Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me! I am monitoring the water hardness. GH is near 0. This is measured by a aquarium coop muti-test strip. Not sure how accurate it is. Nevertheless for L134 and L397, I think I will mainly rely on the male to hatch the eggs. For the plecos with smaller...

True. For me the problem seems to only happen when I manually hatch them. There have been mainly two issues: 1. Permatured, broken, egg shell as described in here; and 2. some fry have trouble to absorb the yolk completely. When I let the male take care of the babies, I did not see either happened. ...

Thanks for the insight! i actually thought it might be the opposite.

characinkid wrote: ↑14 Jun 2023, 19:04 My mind goes to this being something to do with your water chemistry, such as water is too hard and them not being able to hatch properly.

Thanks for these great suggestions. I will explore more and see if there is any improvement via using different methods. One thing that I know for sure is that this problem only happens in L397 and L134 eggs. I also have L519s and L471s, and their eggs are smaller and i have not seen any issues tumb...

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I use a Ziss egg tumbler. I actually wondered if this is caused by me tumbling the eggs too vigorously. I did try to tumble very gently and slowly. I also tried to hatch them without using an egg tumbler by just placing them in a net breeder box. The outcome i...

This is just an example.

This problem happens when I manually hatch L397 and L134 eggs using an egg tumbler. Starting day 3 to 4 after they are being produced, some fry's yolk start to slowly burst out of the egg shell. So basically the most part of the yolk and the fry is still inside the shell but a small part is out, for...

Benny5148 wrote: ↑20 Mar 2023, 17:44 Hi, are these still available?

yes I still have plenty in stock

naturalart wrote: ↑26 Feb 2023, 15:14 That kinda speaks to my point. I would like to come look at them if thats possible?

I pmed you. thanks!

Hmmm... no idea. Sorry. I don't have algae problem in my tanks. They get plenty of food everyday plus drift woods and indan almond leaves where they like to chew on all the time.

naturalart wrote: ↑25 Feb 2023, 13:57 Hi nabulus, I am in East Bay as well. Are these guys as efficient as A. cirrhosus in cleaning up alga?

I have a batch of juveniles for sale. They are currently around 1.25" TL. Asking 8 for $200. More are available. I am located in East Bay CA and can ship fish. PM me if interested. Thanks!

Great information! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with me! These both look good for L306 to me. L169 tends to have a more stripy face as the vertical dark bands split horizontally (have a look at images on L169 page to see what I mean), something I have never seen on L306, which I have...

Hi Eric, Unfortunately i don't know. These are tanks raised and are purchased from two difference sources.

bekateen wrote: ↑27 Jan 2023, 04:36 Hi nabulus,

Were these collected together? Do you know?

Cheers, Eric

Hi all, I need some help with species identification. In the photo there are two male fish. Do you think that if they are both L306s? One fish looks more red than the other. The one with more golden tone makes me wonder if he is actually an L169. Besides color, I was wondering what other characteris...

Joe's aqua has some captive-bed eques for sale. When I first saw it I was amazed by that. I then asked how they managed to spawn them in an aquarium setup. So it turned out that they have the job done in a "half-outdoor pond in Taiwan"... Still quite an achievement in my opinion.

Thank you! I appreciate the info!! A couple of quick observations. This is what this site says re 397: Other Parameters- L397 is relatively tolerant of water hardness. Breeding has been reported in water with conductivity/TDS values ranging from around 200 to 700 uS/cm (125-450 ppm TDS). Next, my ex...

Hi Eric, Yes those survived ones are eating well and growing. I have given them the food that you suggest, such as sera flora veggie flakes, cobalt spirulina flakes, sweet potatoes plus drift wood/leaves/mulm. The fry that survived love the flakes. But the fry that died have not started eating yet. ...

Well I have had four spawns already since late Jan, from at least two pairs. The spawn have been easy but i found that the fry are not very easy to take care. The main issue that i have had was bloating. About 40-50% of the fry of every spawn got big stomachs/bloated before they start to eat. Among ...

bekateen wrote: ↑04 Feb 2020, 04:44 Hi Ke,

This is terrific success. Good for you, my friend. I hope the fry hatch safely, and I can assure you the floodgates will open as you start getting spawn after spawn.

Cheers!
Eric

Thank you Eric!

Linus_Cello wrote: ↑04 Feb 2020, 14:56 What is your TDS? I think I read somewhere on this forum that hard water makes the eggshells hard so fry have trouble hatching.

Oh thank you for the suggestion! I actually have never monitored.
Also they have just hatched which is on day 9.

A week ago I noticed a male L397 sat on a pile of eggs fanning. It's a small clutch but size of eggs is huge. I find interesting that after 7 days, the eggs are still not hatched. I can clearly see the embryos so they are not infertile eggs. Whether it is normal or not for them to take so long to ha...

:-BD look forward to hearing good news! My L134 males eat A LOT and are all very big and fat. All males and females are in their own caves. There have been a few conversations here about Peckoltia compta losing their caudal peduncle odontodes seasonally. My males do that. I'm happy to report they've...

I have three males and three females, all are 3.5''+. Have had them for 1 year. Very health. Two of the males have had trapped females a couple of times last March-May, but they did not spawn. I have not observed any trapping behavior this year. I prefer to sell them as a group but can also split in...

Awesome video!
I have had trouble getting this species to spawn. Males kept trapping females but no output at all.

awesome! :-BD :(( :(( :(( This afternoon I found my little 2-headed L397 baby dead in its fry basket. I guess we won't get to watch it grow up. RIP, little "L397squared." :-( FYI, in this case, RIP means "rot in peace" since I let its little carcass going into the parents' tank. ...

Eric, have you got any L134 fry?
-Ke

Hi Eric, Thanks a lot for all the helpful tips. Not I have not started giving them sweet photos but I will do. Best, Ke Eric, I have to say that I am now impressed by how much poop these wood eaters can produce every day. WOW these guys are purely pooping machines! I can not imagine what your aquari...

Eric, I have to say that I am now impressed by how much poop these wood eaters can produce every day. WOW these guys are purely pooping machines! I can not imagine what your aquarium would look like without WC for two weeks or more, since you have so many L397 juveniles and adults in there. That wou...

Thank you Jobro,
I will give it a try!

Jobro wrote: ↑06 Mar 2018, 09:43 If you have multiple tanks and multiple males, I would try swapping the dominant male (the one that traps the females so long) into a different tank. Sometimes the less dominant males are the better breeders.

Thank you Jobro and I appreciate your suggestion!

Jobro wrote: ↑05 Mar 2018, 21:00 I agree with Eric. It is better to neglect a waterchange for some days, when there is breeding activity going on. The less attention you pay to the tank during these days, the better. This is probably true for all species of plecos.