Sexing Panaqolus maccus? Spawning at last!

[pleconut]

I did provide the pair with a different cave, they are both outside it, I'll give the pair some more time.

[bekateen]

My last clown pleco spawn was in September 2015. Most of the 2015 spawns occurred between July and September, which were very hot months last year (lots of days over 100F, aquarium temps between 78F and 81F). As a result, I didn't need a heater in the tank during the end of Summer and early Fall, so I removed it. But when Winter came, I forgot to reintroduce a heater to the aquarium.

The resultant drop in aquarium temperature during winter (no less than upper 60's but no higher than 75F) was probably responsible for the cessation of spawning that I experienced between October and January. In late January I added the heater back and raised the aquarium temperature to 81F. Almost immediately, the males started acting interested in the females, and I found females trapped occasionally... but no new eggs were found...

... Until now: For the last three days, I've been watching one male with a female trapped in his cave. Finally this morning I found him with eggs.

All the while, at least one other male has trapped females, and I've even seen the third male with females too. Hopefully, all this trapping means that spawning season has resumed and I'll start getting a regular production of eggs again. I don't know how seasonal clown pleco spawning is, but I hope the proverbial flood-gates are open. Time will tell!

Cheers, Eric

Clown pleco (Panaqolus maccus) male with fresh eggs

[pleconut]

Makes sense to me, as I have mentioned this elsewhere before, in the case of the parents of my L397s, the breeding or non breeding, is dependent on and controlled by temp, if fry rate production is too high. Once I buy them the temp is going up to 81, currently its at 77/78. Congratulations on the spawning though.

[bekateen]

On Thursday, 24 March, I took the fry away from dad and transferred them to a fry net (inside the parent tank) as I've done with some previous spawns. There were 18 fry in this first spawn of the season, which is not surprising since the egg mass was small. To the net I added a small stick from the parent tank and two dry oak leaves, plus about 1-2 tablespoons worth of poop from the parent tank (figuring that the fry might need to ingest some of this poop to pick up beneficial gut microbes). I also placed a rock in the net to weigh down the floor of the net.

Now only two days after losing his children, dad has another female trapped in his cave! LOL

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

The fry still have lots of yolk remaining in their yolk sacs, but I found one today, chewing on the wooden stick (I didn't think they could feed this early). Anyway, just in case they are nibbling, I added a VERY THIN (approximately 1mm) slice of old carrot and half of one dry peeled black bean (boiled 15 min) as more food choices.

[bekateen]

AND HE SCORES!!!

Same dad, same cave, new eggs. Other males are trapping females in this tank, but so far only this male has mated, now twice in just 10 days!!!!

With this frequency, I presume a different female, but I don't know who the mom is in either instance, so can't be sure. However, if I recall correctly, 9 days was the minimum inter-brood period last summer also. If this is the same female, then maybe 9-10 days is the ovarian cycle of clown plecos. But since common (albino) BNs have an 18-19 day interval, 9-10 days seems really short to me. So I'm betting that different females were involved between this spawn and the spawn on March 16.

[pleconut]

Congratulations seems to be a spawning frenzy. Seems this time of year plecos get started probably the temp increase contributed also.

[bekateen]

Here's a video of the 3-day old fry in the fry basket. This video is better quality than my past fry videos, so please watch the video full screen mode and Hi Def.

Direct link: Clown pleco (Panaqolus maccus) fry, three days old, in fry net

[jac]

Great pics and video

[bekateen]

Thanks, jac. After you posted your first incredible cell phone pics of inspector fry using the macro lens, I ordered a macro lens too; that was last week. I checked the order status and it still hasn't shipped (they are "processing" the order). I wish I had it now for these little guys. Hopefully it arrives by end of week, but until then I'm limited to regular cell phone pics and vids.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Last year I tried to figure out the minimum time between spawns for the females. I'm trying again by recording spawn dates. Unfortunately all of this year's spawns are with the same male, but in all cases I don't know the mom. So far, three spawns by one dad: Eggs laid on 16 March, 26 March (10 day interval), and (approximately) 8 April (13 day interval). He incubated his second clutch of eggs but I never saw any fry in his cave that time - he either lost or ate those fry. But last night I removed 22 fry, about 2 days post-hatching, from his cave and transferred them to a fry net.

[bekateen]

With sadness, I closed this chapter last weekend when I sold off my breeding group to a friend in my fish club, in order to make room for some other fish I received recently.

Although the breeding is done, the grow-out is not: I still have ~50 juvies I've got to raise. Here's one (maybe final) look at my baby clowns, this time enjoying boiled mussel (while one of my new fish sits in the wings, trying to figure out if mussels are food ).

Cheers, Eric

Direct link to YouTube: Clown pleco juveniles eat mussel with flash pleco

[Fundulopanchax76]

So i m sorry that i dont live near you to buy some maccus.

[bekateen]

Oh, I couldn't resist another share.

I haven't gotten rid of the "babies" yet. After a deep tank cleaning I discovered that they aren't babies anymore.

Here's two photos, one with camera flash on and the other with flash off, showing one of the largest F1 from the grow out tank: Over 55mm SL, nearly 70 mm TL. The body stripes are much more boldly colored than on their parents.

Cheers, Eric

[Jobro]

Wow, they are pretty neat
very nice colouration indeed!

70mm TL should be about adult size, not?

[bekateen]

That's my point. Yes - these are adult size, only one year old. I guess they've been eating well.

[b.reder]

Wow! What can I say? Always a thrill to see your photos and movies.
-Barry

[bekateen]

Holy cow! I thought I had sold off almost all my F1 P. maccus last year. But when I recently emptied their old tank to make room for my new mystery Ancistrus (see this post:
Ancistrus ID please?), I found 14 or so F1 left over, none very large, maybe 35mm SL (I sold off the largest back in June). AND I FOUND OVER 25 NEW FRY, a few days post-hatching (some without and some with yolk sacs - that implies two different clutches!)...

These must have been spawned by parents barely over a year old! WHAT????

So that evening I quickly sold off the F1 so as to avoid more spawns. But I have a few (6) smaller F1 remaining, scattered in a couple of other tanks where they are difficult to catch... That should be safe, right?...

NO! Lo and behold, on January 1, ANOTHER SPAWNING! (Link to video on Facebook: HERE). This time the F1 male parent is not much bigger than 30-35mm SL! Yikes is he small!

I don't know whether to scream with joy or cry with sadness that my babies are having babies!

Cheers, Eric

[Thomas1209]

Wait, what?! So you're saying not even 4cm SL fish are spawning already? Lol that's really early indeed! How big are your caves and what's the temperature for spawning them?

[bekateen]

Exactly! Isn't that crazy?!?

The caves are 1.5" (outer diameter) bamboo, cut 5" long/deep.

Tank temperature 85F.
pH 7.5
Water ~350-400ppm.