L244 breeding attempt

[Mol_PMB]

I've had two L244 Pseudolithoxus dumus for about 2-3 years now, in a community tank.

I recently decided to sell my L397 breeding group which has freed up my pleco breeding tank.

Inspired by the (rare) availability of an L244 for sale, I've bought that and have put all three L244s in the breeding tank.

I've got a definite male 90mm SL, a probable female 80mm SL, and the new fish is smaller about 50mm SL and I'm not sure what sex it is.

They seem to be eating well and making use of the numerous caves, slates, rocks and driftwood to hide.

Nothing else to report as yet, but I thought I'd start a thread off in the hope that I will have something to write about eventually!

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

looking at your 2 adults... it appears to me you have a male on the left and a female on the right.....

good luck :thumbup:

 

[Mol_PMB]

Many thanks - I agree.

I've got quite a few pics of the adults with good dorsal and ventral views. I'll try to upload some more later. I'm pretty sure the largest, darker-coloured fish is a male and the slightly smaller, lighter-coloured one is a female.

The smallest, new fish is I think too small to be confident either way. However having a third fish (of either sex) can sometimes encourage breeding. I've been looking for more of these for several years and they come up for sale very rarely.

 

[L-ko]

Hi,

Pic 1: Male and female; Pic 2: male

A Story of sucess

Good luck!
Elko

 

[Mol_PMB]

Many thanks, Elko! Were you first to breed these?
Regards,
Paul

 

[Mol_PMB]

Here are some ventral views of the two adults, together and separately.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[L-ko]

Hi,

yes, it's the first known breeding group and in this time, probably the only one.

Greetings
Elko

 

[Mol_PMB]

Well, Elko was right about how shy these fish are, especially without any dither fish!

Often a week passes without me seeing any of them. Once or twice in the last 6 months I've moved the decor around to add more caves (with more variety of shapes) and to make sure they're all still there.

I have also been doing 50% water changes with cool RO water, approximately weekly. Water parameters currently Temp 27C, Conductivity 70us/cm. Two power-heads provide high circulation. Feeding is with Repashy gel cubes, made with a cocktail of different gels but predominantly veggie/algae. The tank also has a thriving population of blackworms in the substrate, which was an accident!

Recently I've noticed one of the fish consistently hanging out in one of the rectangular open-backed caves. He's been there for several days, always upside-down under the ceiling.

Tonight I saw all three of the fish at one time. Of course they're all at the back of the tank and I only managed to photograph bits of them. In the photos I think 1 and 3 are the two males, and 2 is the female. The males are toward the opposite back corners of the tank, and the female toward the middle.

I'm sure it's too much to hope for that the male in the cave is guarding eggs, but it's a change in behaviour that might be promising.

 

[L-ko]

Hi,

that's good. I keep my fingers crossed.

Greetings
Elko

 

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks Elko!
I have lots of different types of caves (closed and open ends, round and square, slate, ceramic and wooden) but I have also stacked up chunks and slabs of slate to provide even more shapes. Sometimes they seem to prefer the spaces between the caves rather than the caves themselves.
Cheers,
Paul

 

[Mol_PMB]

I’ve been unable to access the forum for a while, but I’m pleased it’s back. I thought I had better update this thread...

I’ve only got two of the little ones, but they are growing up nicely and now look like miniature adults.

If people are interested I have more photos of the two fry at different stages of development, and some pics of the adults interacting in a cave.

 

[Mol_PMB]

I’ll start with dorsal views of my 5 adults, which I think may be 3M2F, possibly 4M1F.
I've collected these over several years from 4 different locations in the UK.
I'm fairly sure that the biggest hairiest male is the father of the youngsters.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Here's a photo of the big male in his cave. He cleared the substrate from the surrounding area, and both he and some of the other fish were very active in this area for several days. In the image, the male is inverted, but he was constantly shifting position. I have a load of photos like this taken over several days, and I think some of them may show two fish in the cave. In this one, the tail of a second fish is visible in the foreground, but not actually in the same cave.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Here are a selection of photos of the fry at various stages of development. There are only two of them, but both are developing well.
At one stage I moved them into a fry nursery, but they soon escaped back into the main tank and I have left them there, rather than disrupt the whole tank again.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Finally, a couple of shots I've taken just now with the phone, so sorry about the quality.
It's not every day I see an adult and a youngster together. The adult scarpered quickly when it saw me, but the youngster hung around a minute longer.

As seen in these photos, the staple food I use for my L244s is Repashy gel, and I mix a cocktail of Soilent Green, Bottom Scratcher, Morning Wood, and chlorella and spirulina powder.
When the fry were very small, I offered a lot of algae-covered tree branches and twigs, which they enjoyed grazing on. They also get an occasional slice of courgette or red pepper.

The L244 tank has developed a thriving population of blackworms in the substrate, so I'm pretty sure they don't eat worms! The worms do a good job of cleaning up the detritus and I siphon them off when cleaning the substrate, and feed them to fish in other tanks that do appreciate worms.