L-134

rickylbc · Post by **rickylbc** » 20 Jul 2009, 05:35

I got a question, when does the male starts growing small odontodes along their back between the dorsal fin and caudal peduncle? I have a dozen wild caught in ranges of 3.0" to 3.25" and none of them seems to have any odontodes growth along their back. Also, I noticed that all of them likes to hang out inside the caves, which I have 10 in the tank. It's a 4 footer tank (60 gallon), had them all for over a year now.. I have what seems to be some gravid females.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 20 Jul 2009, 19:00

I would recommend removing all your males(the ones in the caves) until you only have 1 Male per 3 females.
You may later on discover that some females are among the "males" you removed. Just adjust the ratios back to 1:3 until you are sure of their sexes. 3 Males to 8-9 females is what I would I eventually maintain together in the 60 gal tank. Your fish are probably large enough to spawn although my wild fish did not begin spawning until they were 3-1/2 to 3-5/8 inches TL. They came in at about 3 inches and did not begin spawning until after I had them for 2+ years.
I only have a small breeding group of 2 males and 3 females. I never used the odontodes for sexing my L134. I found that the females appeared much fatter and tended to choose hides other than caves while the males took up residence in caves and waited for the females to come visit them. I have 3 caves sitting side by side rather than spread about the tank. For some reason this seems to work well.
I am raising about 3 dozen of their fry to eventually have much larger sets of breeding colonies. I have about another year to wait before I am likely to see my F1 fish begin to breed. At one year old they are 2-3/4 inches TL. I might be able to sex them already if I really paid a lot of attention to them and had them set up in a breeding style tank.

jac · Post by **jac** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:19

My experience is quit the oposit. I have at least 3 females and 1 male in a group of 12 induviduals. 1 Young male, with odontodes growth on his tail, tends to keep himself under a woodpile instaid of a cave. This male is quite small tho, only about 7-8cm TL. My other big male, 9-10cm TL, tends to venture under stones or wood and sometimes in a cave. Saying this, this male is new, only had him for 3 weeks now. All my large females, 10cm TL, have a cave and are very gravid.

I'm hoping to have a spawn next year....fingers crossed

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:41

Jac,
I have been breeding my fish for 2 seasons now and based my observations on a small group of L134 that have produced over 350 fry and counting. I still have enough time to get another 100 fry this year out of my group based on their typical brood size and frequency of breeding. My fish stopped breeding in the Fall and resumed 2 Springs in a row. I expect the same this winter. They would produce a few fry over the winter but not enough to matter.
It isn't that my males lack odontodes so much as they spend half of the year in caves breeding and the other half of the year they raise a few fry but nothing like their main sequence spawning season. I know I have 2 males and three females so I don't care if they are hairy or not. I am not hoping but reporting what my L134 actually do. I pay very little attention to my breeding plecos except to try to remove all the various sized fry every month or so to make room for more. I like seeing fry but plecos breeding tanks can be otherwise rather boring. They tend to look empty. I usually catch the juvies before finishing a water change. It is easier to catch them when the tank is 1/3 full. I always provide only one more cave than I have total males. This helps keep things competitive.

rickylbc · Post by **rickylbc** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:44

Ok, I'll try that..Thanks..

megacat · Post by **megacat** » 21 Jul 2009, 01:09

I have only 3 r 4 males and they all showed the spikes @ about 2.5''

If you dont mind here is a pic of one who is about 3.25'' give or take. He is the boss

[img]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums ... .jpg[/img]
[img]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums ... .jpg[/img]

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 21 Jul 2009, 02:07

Megacat,
Those are nice photos of adult L134 and represent their lovely colors excellently.
Juveniles have an even banded pattern that diverges into a unique pattern for each fish.

This photo shows some of 12, 4 month old specimens of my tank raised L134 I put in my 125 gal Nhamunda Blue Discus tank.

This photo has poor color rendition of some of my F1 L134 in their own grow out tank. They actually have even richer yellow and brown than adult fish. I may be a little biased, but I consider L134 second to none of the dwarf fancy plecos except perhaps H. zebra.

rickylbc · Post by **rickylbc** » 21 Jul 2009, 07:54

megacat wrote:I have only 3 r 4 males and they all showed the spikes @ about 2.5''

If you dont mind here is a pic of one who is about 3.25'' give or take. He is the boss

[img]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums ... .jpg[/img]
[img]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums ... .jpg[/img]

None of my L134 have that kind of odontodes, what's the possibility that I got all females? I will pull them all out this weekend and check with my jewelers loupe to have a closer look at them..

jac · Post by **jac** » 21 Jul 2009, 14:27

apistomaster wrote:Jac,
I have been breeding my fish for 2 seasons now and based my observations on a small group of L134 that have produced over 350 fry and counting. I still have enough time to get another 100 fry this year out of my group based on their typical brood size and frequency of breeding. My fish stopped breeding in the Fall and resumed 2 Springs in a row. I expect the same this winter. They would produce a few fry over the winter but not enough to matter.
It isn't that my males lack odontodes so much as they spend half of the year in caves breeding and the other half of the year they raise a few fry but nothing like their main sequence spawning season. I know I have 2 males and three females so I don't care if they are hairy or not. I am not hoping but reporting what my L134 actually do. I pay very little attention to my breeding plecos except to try to remove all the various sized fry every month or so to make room for more. I like seeing fry but plecos breeding tanks can be otherwise rather boring. They tend to look empty. I usually catch the juvies before finishing a water change. It is easier to catch them when the tank is 1/3 full. I always provide only one more cave than I have total males. This helps keep things competitive.

Thanks for your information. I highly respect your knolledge based on accualy doing so and having great succes

You have obviously found the right conditions for your fish. Maybe thats why there are different experiences by other members, and also different sightings of the fish themselves.

Can I conclude out of your info that it is better to select a breeding group based on 1-2 males to 3-4 females rather than leave my breeding group as it is. That includes 12 specimens but only 6 adults. Should I remove the juvenilles or leave them till next spring and then select a beeding group? I have my L134 now since march this year.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 21 Jul 2009, 17:45

I would set up only the mature fish in a breeding set up and just grow out the young specimens separately.

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