Galaxy L240

[mikemanorhouse]

I just acquired a Galaxy L240 (about 3" long)and wondered if anybody had any tips on keeping this kind of fish. Paid fifty quid for it!
I bought it to replace my old Standard Pleco which died last week at 16yrs old, what a character!
I also bought a small catfish (1" long) to keep the algae down.
I've got a 38"X16" community tank with a Fluval 305 external filter with carbon, zeolite, biomax & filter wool.
My water (from a well) is medium and at 26C/78F. I have turned 1 of my lamps off. I've got a pipe and bogwood as well as rocks & plants with pea gravel.
My other fish include: Koi Angel, Kissing Gourami, Swordtails & Cardinals.
Any advice greatfully received.
Cheers, Mikemanorhouse

[sturiosoma]

I have a breeders log at pleco planet which goes over the care of my L240, it may be helpful to you.

[plecomanpat]

Sorry my monetary scale is not up to snuff so not sure how much 50 quid is but no matter where you live these fish are not cheap. I have 2 L240's and 2 L241's(not much diff between the 2) I have 1 L240 in my 180 show tank, he is not shy and fairly dominant especially at feeing time. Remember these are an Leporacanthicus so basically a carnivore but will take some vegetable matter on occasion. Another L240 is in a 30g long (36x12x16) in inches, he is kept with an LDA 31, an L14, an L184, an L226, and 4 L340's all are juvenile, with 9 shwartzii cories. I have no problems with these for there are alot of hiding places in the driftwood. I of cousre will thin them out as they grow.sorry for rambling. Mine are easy to keep but bear in mind they like clean water. You might want to watch the cardinals as he gets bigger,if he is hungry he will pick off some at night. I also have well water which is hard but I gradually used less R/O water during water changes to acclimate them to my water,my ph is 7.2 and generally stays there.Temp 78 degrees. Have had them a few years with no problems.Good luck and keep us informed.BTW sorry for the loss you can get quite attached and that is a ripe old age

[mikemanorhouse]

Thanks for the replies so far,
sturiosoma, I couldnt find your post on plecoplanet. What should I put into the search?
regards, Mike

[MatsP]

Have you actually looked at OUR data here on Planet Catfish:

L240

?

I think it's a fair amount of waiting for you to breed the fish - and you'll need at least one more! ;)

I haven't kept L240, but my

Leporacanthicus triactis

are a similar species...

--
Mats

[mikemanorhouse]

Sorry Matsp, no offence intended, yep I've printed off the data sheet from planetcatfish thanks it is very useful indeed. I am just trying to get as much information as possible at the moment as the guys in the shop told me to feed it on algae wafers, cucumber and sweet potato which turned out to be wrong!

Are you into bikes then? I'm a member of NABD and ride an Aprilia Tuono, looking forward to the start of motogp!

[MatsP]

What's "wrong" with the advice from the LFS? Algae wafers are definitely fine food for Leporacanthicus. They may or may not eat sweet potato. Mine certainly eat the skin of courgette, so they are not enitrely "anti-vegetarian".

I feed mine JBL Novo Tabs or algae wafers twice a day (shared with the other fish in the tank), defrosted frozen mussles, prawns/shrimp about once or twice a week for each type. I have als made home-made food with a lot of different ingredients, but I need to find some Agar agar to make it stick together a bit better.


[And yes, I'm a bit into motorcycle racing. Hopefully Scott Redding will do a good job and get on the podium with his Red Nose Day red hair on Sunday]

--
Mats

[sturiosoma]

Hi Mike if you go to pleco planet and go into forums and go to breeding logs go to the second page of breeding logs and look for L240 with my name jeannev49.

[MatsP]

You may also want to read Haavards breeding attempts:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =5&t=27730

And a search for L240 on this forum shows 19 pages worth of information...

--
Mats

[mikemanorhouse]

Thanks again Lads for your advice. And thanks for the links I am going to look now.
My fish is still hiding away under the bogwood, I can just see a bit of its side. I suspect it is coming out at night and eating my cardinals! I had been blaming my Koi angel fish up to now.
I bought 10 small cardinals at the same time as the Galaxy last Friday and 5 have now gone AWOL.
Mike

[MatsP]

Very much doubt the L240 is hunting down cardinals. Certainly my large L. triactis don't eat cardinal size Bloodfin tetras. However, if a cardinal happens to lay dead on the bottom of the tank, then I'm sure it's fair game. And large angelfish will eat cardinals unless the cardinals are massive.

My leporacanthicus only come out if there's food available.

--
Mats

[retroculus]

i have 3 of those myself.they love snails,specialy small ones,like malayan trumpet ones.although cucumber is what they like as well.

regards

Tom