Breeding and keeping the L066, Hypancistrus king tiger pleco
AGE/SIZE OF ADULTS AT SPAWNING: 9 - 10cm first spawn.
COUNTRY WHERE SPAWN OCCURRED: Queensland, Australia
TANK SIZE (GALLONS OR LITRES): 120cm x 36cm x 36cm, 155L
TANKMATES: Endler guppies.
TANK FURNITURE: (PLANTS/CAVE TYPE/WOOD) Anubias on driftwood, assorted caves and slate pieces.
TANK SUBSTRATE: Coffs gravel with coral pieces to buffer.
TEMP (F OR C): Jager 100W heater set 26C. Temp range 26 to 28C.
PH: 6.8, dropping to 6 after rainwater water change.
FILTRATION/POWERHEAD/CURRENT: Under gravel filter with air stones on three risers, Otto 450L canister intake on the 4th, Otto 800lph power filter and a 3000lph wave maker (just a cheapie one).
LIGHTING (TYPE/DURATION): Room fluro's 4ft about 12hours a day, late morning to late night.
FOODS: Hikari algae wafers, Sera flora flake, Sera Viformo tabs.
FREQ OF FEEDING: Daily
QTY/% OF WATER CHANGES: 25-30% rain water
FREQ OF WATER CHANGES: Weekly
COMMENTS
5 Jan 2011 Added 9 adult L066 I bought from here http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8389&highlight=L066
I thought perhaps there were a couple of females in the batch but none looked gravid so it wasn't easy to tell. The males were the recessive males in a large breeding colony so they weren't particularly showing mature male traits either.
One male in a couple of weeks showed the typical hairy butt. I removed and sold him as he wasn't the nicest looking one in the colony.
In another week I saw a really flashy looking male madly padding and trying to attract the attention of any possible females in the tank. I caught him and another one who looked quite like a female and removed them to their own tank with some whiptails. No spawning from those as yet.
I also removed what looked to be another female to another tank with a couple of male L066 from another bloodline. No spawning from those yet either.
This left 5 L066 in a 4ft so quite lightly stocked. I didn't witness any more males fighting or anything so I left them alone. Honestly, I thought they were all males. Imagine my surprise to score some fry in the tank. There has to be at least one female in there lol.
It had been raining here on the 1st and 2nd of April. I imagine the spawning occurred just before then as the barometer dropped. Another male had a second spawn but he only had one fry and had been badly bitten in the tail for his trouble.
DATE HATCHED: 5th April 2011.
WERE PARENTS OR EGGS/FRY REMOVED AFTER SPAWN? Fry removed and raised in thefishcave fry saver.
NUMBER OF FRY HATCHED: 21
NUMBER OF FRY SURVIVED: 20
FIRST FOODS: Hikari algae wafers, cucumber, Sera flora flake.
FREQ OF FEEDING: daily
Tank photo. Spawn was in the middle of the tank. Log made by dotsgraphic.
Colony less the main breeding male. Note the male in the middle has lost one ray of his tail from fighting and guarding his one surviving fry.
Suspected female who spawned.
Main breeding male who had 20 fry.
Fry not long hatched
This is the sole survivor of the second spawn. Unfortunately as he used up the egg sac, the actual sac turned clear but never went smaller. He died after about a week.
Nine days old and removed from dads log. Dad and log and fry spent about a week in the fry saver together as I didn't want dad to be attacked of annoyed by the rest of the colony. After removing the fry, dad and log returned to the main tank and the fry remained in the fry saver. This is the fry saver.
Fry at 9 days old. Note the little guy bottom left whose egg sac swelling just never went down even though he had used the yellow food store and it had turned clear.
These few gave me a lot of trouble and definitely did not want to come out of dads log so they copped a close up photo after I got them out.
Three weeks old.
One month old and eating well. Approximately 2cm in size.
AGE/SIZE OF ADULTS AT SPAWNING: 9 - 10cm first spawn.
COUNTRY WHERE SPAWN OCCURRED: Queensland, Australia
TANK SIZE (GALLONS OR LITRES): 120cm x 36cm x 36cm, 155L
TANKMATES: Endler guppies.
TANK FURNITURE: (PLANTS/CAVE TYPE/WOOD) Anubias on driftwood, assorted caves and slate pieces.
TANK SUBSTRATE: Coffs gravel with coral pieces to buffer.
TEMP (F OR C): Jager 100W heater set 26C. Temp range 26 to 28C.
PH: 6.8, dropping to 6 after rainwater water change.
FILTRATION/POWERHEAD/CURRENT: Under gravel filter with air stones on three risers, Otto 450L canister intake on the 4th, Otto 800lph power filter and a 3000lph wave maker (just a cheapie one).
LIGHTING (TYPE/DURATION): Room fluro's 4ft about 12hours a day, late morning to late night.
FOODS: Hikari algae wafers, Sera flora flake, Sera Viformo tabs.
FREQ OF FEEDING: Daily
QTY/% OF WATER CHANGES: 25-30% rain water
FREQ OF WATER CHANGES: Weekly
COMMENTS
5 Jan 2011 Added 9 adult L066 I bought from here http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8389&highlight=L066
I thought perhaps there were a couple of females in the batch but none looked gravid so it wasn't easy to tell. The males were the recessive males in a large breeding colony so they weren't particularly showing mature male traits either.
One male in a couple of weeks showed the typical hairy butt. I removed and sold him as he wasn't the nicest looking one in the colony.
In another week I saw a really flashy looking male madly padding and trying to attract the attention of any possible females in the tank. I caught him and another one who looked quite like a female and removed them to their own tank with some whiptails. No spawning from those as yet.
I also removed what looked to be another female to another tank with a couple of male L066 from another bloodline. No spawning from those yet either.
This left 5 L066 in a 4ft so quite lightly stocked. I didn't witness any more males fighting or anything so I left them alone. Honestly, I thought they were all males. Imagine my surprise to score some fry in the tank. There has to be at least one female in there lol.
It had been raining here on the 1st and 2nd of April. I imagine the spawning occurred just before then as the barometer dropped. Another male had a second spawn but he only had one fry and had been badly bitten in the tail for his trouble.
DATE HATCHED: 5th April 2011.
WERE PARENTS OR EGGS/FRY REMOVED AFTER SPAWN? Fry removed and raised in thefishcave fry saver.
NUMBER OF FRY HATCHED: 21
NUMBER OF FRY SURVIVED: 20
FIRST FOODS: Hikari algae wafers, cucumber, Sera flora flake.
FREQ OF FEEDING: daily
Tank photo. Spawn was in the middle of the tank. Log made by dotsgraphic.
Colony less the main breeding male. Note the male in the middle has lost one ray of his tail from fighting and guarding his one surviving fry.
Suspected female who spawned.
Main breeding male who had 20 fry.
Fry not long hatched
This is the sole survivor of the second spawn. Unfortunately as he used up the egg sac, the actual sac turned clear but never went smaller. He died after about a week.
Nine days old and removed from dads log. Dad and log and fry spent about a week in the fry saver together as I didn't want dad to be attacked of annoyed by the rest of the colony. After removing the fry, dad and log returned to the main tank and the fry remained in the fry saver. This is the fry saver.
Fry at 9 days old. Note the little guy bottom left whose egg sac swelling just never went down even though he had used the yellow food store and it had turned clear.
These few gave me a lot of trouble and definitely did not want to come out of dads log so they copped a close up photo after I got them out.
Three weeks old.
One month old and eating well. Approximately 2cm in size.
)
