L174

[Andrew]

My 174s bred a couple of times early last year and i have four fry from the breedings, another fish keeper got four.
But i lost one of them to bloat, i don't know if it was one of the breeding two, but it put them off breeding, i also upgraded their tank to a 4ft tank, which didn't help with them getting around to breeding again.
I also recently managed to get a hold of a male from another local fishkeeper.

They did try to breed just before i got the new male, as i found two wrigglers that had been kicked out of the cave, but no other eggs in the males cave, the two wrigglers died in the fry trap.
On thursday i noticed two tails in a cave, it looks like the new male is attracting the females this time.
I couldn't see any eggs in the male's cave on Friday after work, but found an unfertilized egg near the cave and what looks like the remenents of a clutch of eggs, stuck to the internal fluval.

Older picture of the male hanging out.

Caught in action (not the best picture).
A fat female has been hanging out beside the males cave for the past month, she sometimes goes under the angled slate to the left, but mainly hangs out right beside the male's cave.
I thought she was stacking claim to the male and his cave, but it wasn't her trying to breed with the male, it was a female from the other end of the tank !

Unfertilized egg.

What looks like the remenents of an egg clutch stuck to the internal fluval.

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Hopefully they will get it right sooner rather than later :wb:

 

[thegeeman]

L174 are one of the best hypans you can get IMO. I have 4 but I have given them to windy to put with his.

Good luck Andrew not that you need it mate they will soon get it right

Cheers

thegeeman

 

[Jo Crane]

Practice makes perfect its a good sign that they are at least spawning hopefully the next lot will be fertile for you. Are the caves you are using for them the size 2 (same as te zeb caves?) I hope so it makes my L174s around the same size as yours

 

[Andrew]

Jo
I use cave size 3 for the 174s (internal dimensions 33mm), didn't use cave size 2 as it just seemed too tight for two of them to fit in it (internal dimensions 28mm),
I also put one cave size 4 in the tank incase they liked it, one of them likes to hang out in it, but it dos look really big for it when you look inside;


Cave Size 3 on the left, cave size 4 on the right.

Cave size 3 on the left, cave size 2 on the right.

I was taking pictures again there, and found the female that had been trying to breed, had fallen asleep upside down, a few flashes of the camera soon woke her and she was off

 

[Jo Crane]

Thank you a way to go yet for me all in good time
Such cute little hypans love the sleeping pic.

 

[Andrew]

What a bunch of fish i have.
Two weeks ago i finally noticed two of them in a cave, the female was only in for one night as there was only one fish in the cave the next day, and i couldn't see any eggs as the male was blocking the back of the cave well.
So i left him to it and didn't bother him.

Then last Thursday, i noticed two fish in the same cave again, only a week later seemed a bit odd, but maybe the first attempt didn't work.
I then found one dead belly whopper, and one live one that i put in a trap, but it was dead the next day.

The two were in the cave for five days, Friday through to Monday, and on Saturday when i had a quick glance, i noticed the fish at the back of the cave looked to be vertical and a bit squashed, but it was a quick glance and never really thought anything of it.
Until i came in from work on Monday and found a dead fish floating in my tank.

The female that was attempting to breed the first time was back in her usual hidey hole right beside the males cave, so at least it wasn't the female.
The floating dead fish was practically white and reallly faded, it looked like it had been dead for a couple of days.
And it dawned on me, the cave that had two fish only had one fish now and no sign of eggs, one of males has killed another male in the cave, and the surviving male had finally managed to get the dead fish out of the cave, which was why it looked like it had been dead for a couple of days.

I can only think that another male fancied taking over the cave with the eggs in it, and it turned out a fight to the death.
I don't know which fish is left, the original male, or the challenging male.

A lot of aggression for a small fish.
Has anyone else had there hypancistrus do something like this ?

 

[thegeeman]

I have had 400,s fight to the death. Same thing as you. I thought it was a pair and they had been in a cave for days but then I noticed the 2 outside of the caves were both female. I decided to empty the cave as I knew they were both males. The male stuck at the back of the cave was half eaten:cry:.

I am pretty sure its not a trait in certain sp of hypan but just down to aggression in individual fish. The same male that killed the one in this cave also killed another male 6 months later. I remember a while back there was also a killer zeb doing the rounds fish breeders

Cheers

thegeeman

 

[Jo Crane]

What is or was the male to female ration in the tank? my L174s are currently spawning two separate pairs at around the same time give or take a few days, I don't see as much scrapping with these, they are a group of 9

 

[Irene0100]

what an adventure! gosh you must have been on edge for ages!
sorry you lost one, but sometimes males wont tolerate another male, unusual in a 4 fter but it happens. I hope the last male and the females get their act togther for you soon.

 

[Andrew]

So this can crop up from time to time.
Because i have a group of four L260 in another tank and i found one of them with what i thought was a heater burn on it's side, last week.
It didn't survive treatment, it died on the first day, and heater burns is something i never have with hypancistrus, even the fry never get a heater burn, i had it once before with a bristlenose, and it survived treatment.

Two of 260s have not long started breeding, and i am pretty sure it is two males and two females that i have.
The breeding female dosn't cave, she hides under wood, but the day i moved the damaged 260 to the treatment tank, the breeding female is hanging out it's cave, then the next day, it's back to hiding under the bogwood again.
I'm not positive it was the breeding female that did the damage, but my gut feeling says it was.

On the bright side a pair of L400 i got from Jo in March have bred and the fry look due to leave the cave soon !

 

[Andrew]

To be honest i am not sure of the sexes, my guess is i had three males and two females, which would be two males and two females, that is just going by behaviour.

But i see 174s been advertised and i am going to try to get another three to add to the group.

A picture of their tank.

The cave, middle left is where the action happens, and right beside the cave on the right, under a bit of wood, is where a fat female lives.

 

[Andrew]

Was moving the 174s to a smaler tank this weekend and got some pictures of the four fry from the breeding in early 2008.
They are a bit reddish because they were sitting in a tub with an airstone waiting for their new tank to become free.

Three are around 1.5" and the fourth is around 2"

 

[Joby]

They are gorgeous <3

 

[Jo Crane]

Super super cute :clap: out of all my hypancistrus groups my L174 are my favourite <3 love their tank setup too

 

[Andrew]

Got a nice suprise today when doing daily cleaning, found a devolping 174 fry scooting around the tank.
I never even knew anything was going on in the tank, a definite female is always hanging around a different males cave, so never really check the other caves for eggs or fry.

Not the best pictures;

The males cave with devolping fry, another one looked like it was about to ecape, but it went back in the cave as i was taking photos.

 

[Joby]

Thats great to see little 174s they are so cute <3

 

[RobHarrison]

Thats great news Andrew and really good photos thank you for sharing them