My First F1 Peckoltia compta spawn

[apistomaster]

I set up two new breeding groups of my own home bred P. compta a few months ago and today I just noticed I had at least 25 new fry in one of my two new 40 gal breeder tanks. Each tank has about 18 3 year old adults.
My old and formerly reliable breeding group of wild caught P. compta still haven't spawned this year although they still could. They are probably at least 9 years old so their not spawning was bound to happen someday.

I have never really understood why I was so successful and when I set up my new breeding groups I really did not expect any result soon.
I am very relieved to see this new beginning because it ensures my continued production of these pretty plecos.
My F1 P. compta were being kept in plain tap water. I made no attempts yet to induce spawning. I just kept taking routine care of them.
Evidently, that is all that is necessary.

[dconnors]

Congrats Larry! How old are your F1 fish? I have some of my own growouts and I am wondering how long it will be before they might spawn. They seem to grow much quicker than my Hypancistrus fry. At just one year old they are almost the same size as the adults...

[apistomaster]

Thanks, dconners.
L134 fry grow very fast compared to most fancy plecos although my L333 grow very fast too. I once made a bad mistake combining new fry from my L260 and L134. The L134 out grew the L260 by many times and are a much bolder pleco than the very shy L260. By the time I really began looking for my L260 I could only find about half of the 25 I originally put in. Once I removed them to their own tank the remaining L260 began growing well but they still take about one year to reach 1-1/2".
L134 can easily reach 2-1/2" in one year.
Last year I had a few small spawns between old wild males and 2 year old F1 female L134 and these females produced about 12 to 15 fry per spawn instead of 25 to 35 that older females can produce.
I could have set up my new breeding groups a year ago but since my wild fish had been so productive and reliable I didn't have much incentive.
Since my old fish still haven't spawned this season I decided I better try breeding my older tank bred fish. I only set them up a couple months ago so I was surprised I have had a spawn so soon.
One of our European members once posted that he had bred his L134 as young as 18 months. I know for sure it is possible to breed 2 year old fish. My 3 year old fish are large and old enough to produce the normal number of fry for a full grown P. compta.
One of my customers who bought 6 L333 from me last year wrote around March that his L333 had bred. They would have been about 2 years old by then.