L183 keepers?

[emsquared19]

Hey, just wondering about L183 "White seam ancistrus". Are they pretty much the same fish as an albino bushynose? Same water parameters, diet, etc.? Are they as easy to breed? Thanks!

Marc

[macvsog23]

Totally different

They need black water and are a total pain to spawn but worth a try.
I have failed every time

[emsquared19]

Shoot...black water? How do you make a tank blackwater? Pete moss?

[MatsP]

You need soft water with low pH and conductivity. If your tapwater is low pH, then you may be OK. But they certainly don't like hard water.

Peat, in my experience, don't really do the job (unless you have heaps of it, like half a tank full) if your water is hard. If you have soft water, you don't need to do much about the water. If your water is medium hard, then peat may help...

--
Mats

[macvsog23]

RO water mixed with HMA water then use alder cones and Almond leaves to acidify the water
Darker the better.
TDS of around 200 Kh of 4 or 6
Lots of bog wood and rock.

[emsquared19]

Well...I think I'll be avoiding L183, haha, thanks guys!

[Barbie]

If the water in your portion of Missouri is anything close to the 17 degrees of kH that I had near Kansas City, you will need to use almost all RO water to keep L183 happy and anywhere close to spawning. They are great fish and very rewarding, but I definitely have to agree, they were a real pain to spawn until I got it down to a regular routine.

Barbie

[Proteus]

I'm currently raising 6 of them out of my 20g tank, unheated and not even "blackwater" conditions as none of my tanks are RO its all tap water from Lake Michigan.

They've nicely doubled in size in the 4 months I've had them though with what people have been "saying" about spawning makes me wonder about spawning success in few months....

[jac]

RO water mixed with HMA water then use alder cones and Almond leaves to acidify the water
Darker the better.
TDS of around 200 Kh of 4 or 6
Lots of bog wood and rock.

Then I would have a good chance of succeeding with this species
My tap water is PH 7,1 KH of 3 and TDS of 300
Now I only have to be sure that I have a male amongst my group..... Think I have 4 females

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Then I would have a good chance of succeeding with this species.......TDS of 300

Depends on what is causing the TDS, both acids and salts contribute to the TDS, but the black water in S. America is almost devoid of salts, TDS values would often be very low with conductivities of much less than 50 microS. (100 microS = 64 ppm TDS).

These are the water values for the Rio Negro (from Mayland and Bork, "SA Dwarf cichlids") pH 5.82, conductivity 11 microS, carbonate hardness 0.3 dKH, nitrate < 1 mg/l

cheers Darrel

[KrisA]

They are easy to breed, just alot of frozen food and then some big cold, soft water changes.
Thats have mine spawned

[bsmith]

Anyone trying to spawn these in any water with a TDS above 100 will be having no luck, the temp must be in the low 80's as well. Growing and breeding are not the same thing. They will grow fine in water conditions that are not what thy like but they will never breed.

I have a post in here pretty much chronicling all of the things I have done to get mine to breed.

Here is is. Hopefully you can get some info that helps.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =5&t=32350

[dw1305]

Hi all,

spawn these in any water with a TDS above 100 will be having no luck

That would be my thinking. For the limited number of soft water fish that I have kept successfully TDS has always been more relevant to success or failure than pH etc.

cheers Darrel

[jac]

Well, that leaves me with a big challenge then
I love those

[bsmith]

If you have or can buy a to/DI filtration system or have access to RO water you might be able to get the parameters to what they need. I had been keeping mine for almost two years til they just recently spawned. I don't know if that was because the Females just reached breeding age/condition or if I just hit the sweet spot. I use 100% RO water that is not aqumented with anything else for water changes.

[jac]

Well, that leaves me with a big challenge then
I love those

And I have succeeded
My large male is guarding his first batch of eggs since this afternoon Only had this male for 2 weeks, guess my females liked him!

Water parameters:
PH 7
KH 3
NO3 <5
Temp 30+
Conductivity 290-310

[bsmith]

Well, that leaves me with a big challenge then
I love those

And I have succeeded
My large male is guarding his first batch of eggs since this afternoon Only had this male for 2 weeks, guess my females liked him!

Water parameters:
PH 7
KH 3
NO3 <5
Temp 30+
Conductivity 290-310

I will make my own tread with some pictures later on this week.

Congrats!

Are these F2 or further down the genetic line from wild caught? The reason I ask is because your parameters are a bit unconventional for these to breed. Mine spawn in water that is less then the 6,0ph that my test kit will go down to, tds ~100ppm and the temp is about 84 degrees.

DO you know your GH?

[Barbie]

They will lay eggs at those parameters, but IME, your hatch rate will be drastically reduced from what it would be with softer water. Congrats though ;).

Barbie