Basics | ||||||||||||||||
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Overview | The first spawn was on Saturday 18th of July 2020. The breeding group consisted of 4 males and 2 females. Additionally, there were 3 unknown individuals present. The smallest male was at least 80mm SL and the smallest female was at least 80mm SL. The individuals were obtained from Nation Wide Aquatics, Illinois, USA. | |||||||||||||||
Feeding |
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Water Parameters (at time of spawning) | ||||||||||||||||
pH | 6.00 to 6.60 | |||||||||||||||
Conductivity | 100µs to 200µs | |||||||||||||||
Temperature | 27.0°C to 28.0°C | |||||||||||||||
Current | Medium(air) | |||||||||||||||
Other Water Params | 50-50 blend of tapwater and RO water, dechlorinated with Aquavitro alpha at a dose of 1.5x recommended strength. 50% - 70% water change every week or two. In Aug 2020, I experimented with raising the RO water to 84% of the tank volume over a week. No spawns. Then I brought the RO back down to 60% of tank volume with a change of 70% of the tank volume (TDS 50 ppm), and two days later I got my second spawn, this one successful. | |||||||||||||||
Aquarium | ||||||||||||||||
Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 762mm x 305mm x 457mm (30" x 12" x 18") all Length x Width x Height. | |||||||||||||||
Furniture | Some sand, irregular gravel, cobblestones, oak branches, oak leaves, clay caves and bamboo tubes (open both ends) | |||||||||||||||
Filtration | Matten filter, augmented by aeration using an Aquaclear 70 powerhead with venturi and a Hydor Koralia circulation pump, the latter pointed straight down from water surface to tank floor. | |||||||||||||||
Lighting | Fluval LED light on a 12L:12D timer | |||||||||||||||
Heating | Fluval E200 set to 82F | |||||||||||||||
Breeding | ||||||||||||||||
Behaviour | I started with 9 fish and soon lost 3, due to some disease I could not treat. Fortunately, I still had males and females remaining. My efforts documented here: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49276. Trapping is typical of plecos - male in a cave, female trapped, sometimes for days at a time. I did not observe egg laying, but this group has been trapping for nearly 4 months on-and-off with no spawns until now. First spawn occurred after 80% WC with slight drop in hardness (TDS fell from 90 to 65 ppm). Male in cave with a few bad-looking eggs. Lots of bad looking eggs scattered around the tank. In August I dropped TDS to 37ppm for a week, then did a water change and brought it back up to about 50ppm. Within a few days both females were trapped and after two days one of the female had spawned successfully. | |||||||||||||||
Eggs | There were 40 yellow eggs laid which were 3.0mm in diameter. | |||||||||||||||
Time to hatch | 6 days Number: 10 Free swimming: 7 days | |||||||||||||||
Segregation | I'm leaving eggs with dad in cave to hatch. Ugh... after three days, the eggs disappeared. Did dad eat them? On third spawn, I left eggs with dad, but he started ejecting and maybe eating eggs on day 5. I recovered 10 eggs in the tank and dumped 9 more out of his cave, along with a lot of empty jelly coats. Two eggs had hatched today. I fear they are premature. Will watch them and hope they survive in egg basket. | |||||||||||||||
Fry sizes | 7 days: 10mm 14 days: 15mm 21 days: 21mm | |||||||||||||||
14 days | ||||||||||||||||
21 days | ||||||||||||||||
Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 25mm 3 months: 36mm 6 months: 55mm | |||||||||||||||
1 month | ||||||||||||||||
3 months | ||||||||||||||||
6 months | ||||||||||||||||
Fry and juvenile feeding | After consuming their yolk sacs, the fry were left in the net basket. They had old decaying oak leaves which they could just graze on, and I fed them SeaChem Chlorella flakes and Fluval Bug Bites algae flakes. They received flakes every day. I also gave them some freeze-dried Tubifex worms and I gave them frozen blood worms, plus I added some live blackworms to their basket (although I have no idea if the live worms just left the basket or if any were eaten). |