king tiger, how many is too many in tank?

[de221ck]

i have a breeding pair of king tigers that i raised for years and can see up to 20+ ranging from all sizes in my 250 gallon tank. the tank also is home to too large royal plecos, 5 inches maybe? the entire tank is full of places for them to hide and the young ones seem to prefer groups, the elders seem to find their own territory. i have never seen them fight, but am curious if a disaster is waiting to happen when they all grown to adults?

thank tanks is FULL on wood, caves, so their is enough spots, i believe zero problems have occurred and have yet to see them bothered by each other in all these years. BUT - is their a limit to how many you would recommend for them to live, comfortably? i'm really can't put an exact number on how many but basically i can find them every section of the tank, so i am guessing it is 20-30 maybe.

thanks you guys,
any opinions appreciated.

-derrick

[Atmichaels]

Welcome to the planet! A general rule of thumb is one square foot per fish so it really depends on your tank dimensions. Also, there should be a hiding spot for each fish but it sounds like you may have that covered. With that many in the tank I'd be concerned about adequate filtration for all that waste. What is your setup?

[de221ck]

thanks for the quick response and welcome.

the tank is 8 feet by 2 feet, oh 2 feet high. i use a outdoor pond filter canister w/ two extra thick sponges inside. the pump running the cannister is 550gph. i also run two pumps for current that are around the same maybe a little less powerful, because the type of pump a suppose. the tank does even at this setup clog a lot and i don't really have any idea how often to do water changes. the amount of wood gives the water a slight tint if left too long, one branch is 8 feet long and i built caves all along that base and up, so hiding spaces is not an issue i can go weeks without seeing my royal because the caves interact with each other and the 8 foot branch. a lot of slate rocks and fake caves that give thinner spaces for breeding too.. but the floor is not where all the fish are stuck is the point i built high one area reaches to the top of the tank that a lot hang out in. i built up different levels to give more space and hiding areas.

but full grown and the fact that they may keep breeding kind of worries me tho.

thank you again, i try to keep up on the filter but if funds allowed would add more...

ps also forgot to mention a lot of breeding panda corys, i hope they do not make much waste they stay very small. that is the entire tank no top swimmers.

-derrick

[tagamasid1023]

I agree, filtration could be a concern. Panaques such as Royals make a lot of mess because of their wood dietary needs. Moreover, eventually these Royals will grow pretty big and demand more space and food. Making it pretty difficult for the smaller Hypans to compete.
Another issue I believe is the L066's in-breeding. Offsprings breeding among themselves or with their parents can weaken their genetic line.

[apistomaster]

I also think more filtration should be considered.
I typically shoot for about 10X volume of tank per hour.
I use a large wet/dry filter that is driven by a Danner Supreme Classic MagDrive 9.5(950gph)water pump plus an Eheim 2217 on tanks of 75 gal to 125 gal.
I had various Loricaridae but they were incidental to the groups of adult wild discus.
I used a PVC "T" near the surface and a 90% "ELL" near the bottom of the return. Each was adjustable for direction with one opposed to the direction of flow from the Eheim 2217 canister filter. This helped cancel out the opposing flows so the discus don't have to swim against strong currents.
I use an Eheim pre-filter on the 2217. The wet/dry uses an overflow siphon box. This can be a drawback if you have valuable plecos breeding since many fry will find their way down the drain. Of course that may be a way to prevent overpopulation in your case. L66 can produce large broods often.
I learned that adult wild discus will eat newly free swimming Leopard Frog Plecos(L134) Peckoltia compta and L333.

[de221ck]

im worried about the filtration, i'm going to start doing more water changes because it may be awhile before i can afford better, im in a rutt financially. i also do not want to kill any baby king tigers, considering you can sell them online i think, i want as many as possible just flourish in this tank...

thanks guys, i'm off to do a water change now
i hear that may also help them breed, cleaner water and sudden rushes of cooler water...

derrick

[de221ck]

on a side note, if anyone knows any tricks to help king tigers breed please do share, ive not seen babies in awhile... most are 2+ inches now, i hope they didn't break up/divorce?

[Marine590622]

on a side note, if anyone knows any tricks to help king tigers breed please do share, ive not seen babies in awhile... most are 2+ inches now, i hope they didn't break up/divorce?

I would suggest that this is the answer to the subject question. Remove all but two pair of the l066 and you should start seeing breeding once again.

[apistomaster]

I always had good results by feeding live black worms and earth worm sticks.
Also a routine 2/3 to 3/4 water change every 3 to 5 days.

[leisure_man]

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[apistomaster]

When I was breeding the related L333's I had 3 males and 4 females set up in a 40 gal breeder.
They were very prolific spawners and there were times when the tank held over 200 juveniles of various sizes.
Over a period of 4 years I sold over 500 from the single setup. I didn't make any efforts to save every one they produced.
It was something one had to see to believe because I was able to sell off the largest first so I produced all I could sell just from a single setup. I don't think I could have had the same degree of success with the larger L66 in the same setup but then again, I sold specimens at at least 1-3/4".
I do think with just 2 males and 4 females L66 in a 40 breeder could still be a very productive single tank operation.
Frequent and large water changes plus extraordinary powered and air driven filtration would produce all the fish for most peoples' needs.
I provided one cave per adult fish in a tank with a thin layer of sand(>1/4").
L66 are an attractive pleco but I think the demand for them is a bit lower mostly due to their larger size.
I consider L333 and L66 excellent for those who wish to try something more exotic than common Bushy Nose variants.
Both are much easier to breed than Queen Arabesques(L260) or Peckoltia compta(L134) as examples of more challenging species to breed.

[victoriaz24]

As long as you have enough filtration, places for them to hide & enough wood, you'll be fine. In my 135G tank I have 17 or 18 different species of Pleco & around 50 all together in the tank & they are fine together, so you should be ok. I would suggest for when the Royals get larger, to get them some large caves or large stones for them to hide & call their own, or they might chase off the smaller Pleco's.