As I have been able to succeed breeding a number of different species of pleco (Ancistrus sp., Whiptail, Farlowella..) over the years I want to try a real challenge. This is a project that I don't mind taking years working on and I have no aspiration to somehow make alot of money on it. I expect to find juveniles anyways and I know they'll take time to mature and condition. I just want the satisfaction of possibly giving something back to the species/hobby I keep if possible.
I have been considering for a while how to facilitate an accurate simulation of the river bank environment in very large aquaria (e.g. over 125 gallons). Clearly, this would be needed to have success with some species that get larger.
Currently, I have a project Iâ??ve decided to tackle spawning the Leporacanthicus species (e.g L7, L264, L91 etc). These reach a large size of around +/- 10 inches or more at maturity and are extremely territorial as many of you know.
My idea would be to build into one end (2 feet) of an 8 foot tank a "mud bank" which contains a facing with holes at intervals and at a few depths (the tank is 24 inches high). The holes would be such that an adult and female could squeeze in there together so weâ??re talking 18-24 inches deep horizonally. The facing would be slightly sloped and such that some holes could be out of the water during the â??dryâ?
