Triggering L104 Spawn

[DJ-don]

Hey guys
I have a small colony of 4 L104's. possibly 3 females and definite male.
Well the male has been in his little Bamboo cave fanning as crazy and all the females ever do is just sit in the wood near his cave. Nothing has really happened.

To all the people who have bred these fish, what is a good way too trigger these fish??

i read the rainy/dry season and the L104 articles on this site but i want to get as much views from as many people i can get.

I dont even mind if you guys tell me how you spawn your other L's because the trigger could be very similar

Please give me as much as you can :clap:

Thanks in Advance
DJ

 

[Irene0100]

hi, different things trigger different fish, but mainly its waiting for the fish to be mature enough then keeping water good and feed well. some like cold water changes when there is a low pressure storm about.
tell us more about the set up they are in?
post photo of tank?
are the females gravid?

 

[DJ-don]

will try my best to get a photo of the tank up. will take my sisters camera haha
well to tell you the truth, i cant tell if my females are gravid because they hide ridiculously a lot, but my guess is the smallest one is a gravid female because she is really round!!

ok. so they are in a 3 foot tank with 2 peppermints 2 juvy L397 and 3 Lg6 whiptails
before you criticize me for having this tank too over crowded, i have had this tank like this for about 6 months now so i know how to handle it. even once had an accidental spawn with my bns in there before i moved them.
personally i think the other fish dont really disturb them at all except maybe the 2 L397 because they love to eat

the tank is loaded with wood and has one huge anubias plant and another smaller anubias

filtration includes, atman 811 (i think), fluval 305 and 205 and has a powerhead which runs at 100Lph

hope this helps irene!

 

[kfenk]

i also would like to know any triggering tips. my male is always caved up and theres always 2 or 3 females hanging around his cave. problem is they been doin this for the past month or so with no action :wb:

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

heres a tip wc , wc , wc , wc , wc , wc , wc........ its not rocket science it works with all L's......

 

[Irene0100]

thanks Dj, yes a bit crowded but thats fine with good maintenance and filtration etc.
however it could be the tank mates presence that are stopping them from breeding.
other wise w.c every day and a bigger one if a storm comes up.
feed well with some blood worm and prawns and keep tank as hoovered as you can.
then wait... thats the hardest part.

 

[DJ-don]

i would try the wc thing but our water is pretty hard around here. just about 7.6 ph which isnt so good!!
i will try the heaps of wc during the next week when my blackwater extract order comes in!
and i will try to get my L104's all meated up should i increase water flow tooo?

 

[Irene0100]

can you collect rain water?
good water flow helps yes.

 

[DJ-don]

hrrm rainwater is hard for me because it hardly rains nowa days. but i always put bockets outside when it rains

 

[kfenk]

i found an alternative to rw and ro water that costs money but not that expensive. i buy 10L springwater casks and use them for wc. supermarket has cheap ones for $2.50 each . made sure i added seachem prime just in case but alas no reaction, should keep trying but been to busy lately plus just tap water will do for now while my alb lfs got wrigglers

 

[Khaifish]

Very common problem with all L numbers. The male is ready and in cave fanning yet the females don't pay any attention. Probably means females aren't mature enough, all you can do is provide good conditions and wait.

 

[DJ-don]

never thought of that karl!! i just realised the lfs i work at sells ro water will use that on them when it gets a bit low on air pressure

 

[spm78]

Its taken nearly 3 years for mine to breed, only thing I can think that triggered mine was a move to a bottom tank that is very dark, A cannister filter with a steady flow and the addition of smallish bamboo caves. Steve

 

[sexy pleco's]

may I add
The cave's positon may not be in good placing
When I changed my cave's around my fish seem to breed (when I get it rite)
the female shood be neare to the cave - eg ston on cave
and clen all the detrites and filters and then a i do a 90% WC
the temp may go douwn to 20c and back up to 29c

the gh shood be low

 

[Brengun]

With the sheer amount of fanning the males do I think any eggs really would need good current or the males fins are gonna fall off when he does get some eggs.

Powerhead of 100lph is nothing. I have 2ft tanks with 600lph powerheads. Try one of those or even an 800lph. The otto ones at that size are pretty low watts.
I have the canisters for slow comprehensive filtration but the power head for bulk dirt and current. Get an easy to clean one and give it a rinse every week or two in wc water.

Placement of the powerhead can be important. I put it the same end as the canister intake and usually as high up in the tank on the width side as possible without exposing it. If its an otto, they have an adjustable nozel to point upwards and toward the front glass a little.

That way you have the current going around the tank and pulling all the debris back to the canister and powerhead filters. Caves deep toward the back of the tank but facing to the front seem to work as the cave front gets the crosscurrent from the powerhead.

If you can't keep direct lighting off the cave, put a bit of slate or wood over it to give just a little more privacy and for somewhere for the females to sit close and whisper sweet nothings into the cave to bring the male out.
Not so far forward so as to block that current tho.

Yes they like the tightest caves for some silly reason. I have no idea how the female even fitted in the last bit of bamboo log the male chose. It was less than an inch round inside and it even had a bit of a hole out the end where he chewed it but spawn they did and I have fry.

The spawning co-incided with a whiptails spawn at the same time so I am not sure if a water change triggered it or if the whiptails spawning released pheramones into the water to get the clown plecos jiggy.

 

[DJ-don]

thanks for the post bren

btw i meant a power head of 1000 Lph instead of 100 my bad

the power head is actually going past the males cave which is good. i plan to actually add more power heads