barbie]

IME, the "secret" with L260 has been large TDS fluctuations for stimulation. Cool water didn't do a thing unless it was very low TDS. Even a couple big cool RO or rain water changes can make all of the difference in the world.

I've done 50% RO changes, dropping the tank temperature as much as 10 degrees, only to discover fry in the tank with no casualties. That is strictly my experience though. I did manage to crash the tank my original breeders lived in to kill them in spite of being so hardy ;). Thank goodness the new group has become such a great producing colony!

Barbie

[apistomaster]

That is what has worked for me but the one water change using 2/3 refill of RO was when the water was too cold and the sudden drop was closer to 20*F which was more than newly released fry could cope with.
I just combined my old wilds with 15 2-3/4' F1 in a larger tank. While working on the finishing touches of the 20 Long the wilds were in I found a single very recently independent fry.