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Ho ho ho, just got home from work to find that me ancistrus ranunculus have spawned. Awesome.
Took some quick water readings, temp 29.5 C, pH 7.1 (higher than I thought it was), tds 134.

Large eggs 4mm?

Got a bad photo of the eggs, but dad moved them under him more whilst I was getting the zoom sorted.
And it's pay day tonight too.

Must be time for a beer!

Cheers

Geoff

Nice one. Says "breeding unreported" in the clog, but I assume they've been bred at some point?

Good luck with them. Hopefully can add details to the clog soon!

Cheers,
I've seen a 'spawning video' of them, but I'm not sure if anyone has recorded any information.

I'll try and get the picture up soon.

The eggs are almost clear, so it may be that not much will happen with these eggs. Time will tell.

How large are the parents? What are you feeding? I expect my trio have a long way to go, as they're not much larger than 3" TL. They've been growing slower than I've expected, too...

Suckermouth wrote:How large are the parents? What are you feeding? I expect my trio have a long way to go, as they're not much larger than 3" TL. They've been growing slower than I've expected, too...

Mine wouldn't be much more than that, possibly 3.5" TL
The female showed no signs of being gravid.

Feed JBL Novo Fect, with Wardleys shrimp pellets possibly once per week, and JBL Novo Tab, possibly once per week too.

photos:




The gravel less bottom in front of the cave is a combination of the HOB filter flow, and the male clearing the area.

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have the nack my friend!

Very nice, I have some hope. I'll look into those Novo foods to see if I'm covering those bases with the Ken's Sticks I'm currently feeding.

I had some of Kens earthworm sticks sent down, but they didn't turn out to have the effect I hoped for. I still have some and they go into the 'variety food' selection. These guys didn't really get into them, but I know that a lot of people have good success with the sticks

Generally speaking I feed the ancistrus, Peckoltia, panaque and barryancistrus all the same.

I had been keeping these guys at about 28C, then about 2 weeks ago I put in a new cave. They didn't show any interest in the new cave, so on Sunday I rearranged all the rocks, put the old cave back in, did a 40% water change with water at about 19C, and I turned the heater up by approx 1.5C
They have an Aquaclear 50 HOB filter and the filter flows at 90 degrees from left to right acros the front of the cave as you look at it.
They are in a standard 2 foot tank.

Cheers

Congratulations Geoff
Very well done! Good luck with this adventure!

Thanks jac

Good waterkeeping, Geoff!

Write up a short report (perhaps keep records until the fry are reasonable size), and I'm sure it'll go in the species page, and perhaps a Shane's World article as well.


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Mats

Thats fantastic Geoff,congrats on the spawning mate

I saw the title of this thread and thought, does he mean ancistrus ranunculus????

great work fella!

congrats, a species on my to get list for sure

Congrats!!!! I love this pleco! It is kind of mystical to me!
I hope to breed Therese L255 in the future....

72 hours and I can only see 5 eggs now. At least they appear to be developing.
Whether the rest of the eggs are further in the cave I'm not sure?

I'll just leave them be for a few days and see what develops.

Cheers

Well done! Most people struggle to get them to feed and thrive for long periods, let alone spawn.

The eggs have all gone today, and the male was out of the cave.

First time parents

Still, it can be done. Hopefully they will do better next time
I wonder how many of the 2 females are able to spawn? As they are both the same size.

Cheers

Geoff

Sorry to hear. Better luck next time.

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Mats

Thanks Mats.

Bad luck on your first attempt..
Hopefully better luck next time
Keep up the good work!!

The good news is that they have spawned again today.
At least the water change / quality seems to be good enough.
I think the temperature changes may be key, as the pH has dropped quite a bit.

The male is doing a much better job of fanning the eggs, yet still a small clutch.
I also think that only one of the females is active due to the duration between spawns.

Fingers crossed this time he manages to do better at hatching the eggs, which are again placed near the entrance to the cave rather than at the back of the cave like the other ancistrus fish that I have.

Fingers crossed here
Good luck!

nice job, fingers crossed also! good luck

Georgie

Fail number 2.

Any thoughts?
I am wondering if the female is a bit young and producing infertile eggs?

If the female produces eggs they would be fertile! I don't think thats the problem.

In total there have been 4 spawns, and finally I have successfully managed to keep one alive.
It has a slightly damaged pectoral fin, and I think that this has to do with the coarseness of the net that I suspended the eggs in, and that the fin got stuck in the net at the early stages of development.
Still I think that this is enough (1 survivor) to call it a successful breeding.

I will do a breeding log, and an article.
When I get the pictures off the camera I will upload these too.

The father didn't manage to keep any alive, and I observed that he kept the eggs very high on his chest while fanning them. Perhaps best described as under his chin. When they hatch at 4-5 days, I think they may just irritate him, so he eats them.
Just a thought?



Cheers

Well done. Next one will be even better!

Jools

Good news and a great step forwards