How to condition Lophiobagrus Brevispinis for breeding?

[BrownBullhead]

Hello:

I have owned seven (7) "wild caught" Lophiobagrus Brevispinis for about 3 - 4 weeks now. I acquired two, about a week later another two, and three days later another three. All fish average about 2.5" (7 cm) in size.

I have two that appear to be a M/F pair, as they stay together constantly inside a small "pocket cave" made of ceramic. They've done this for three weeks (since the day after I acquired them) but no eggs as of yet. they were housed with Tropheus Kasakalawe but I have now moved the seven to a 20-gallon to act as a species setup.

What food, water temperature, etc., should I use to condition them and trigger breeding? Thank you for any help!

[Richard B]

Are they all the same species? Aquired from the same source? Dealers (& literature) commonly mix the 2 identities up!

As for conditioning, meathy foodstuffs seem best - chopped shrimp, mussell, cockle, carnivore tabs, live earthworms etc.

[BrownBullhead]

All from the same importer, who confirmed the Brevispinis, even though his supplier shipped to him as Cyclurus.

I've been doing the chopped shrimp, I will keep on the same path then. ;)

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

just a hint if "chopped shrimp" didn't work it would be good to add something different to menu.
I use all kind of Hikari pellets I manage to find here and my pair spawn regulary however eggs dies :/.

Regards.

[BrownBullhead]

Two other local hobbyists who bought from the same batch have spawned theirs so I also await their replies on my local forum. I think maybe the Tropheus were too much hustle and bustle, so maybe the species tank will make a difference.

[Richard B]

I do think the species tank is a better approach

[BrownBullhead]

To start off, I lost 4 of my 10 due to some unknown problem the day *after* I got back from winter vacation.

The remaining six, I ended up adding into my Tropheus setup. While doing some cleaning in there, I moved the "pizza pocket" style cave two of them have lived in forever, and voila, egg sack is on the loose! I did not want to risk damage to it by forcing it back into the cave, so I moved it into a floating breeder trap and into a smaller tank with bubble walls running on all sides (high oxygen, less risk of fungus???).

Well, three days later and it seems the egg sack is breaking apart, and some eggs have tails! Holy cow! I am stoked! I just hope I am not jinxing this! I would love to have bullheads swarming all my tanks! I hear they are really slow growing. Wish me luck!

[BrownBullhead]

Well, it's 10 days after the initial discovery of the egg sack. I have about 30+ wigglers with about 50% of their egg sack left. They swim in a school except for one lone wiggler. They tend to swim against the current, and huddle at one end of the breeder trap. I had 2-3 escapees into the main tank (20 gallons) but because of rockwork, I don't know if they are dead or alive. My intentions are to grow out these fish, and assuming 90%+ survival rates of the remaining fish (did lose some eggs and couple of wigglers), I plan to allocate the Brevispinis 50/50 into two 80-gallon setups. They are turning brown and now have very minute barbels. They almost look like rice grain size replicas of their parents.

[Richard B]

Very well done any pics for us to share???

[Taratron]

I'd love to get some of these someday! Awesome awesome.

[BrownBullhead]

So to recap ... I had 10 Lophiobagrus in a 20-gallon high. When I came back from winter vacation in March, I lost 4 of the 10 the day after I got back due to unknown problems. I gave up on the "species tank" idea and just threw the six adults I had remaining back into the 80-gallon Tropheus Moorii "Kasakalawe" setup. Well, the other 6 survived and have fluorished, despite being in the cichlid environment!

I have two pairs formed, and two lone specimens, who make themselves at home away from the pairs. The "proven" pairs have now produced two clutches of eggs per pair, which I shake loose from the breeding caves and put into breeder nets in another setup where I was growing out juvenile Lophiobagrus from the previous spawns. The breeding caves are shown toward the end of this reply.

I lost many fry from the second spawn series due to the floating breeder (hard plastic) having slots that allowed too many fry to escape into the cichlid growout tank and be consumed as food. This time, I am using the nylon hang-on-top nets. This seems to be working much better, and I also include Java Moss in the breeder net to shield the fry from excessive light and to help conceal them.

I now have about 20 to 30 just under ¾" (2 cm) and many more small ones. It is hard to count the larger as they hide in the rock rubble on the substrate. I want to grow out about 60 to 80 specimens to 1"+, so I can supply some friends and a couple of the local hobby shops. I also need 5 or more to bring to the "Breeder Award Program" of my local aquarium club when the new season starts in September (they are on summer "vacation").

Finally, I ended up buying 9 more F0 specimens with some store credit, but they are not quite breeding size as of yet. I tried to keep 9 + 6 (15 total) in the Tropheus tank, but I saw "lip-locking" (fighting) and lost 3 of the new ones. So, I moved the remaining 6 new ones into my Petrochromis tank. I think 6 adults in each tank will be a good amount. In the long run, I should be able to double my breeding (assuming I can find more of the special caves I have used, shown below).

Anyway, I just wanted to say to those who are considering trying this species to go for it; they will become more diurnal (active under lit conditions), particularly when you feed frozen foods sporadically, to tease them out of their hiding spots. They don't require any special efforts to breed, but as I mentioned earlier, it seems difficult to keep more than 2 or 3 pairs in a 80-gallon (300 litres) tank.

This image was copied from "PlecoCaves" website.