L25 spawn at last!

[PseudaSmart]

After being so close for the past few months all of the pieces finally fell into place. L25s are a level unto their own compared to all the other fish I have spawned (Cardinal Tetras, Discus, other pseudas, and more). I acquired an adult pair almost two years ago (Already?) and then another smaller male in November last year to try and mix things up. For most of last year the original pair would spend a lot of time in the same cave but no real interest. Adding the third L25 helped a lot as it turned out to be a female. This is the one that spawned with the male. So much for being able to sex Scarlet's. The male is about 12" and the female is about 9" TL.

The male has been fanning the eggs for 4 days so I thought it was time to share a photo.

Jim

[Mol_PMB]

Congratulations


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[bekateen]

Beautiful fish! Good job, mom and dad.

[dconnors]

That is awesome Jim, congratulations! I know you have been working very hard towards this moment, it has to be a great feeling. Congrats again

[Shane]

Congratulations!
-Shane

[Dis]

Wow congratulations. Would you mind sharing the dimensions of your cave?

[Andrewjw]

Nicely Done!!!

[ClearSky57]

Jim:
I am very happy for you!!!
I know it is a relief to see things going well.....
must be the cave....


David..

[Richard B]

good work!

[husky_jim]

Congrats Jim!

keep us updated!!!!

[CoryWally]

Congratulations!

[PseudaSmart]

Thanks everyone for sharing my excitement. There are still a lot of days to go before counting this as a success. My concern level has risen because I felt it was necessary to take the spawn from the male and the cave earlier than my 1 week standard. I kept noticing a few empty egg cases outside the cave in addition to some white organic material that I have not seen before. It also became much harder to see the egg mass so it was feared that there were not many left. Here is a photo of the remaining spawn - still a nice amount though.

L25 egg ball reduced.JPG (26.03 KiB) Viewed 7546 times

This batch of caves were made with a different type of clay. The material allows water to seep thru the walls but it is also a courser material. We sanded them down as much as possible but were still concerned. It appears the rougher surface was damaging the eggs and there were skinned areas on the males fins from all the fanning against the cave. The white material was skin.

With regards to the question about cave size, it is never the cave that you would pick. The cave they spawned in was way too small in my mind. I always get a range of sizes and put several in the tank at the same time. Just trial and error. Some of my pairs are on their third cave as they continue to grow.

The only statement I will make about pseudacanthicus caves is to only use a flat back or nearly flat back cave. If the back of cave has the shape of their head they can suffocate very quickly. I once lost about 20 1.5" L160s when they panicked and piled up in a tapered cave.

Hopefully we can keep the egg loses to a minimum until they turn into wrigglers.
Updates to follow!
Jim

[richb]

Congratulations! That's fantastic. Would you mind posting a bit more info on the tank and cave? Maybe a pic or two of the adults? That is just an awesome accomplishment.

richb

[richb]

Sorry. I came in mid-thread. Thanks for the nice pics.

rich

[Dis]

Thanks for the info on the caves. Appreciate it. Goodluck with the eggs

[Linus_Cello]

Congrats! Hopefully the fry will be available for sale at the 2016 Catfish Convention...
Can you post water parameters?

[Barbie]

Congratulations! I just saw this! What a fantastic achievement . Are you going to hang the eggs in a net with an airstone under them? Any updates? Oh this definitely deserves a snoopy dance!

Barbie

[jac]

Congratulations!! Well done

I'll be following the updates.

[co77]

One of my fav plecos congrats !!!!

[CanadaPleco]

Awesome Jim! I know you've been working on them for quite some time.

How are they progressing now?

[TwoTankAmin]

I love reading threads like this. There is almost something magical about having his sort of thing happen. Nice work.

You do realize this really raises the bar for your next challenge?

[PseudaSmart]

Thank you all for the words of encouragement. This update is overdue but my 'other' project has demanded my time.

After a month I lost the last fry. I always dread taking out eggs before they have tails! To help others I will tell you how a quick impulsive idea 2 years ago has been efficiently and quietly killing eggs and fry ever since. At least I figured it out. Before I really jumped into breeding each tank had its own air pump or shared with a few others. When I finally built my fish room I went to a central system. Because space was tight (same for everyone) I thought I would put the pump in another room with my overflow tanks. Seems logical and innocent.

Only one problem, fish room is 83F and other room is 70F in winter. I chilled the eggs to death. Until I move the linear pump I have been using small air pumps with no issues.

The other fry loses are due to their ability to climb out of the water by their mouths and suction from their slime coat? They constantly climbed out of the fry totes and escape into the main tank!

Next challenge will probably be L273s as I have some at 5". I think they're a year away. Dave Conner has added an LDA07 to the cause but I strongly suspect I need more! I'm growing out others but those are years away.

My goal is to make all pseuda's available at a reasonable price so everyone can enjoy them. Anyone else willing to help the cause?

Jim

[jodilynn]

I am so sorry things did not work out .

As a fishkeeper (not to your level of course) I can tell you that I have done things with the best interest at heart only to have something go wrong and look back with heartache knowing that my attempt to help backfired.

You live and you learn. If you don't learn you never grow! Hindsight is always 20/20.

I wish you the best of luck, I am sure they will spawn again and with what you have learned from this spawn the next one will be successful!

Peace!

[Dis]

Sorry you lost this batch. Goodluck with the next one

[Barbie]

I'm so glad you figured it out though! Hopefully the next batch will go much more smoothly.

Barbie

[jac]

We learn by trial and error.... I've made many mistakes
You'll get there in the end!! Keep up the good work

[plecoloachfish]

At least you know now what conditions kick them off into spawning mode, wishing you success next time, im still trying with my 091's or die trying

[samoht]

Sad to hear that the fries didn't make it.
Apparently L25 seems more difficult to handle than the other pseuda (L600, L114 & L160).
Only about 10% survived for my last L25 spawn, dreaded the death count each day and now this pair is no longer in the mood to do it again

[sonnys503]

Curious, updates?