PlanetCatfish.com

Once in a while I try this question to see if anyone has new information. I was wondering if anyone has experience breeding any of the gold nugget species and/or raising fry. I have seen a large supply of gold nuggets coming into local fish stores and wanted to possibly try breeding them. The only problem is that I can't find any information about them. So, any input?

Hello,
This is always the most difficult fish to give information about. They take forever and a day to condition. I had a colony of 3 fish, 1M & 2F, which were ~8 inches with the male being slightly longer than the female. They were kept in the same tank with my zebra breeders for some time and spawned about every six months. The tank was a 3' homemade 50 gallon and had 600 gallon per hour of filtration fed through a spray bar slightly above the surface of the tank. In addition, there was a 170 gph powerhead in each of the 2 back corners. Needless to say, there was quite a current. I kept black worms constantly available in an 8" crock dish and fed an assortment of spirulina wafers, brine shrimp, blood worm, and red worm. I know that the redworms have a different name in Europe, so I'll try to look up the scientific name if necessary, but don't have the time right now. Lighting was supplied by a single flourescent tube on a 14 hour daylight schedule. Under the lighting strip, I kept spaced pieces of cardboard to cut down on about half of the intensity and produce areas of shadow where the plecos normally sat.

Decoration was done with a large pile of stacked lava rock in the center and driftwood on the ends. The gold nuggets normally preferred the driftwood unless nesting. Then they went to the lava rock.

An interesting point. When I was hired to re-design the aquaculture unit for the genetics department at Purdue University I put all my fish in a central system. These fish were already well conditioned, but were not given anything other than a few large rocks as cover. While I was working on getting the spray bars on the tanks, they were left overnight with nothing but the direct current coming from the main return line. The next morning, without even a cave to hide in, the male was found guarding a clutch of eggs at the base of one of the large river rocks directly under the return line.

With L18 or L177, I would not recommend any serious attempts at spawning before they are at least 8 inches. I suspect that their rate of spawning will increase as they get larger and grow closer to full size. L81 can easily be spawned at 3 inches, but are still slow to condition and have rather small spawns. All these sizes are listed as standard length.

In all three species, I noticed that a majority of the eggs are lost to fungus. I tried everything from acriflavin to over-sized UV sterilizers to reduce the losses with no effect. I believe that the fishes immaturity was a key reason for this and may have had better luck if I had kept them long enough to grow to full size.

The fry that hatched were no more difficult than any other pleco to raise. They were given baby brine shrimp, frozen copepods, and an artificial rotifer used for invertabrate culture. Water changes in the small, 2 litre, growing tanks were done twice daily out of the breeders tank.

I've covered about everything I can think of off the top of my head. If I've forgotten anything or need to clarify, just post the question.

Larry Vires

Larry just a few more questions.

What temperature was the tank?

I know it's nothing compared to natural conditions, But is there a chance that 600 gallons per hour in a 50 gallon tank. Could be making the nuggets expend too much energy in these conditions, and so prolonging conditioning?

Have you tryed using slower flow rates to condition the fish and just increasing flow when you want to try a spawn them?

Hi Larry,
would you mind translating and posting this text in a German Pleco forum? (of course telling your name ;) ), I´ve been asked for this and many German speaking pleco fans are not that firm in English.

BTW: L 177 has been spawned by J. Leuenberger with only 17 cm (6,7 inch) I was told.

Ups,
sorry, I missed "Standard Length", I ment total length. SL of course smaller than 17 cm

Hi Barbie,
I don´t have problems to read or to understand it.
I was asked, if I could translate Larries post and post both versions, English and translated in German, in Austrian (German ;) ) ple.co forum, because many users are very interested in this theme, breeding Baryancistrus, and only few read Planetcatfish Forum.
The translations of the machines are sometimes quite strange.

Hello,

Feel free to make the translation and post if you like. I realize that I probably missed a few details, but covered the gist of it. The tank was a very warm 86' F (30' C). Because I try not to alter physical parameters such as temp and current, I never got around to trying to control their breeding patterns like that. I had planned on using L66 for an experiment regarding that, but the ICOSA article seems to answer that question IMO. I much prefer to keep fish in what I find to work and accept the spawns as they happen since that has always opened up more time for researching other species.

Walter, if you have any information regarding the L177 spawning, I would appreciate if you could post or PM me. I've got access to 6 inch fish right now and am debating whether I should start working with them again since they take so long to condition. Any new information could make it an easier decision.

Thanks,
Larry Vires

Hi Larry,
thanks, I will translate and post it in http://www.l-welse.com
I do not have really more information of breeding L 177.
The reason is, that it´s not published yet. It will be published, indluding photos, in "Welsatlas Band 2", hopefully appearing in spring 2004.
This information I have from Ingo Seidel (coauthor of "Welsatlas"):
They have spawned only one time, because unhappily the female has died of unexplained reasons. The total length of the fish was about 17 cm.
But Johannes Leuenberger is a well known pleco breeder from Switzerland. He was also the first (in German speaking countries?) to breed L 134.
I´ve sent him some inquiries by mail some time ago, and replied quickly.
He is his mail adress, if you want to get in contact:

leuenberger.johannes@rcc.ch

Thank you very much for the information. It is much appreciated.