Rob, By "lucky bastard," are you referring to the lone male in a tank with three females? Or is this a statement of envy expressed towards @Mol_PMB because he is so lucky to have a mixed sex group of this beautiful Panaqolus?
Well, I bought a longer 'D' shaped cave and put it in yesterday, and did a water-change and tidy up in the tank. I've turned off one of the two powerheads. I then turned up the temperature a couple of degrees (to 27C) and have pinned a black towel across the front of the tank. It's in an alcove so that blocks off all visibility and 99% of the external light. For now I've left the timed tank lights on. Is that right?
My temp is set at 29 celsius it always had been then mine started pre-breeding territorial behaviour like fighting over caves so i contacted the breeder I got mine from he suggested reducing temp a couple of degrees to stop this behaviour as he does this to stop his breeding but reducing temp slowing down flow then increasing flow and temp slightly about a week later may work I've found mine are more active with lights off when I get my torch they are out and about and try I only have tank lights on for a few hours in the morning and early afternoon increasing light in the early eve reducing then off I'd say for a breeding attempt keep tank lights dim and tank undisturbed except to check them you will probably notice increased activity prior to breeding then it's watching the males cave for signs the first couple of breeding attempts may result in infertile eggs eggs kicked out of caves ect but once they start success rates increase and you may find you don't need to trigger them to breed they just will.
Massive pleco-breeding surprise today - my two surviving juvenile Farlowellas (born back in February and only 100mm long) have just spawned!
Hopefully the L397s will follow suit...
The biggest of one of my males has now taken over the cave right next to a huge piece of wood where the females are most of the time apart from establishing boys and girls I've left them alone this last week maybe the reason for his move I'm planning to move them next weekend to another tank I've not altered anything to trigger them will work on this when they are settled. One more tip if you breed say bristlenose plecos doing a water change using some of the water from their tank -I've only heard this- can get other plecos breeding because of pheromones in the water.
H i Paul just a quick update on mine that maybe of interest to you since the Thursday before last when i photographed them to be sexed i've purposely left mine to their own devices to avoid stress prior the move except to top up evaporation and feed i switched the food for the last week to new era pleco pellets and avoided too much veggies as they are not showing as much interest anyway. Lights were off very early in the evening some behavioural changes took place in this time females were more active out and about on or under a very large piece of wood males were in caves the largest took over the nearest cave closest to the wood where the females are most of the time . At night shining a torch in they were all very active males had left caves. On Tuesday morning I woke up to find all the caves empty and had been cleaned out and I mean entirely spotless they were aĺl hidden among the pieces of wood dotted around the tank . The day before Monday morning the power filter flow that was ok came almost to a dribble overnight so i removed it cleaned impeller switching a strong flow back on. Fast forward to Saturday when I moved them into my other 4ft rather than stress them i lifted out the entire cave with them inside rather than chasing them around with a net and discovered not for the first time 1st being after i added a almost mature female 2nd when I took photos and 3rd when I moved them into the new tank there have been two cave sharing individuals the same two each time a plump female 3rd fish in my pics and the male in the 1st pic they are obviously both happy with the other one being there i have seen the other fish become quite aggressive (I call it the pleco headbutt) if another comes to near in this case this aggression obviously hasn't occurred. Temperature is at 81 farenheit. The only changes were i left them alone fed 2-3 cut up pleco pellets at lights out and veg rather than being available most of the time 2-3 times per week altering flow and water levels. I've moved mine now hoping if this is a breeding thing the move will not have disrupted them too much. Thought I'd share as these changes may work for you ones also and possibly some info on behavioural changes to watch for.
Also I've arranged the decor in the tank in one particular area in such a way using slate with bogwood on top the female of the cavesharers has somewhere with a bit of cover to wait outside the males cave -a similar arrangement may work for your ones she's been hanging out on this piece of slate piece under the wood by the cave since they went in on saturday the other big male has been trying to take over the cave I started another topic but here's the pic:
it's right at the front of the tank i've directed some flow towards the cave and covered that side of the tank up with some cardboard.
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Eric
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