Special on L134 and L333, all 1-1/2 to 2 inches long.

[apistomaster]

I am running a special from now to April 15th for L134 and L333 where you pre-order 6 and make a $50 deposit to reserve your order at the special prices. When weather permits safe mailing I will send 6 and add one more for free. The postage is paid by the buyer. We will coordinate a mutually agreeable shipping time based on the weather.
The L134 are 6/$240 plus one free. They are assorted sizes from 1-1/2 to 2 inches
The L333 are 6/$150 plus one free. They are assorted sizes from 1-1/2 to almost 2 inches.
Be sure to first send me a pm then we will exchange all our contact information and work out all details by e-mails., not pm's.
All the fish are 8 to 10 months old. Valid for lower 48 states only.

[apistomaster]

I wanted to thank all of those who have placed new orders under my current sale.
A few pointed out that my previous prices for L134 were 6/$200.
That was true.
Here is a history of my L134 prices. In past years they were 6/$240.
During part of this winter I offered them for 6/$200.
Everyone who ordered them did get them at that price.
Now they are 6/$240 plus one more free.
Let me break this down.
Old price was $40 each. Last winter's special at 6/$200 = $33.33 each
Present special at 6/$240 plus one more free is $240/7= $34.29 each
$34.29-33.33= $0.96 each fish increase over a previous sale.
The fish are a couple months older and larger than they were. It cost something for me to raise and keep them for the several months since the last sale price but realistically there has been an insignificant price change.
I only have so many of these to sell and the response to my current spring special has been very good. Again, thank you.
After April 15th, 2010 the remaining stock will go back to my normal price of 6/$240. Soon, I will only have the young hatched this year and those will not be large enough to sell for at least 5 months and I have no guarantee that I will raise as many L134 this year as I was able to raise last year. I have only approximately 100 specimens left to sell as of today. I began the current sale with about 180 specimens almost a week ago.
This sale is being listed on 4 forums.
Planetcatfish.com, simplydiscus.com, apistogramma.com and finarama.com

Please take into consideration that I am selling F1 tank raised fish.
If you can find wild specimens, their prices are often much higher and so is their normal mortality rate. The wild fish all are infested with parasites and they must be dealt with. My personal, loss rate among wild caught L134 has typically run about 20%; YMMV vary but if you have never handled wild L134 and are not familiar with the most effective treatments during a 30 day quarantine, then you may expect to loose about 50% of them. These are very good reasons why you should try to buy tank raised L134's whether from me or another breeder.
Thank you all very much.

[apistomaster]

I have some new photos that are representative of the fish or sale. I took these photos in a small photo tank using a piece of glass to for this to stay put where they could hide. a few fish are wedged in a tight corner because plecos feel more secure when they think they are wedged in a tight spot making it harder for their enemies to get at them. They are really quite terrified being in the photo tank.
2 photos of the L333's



3 Photos of the L134's. There is some fine river sand on one is this photo; it isn't Ich.

[sturiosoma]

beautiful fish Larry

[apistomaster]

Thank you, sturisoma, I aim to please all who order these fish.
It was great to have a friend with a Nikon D80, appropriate lenses and remote over head flash on the photo tank. I used a piece of glass to confine them up front so we could get good depth of field for detailed photos. You can see every odontode in the full sized shots but these were resized to only 640 X 480 for posting and e-mail purposes.
Unfortunately, the fish do become paler when they are frightened as they were in these photos so so the richer colors could not be captured. They are normally even more colorful than they seem in these photos.

[Richard B]

Larry these are some great photos of some good lookin' quality fish...i could almost be tempted to move away from my synos if i was on the other side of the pond.....

[apistomaster]

Hi Richard,
Thank you for the compliments and sentiment.
The best I can do is ship to the lower 48 States although several friends in British Columbia are able to get them if I send the fish to friends of theirs' living just across the border and they have not had any trouble bringing the fish back with them. Al,They need is an invoice and the species name so the customs inspectors can verify they are not on Canada's list of prohibited species.
I have had a few make the drive all the way to my house and pick up the fish. In the past few months 2 people picked up some of the plecos and one friend bought all my 8 Peruvian Scalares which included 3 mated pairs and 11 Mesonauta acora which had just begun spawning for their first time.
So or anyone in Canada, especially nearby British Columbia, you can get these fish if you have a way to bring them back. I am only about 160 miles south of the border but it is much easier if all you have to do is hop across to a friend's house near the border and use their place as the shipping address. Most of the population in BC is like my home State of Washington; the majority live along the West Coast and the interior and Eastern parts of my state and the province are lightly populated. Both the Blaine and Osoyoos border points have been easy to bring fish through.

[2wheelsx2]

Those are some awesome pics of both species.

[MatsP]

Larry, if you fancy sending an e-mail with the photos in this thread, I think we could get one or two into the respective species pages in the Cat-eLog. mats at planetcatfish dot com

--
Mats

[apistomaster]

Hi Mats,

Please let me know what size you want the photos to be at.
I assume you would like something of higher resolution than these that I posted for this thread.
It will take me a couple days before I can send them. I have to get a disc from my friend who did the photography and he should get the photo credits. I'll supply his name in personal message or e-mail with the photos.
I have a few more we took at the same time. I will send them all and you can choose which ones best compliment the existing photos already on the species profile pages. The L333 and L134 in the photos represent a mix of ages between 8 and 10 months old from multiple parents.

