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Hello,

I have just recently had my 5th spawn of L014. This has been the most successful spawn to date, with ~60 fry making it past 30 days old ~1". Generally I have found this species unproblematic once the eggs successfully hatch. Egg hatching has always been my biggest challenge, due to males that like to prematurely eject their eggs and dealing with such a large egg mass. A new form of incubation that I have trialled for the first time appears to be a winner - I am eagerly awaiting the next spawn!

This spawn was made up of approximately 300 eggs, of which only ~65 were fertile. Out of that 65, I have managed 60 fry, which is a great result.

My breeding group consists of 4 adults, 2m 2f. The males are approximately 14" and the females 10-12". Over the 5 spawns all 4 individuals have been had varying levels of input and success. I have recently added 3 more adults 2m 1f to my collection (kept separately) and have 9 juveniles that are approximately 1 year old (4-5") from a previous spawn. In the hopes of reproducing this success with other groups of fish.

I have kept the details purposely fairly brief, as I will likely turn this into an article in the coming months.

Happy fish keeping!

That's a great accomplishment. Congratulations!

Cheers, Eric

P.S., what part of Western Australia are you in? I was in the Perth area (Stratton) last month for a week or so. Lovely country!

We would love to publish that article here - may I use your pictures for the species profile?

Cheers,

Jools

bekateen wrote: 29 Nov 2024, 11:51 That's a great accomplishment. Congratulations!

Cheers, Eric

P.S., what part of Western Australia are you in? I was in the Perth area (Stratton) last month for a week or so. Lovely country!

Thank you. It has been many years in the making to get to this point.

I live in Perth. Great part of the world.

Jools wrote: 01 Dec 2024, 08:55 We would love to publish that article here - may I use your pictures for the species profile?

Cheers,

Jools

Hi Jools

I have no objection to using my images. I will contact you privately regarding putting pen to paper.

Image 1: newly hatched fry, 3 days post hatching.

Image 2: egg mass, approximately 6 hours post laying. This egg mass had a high infertility rate that is not evident this early post lay. Infertile eggs become apparent 24-36hours post lay.

Image 3: day 5 post lay and approximately 24 hours away from hatching.

Image 4: adult male 14"

Image 5: adult female, notice the steeply sloping head from a side profile. L014 are often easier to sex visually from a side profile rather than from above. The angular/square shaped heads often noted with this species is not evident in all adult males.

Thanks,
Alex

Congrats, looking forward reading the article!

Any other unusual L-numbers you try to breed?

Griparn wrote: 14 Dec 2024, 06:18 Congrats, looking forward reading the article!

Any other unusual L-numbers you try to breed?

Thank you.

Also working with L097, currently have a female trapped in a cave, young pair that have been on off trapping for a week now. So fingers crossed they will figure out what they are doing in there. Been a challenging species to date, mostly due to an overly aggressive alpha male that I have since separated out from the group.

Also have a 'pair' of Panaque cochliodon that I have been growing out for a 2-3 years now. I say 'pair' as I am not 100% confident I have sexed them correctly. Really would like to add 2-3 more fish to the group to give a breeding attempt some legitimacy.

The rest of my pleco collection is just fairly bread and butter at the minute.