PlanetCatfish.com

I have aquired a small group of these fish and am planning on giving breeding them a go sometime in the not so distant future. The fish are 4-6cm each so they all have a bit of growing to do.

I have read almost every thing i can find on the species on the net, and in books.

Anyone else care to give some tips on keeping and breeding them?

Most sites say breeding to be impssoible/rare, but i think all fish are breedable give the right conditions, with the exception of few.

Alex

Hello,
I don't have any personal experience with this species, but did spawn blue eyes several years ago. Some of that may apply, so I'll share what I can. They were being kept in a 55 gallon tank with a large pair of breeder angelfish. The water parameters were as follows: pH 6.5 - 6.8, total hardness 80 ppm, temp. ~80' F. Now comes the uncommon part, so don't think I'm crazy. Their diet consisted of a combination of 3 large pieces of submerged driftwood, dry chunk dog food, and whatever small amount of flakes got past the angelfish. The breeders were apparently triggered by daily water changes done over a 2 week span. The replacement water was treated reverse osmosis, and had the same parameters as the tank. It may have been slightly cooler, but was only 20 percent so I doubt there was any noticeable temperature difference. Looking back, I wish I kept better records of that tank, but I really didn't plan on breeding anything in the tank other than the angels.

Hope this helps some,
Larry Vires

Pleco breeder, thansk for the info. Something I do find quite strange is that you were feeding dog food, something that i would highly advise on not doing, this is very bad for your fish.

Hello,
Quite to the contrary on the dog food. It is very high protein and is comprised completely of vegetable matter. It is not a common practice, but is done on a regular basis in some North American native fish farms. If you look at the ingredients and nutritional values, it is very similar to the diet available for pond raising Ictulariidae. I'm not breeding any Panaque or Peckoltia at the moment, but do have a large scale hatchery in the works for breeding the 34 species I've spawned to date. You can count on it that I will be using it when I get to that point. I still haven't found a better substitute for conditioning those genera. They don't seem to condition fast enough on regular vegetable fare.

Larry Vires

HI Larry!

I really would like to know what brand did you used or what were the different percentage of protein, vegetables and etc...

Cheers
Yann

Hello Yann,
I really don't remember what brand I was using. Given that I was more focused on other fish at the time, and the fact that I wasn't planning on spawning them -- Probably the cheapest I could find.
Most staple dog foods contain around 43% protein and are made strictly from vegetable matter. I would not recommend anyone using cat food for these cats. Cats are incapable of digesting plant matter -- can't break down to the primary aminos. Therefore, it contains all animal based proteins and the results would not be pleasant.
Dogs on the other hand are quite capable of making use of these. If you are thinking about giving it a try, I do have a couple of pointers on picking a good brand.
1. Look at the ingredient listing. Soy should be one of the major ingredients since this is cheap and helps to make up a large portion of the protein requirement.
2. Feeding can be a trick since it floats. I used fishing line and an orange sac to make a small net which I could use to hold the food together with. Simply use a plant weight to hold the contraption to the bottom of the tank and the fishing line means that you don't have to reach in after it when its empty.
3. Just like any other food, it fouls after only a day. Therefore, unless you are feeding either very large fish or a lot of small ones, I would start slowly until they grow into the feedings. Even as 3 inch fish, 100 Panaque maccus were only eating 3-4 pieces a day.

Larry Vires

Larry,
I have read your book many times which I thought was terrific but consequently I have some questions for you. I know you are probably quite sick of getting these but I'd really appreciate an email from you if you have time. I promise they won't be too boring or idiotic.

I am setting up a small scale fish farm too and already breeding some plecos. Some with the use of hormones and some without. I would also be more than happy to jump on a plane for a personal visit to your fish farm whenever it gets going. Would be nice to have some-one to bounce some far fetched ideas and attempts off occasionally.
Hope to hear from you.

aquaholic99@hotmail.com

Thanks