L333 - Do they Like Strong Current

[bigbird]

Hello All,

Wish to have your opinion please. I have my 4 ft tank set up. with 8 L333, mixed sexes. 13caves from bamboo, slate, clay etc. External Eheim 1200l/ph and internal power head also 1200l/ph and an airstone and small sponge filter. I now find various reports that say they like a strong current and others say not needed. Some clarification or advise please ? cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Brengun]

My L333 bred in a 3ft tank with undergravel filter, a little Eheim 2213 canister and an otto 800lph power filter.

I would say the current is good but not excessively strong.
They didnt seem very sociable or outgoing until I dropped a few LG6 whiptails in the tank and bam they bred.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I think they probably feel more secure and less stressed with both a strong current (and very subdued lighting). In terms of whether they actually need a strong current, the answer is probably no, but they do require warm, highly oxygenated water. Warm is instantly a problem, as warm water can hold less O2 than cooler water (details here: <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>).

You'll have to wait for him to answer but I'm fairly sure "thegeeman" was going to try spawning L260? in a tank with minimal flow, yes I've found the post, and he did: <http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?p=66388>. Also US all time plec guru CUP bred all sorts of fish in tanks with whatever filters he could get from Ebay, Car Boot sales etc.

So concentrating on O2 content, one of the easiest ways to increase oxygenation is to have a high velocity water flow, and if you add in active aeration, a lot of biological filtration capacity (the decomposition of organic matter is an oxygen intensive process), together with high water flow you will pretty well ensure adequate oxygenation.

Both plants and substrate can have either a positive or negative effect on aeration, as long as the other factors are in place they are probably, on balance, a positive. But this is only as long as the plant growth doesn't inhibit water flow and the substrate is not rich in nutrients and/or organic matter.

I've recently spoken to "Planted Tank" guru Tom Barr, and he has now successfully bred L46 in this tank:

again with relatively low flow.

He also said that he is moving over to wet and dry trickle filters on all his tanks (including those with CO2) to increase the oxygenation of the water.

Therefore my suspicion would be that O2 content is the key, and possibly because it's only high quality water (with a low BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand)) that can be fully oxygenated all the time (in planted tanks, with lesser water quality, O2 levels may be very high during the day, but will fall rapidly at night when the plants aren't photosynthesising).

cheers Darrel

 

[thegeeman]

I was a firm believer that good flow was required but I have now spawned my 260s and 400,s in 2ft tanks with bubble filters. The 260,s have also now spawned in a floating cave:yes:. IMO the main thing to keep an eye on is the Nitrates.

Cheers

thegeeman

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

IMO the main thing to keep an eye on is the Nitrates.

I'd listen to any words of wisdom from the "Bristolian Plec god", and I reckon this is back to the water quality issue. In this case it isn't actually the nitrate that is dangerous (the planted tank "EI" folks have successfully kept sensitive fish and invertebrates at very elevated nitrate levels, caused by adding KNO3), it is just that it NO3 is a measurable end result of the ammonia to nitrate reaction:

NH3 + CO2 + 1.5 O2 → NO2- + CO2 + 0.5 O2 → NO3-

By the time we can measure the elevated nitrate, the ammonia (and/or nitrite or lower O2 levels) has all ready done the damage. In a non planted tank, where nitrate can only accumulate without water changes, you could use the nitrate level as an estimation of the BOD (really important, but difficult to measure) of the whole system. So it is almost certainly back to here:

Therefore my suspicion would be that O2 content is the key, and possibly because it's only high quality water (with a low BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand)) that can be fully oxygenated all the time

Thegeeman's secret is high water quality (and the floating cave that I gave him).

cheers Darrel