[MatsP]

Any size you can get - we have quite a few 6MP + image in the Cat-eLog, but many are much smaller (they are then resized down to the size shown, but it allows us to expand the images at a later stage if the "base" image is large). Something like 1600-2000 pixels on the longer side is about the right compromise between "large" and "unnecessarily large".

Please supply the photographers name and e-mail address when sending the images.

--
Mats

[andy75]

Very good looking and healthy fish Makes me want them!!!

Andy

[apistomaster]

Any size you can get - we have quite a few 6MP + image in the Cat-eLog, but many are much smaller (they are then resized down to the size shown, but it allows us to expand the images at a later stage if the "base" image is large). Something like 1600-2000 pixels on the longer side is about the right compromise between "large" and "unnecessarily large".

Please supply the photographers name and e-mail address when sending the images.

--
Mats

I sent you a PM but you have answered the questions I had so I will send you the information/photos when I get the disc from my friend.

[Gordon C. Snelling]

From experience I can tell you Larry's fish are some of the best out there.

[Suckermouth]

Larry, if you don't mind me asking, what are the inside dimensions of your caves? I was thinking of ordering some from kensfish as long as I'm probably gonna order those earthworm/spirulina sticks you use as well.

[2wheelsx2]

If you're after caves, check out www.plecocaves.com. Brantley makes really nice caves and they are more natural looking and are available in a variety of sizes. You can even get the rounded end Euro style caves. I just did a group buy for my local fish forum and the response has been great. Kens look fine too, but not as natural.

[apistomaster]

I just use simple rectangular caves made out of ceramic floor tiles glued together with silicone.
My caves vary widely in cross sectional area. Some are only large enough for one med small sized pleco like L134 but only have room for one fish, others hold 2 and others are more than large enough. I don't have standard size. I offer the a range of sizes and let them choose which size they like.
I think the hand made fired clay caves are a better choice . I think they are more natural for fish and look nicer in most dual purpose breeding/display tanks. Exact dimensions don't seem as useful information than how much room is the minimum required for 2 of a particular species to fit tightly in during spawning. With rectangular cross sectional areas the diagonal width is the important dimension just like screens are measure. Plecos seem to choose the minimum size in which 2 breeding sized fish can fit.
Once I know which caves a species prefers I leave in only one per male. I supply some wood for the females to hide under/in.
This question has been asked many times and there is a suggested formula based on the widest point of the species body and spread of their pectoral fins but I don't recall a specific post which describes it. I think MatsP has the general rule memorized. Mats, or anyone else who remembers the general guideline, please help answer this question more precisely?

[MatsP]

I don't think there IS any formula, but the guideline I posted some time ago is something like this:
Length: Length of fish and half again.
Width: Width of body of fish, plus half of one pectoral hard ray.
Height: Height of the body of the fish, plus half the dorsal hard ray.

These are rough guides, if you are building caves, then make some that are 10-20% smaller, some that are 10-20% larger, and some that are "the size according to above formula". Give the fish a choice, and they will choose what suits them right.

[Actually, thinking again about it, I think Ingo wrote about cave-size in the Back to Nature L-numbers book. But I'm not sure...]

--
Mats

[andywoolloo]

Larry, all your fish are beautiful and your prices very reasonable. I wish I had empty tanks for them.

[Suckermouth]

Ah, I was just hoping there was a dimension you knew that "works" for your L333. And if it ain't broke, I wasn't planning on fixing that formula. But since it's not that simple, I think I might get those caves that vary in their diameter so they can pick how far they want to be in it.

[corybrummie2010]

Wow!,your photo`s of L134 and L333 are really beautiful Larry.They sure are beautiful and in great health,its a shame you do not sent fish oversea.I love to get hold of some of the L134 and L333 that you sell,the prices is great too

[apistomaster]

Hi Milton,

I guess the thing to keep in mind is that an adult male L333 can be 4-1/2 inches in total Length, about the same as the maximum size of common Bushy Noses and the females are only slightly smaller. So at the minimum the caves should be just large enough for 2 fish of that size to squeeze in. If I had to guess, I think my L333 are using caves that are 1-3/4 X 1-1/2 inches by 5-1/2 inches long. I am not familiar with the sizes of hand made fired clay caves that are available.

[Suckermouth]

Thanks, I think I will just have to provide them with a variety of caves and let them pick it out the old-fashioned way.

[apistomaster]

I only have enough L134's left to fill about 5 new orders under this current sale so if you want 7 fish for the price of 6 which are larger than others for sale, you have until April 15 or until I have received 5 more orders for L134's to take advantage of this sale. Sale prices end after April 15th.

I still have plenty of L333 but mine are pretty large compared to others available.

Keep in mind that the larger specimens are stronger and hardier so they adapt much better to new homes.Very small Plecos still need special care to prevent stunting or losses due to starvation.
Don't miss out of this chance to buy some larger than average F1 home bred L134's and L333's.
I won't have any more L134 this large for at least 6 more months.

[apistomaster]

This sale is now over. Thanks to all who ordered fish from me.
I have posted ads on aquabid.com for lots of 6 each of L134 and L333 to begin today and to last 2 weeks in case anyone is interesting in getting some of my fish.
My supply of L134 is not as great as my supply of L333.
My listings are all under the name apistomaster.