How long does plecos sit on eggs?

[Woodh]

My L397 has been fanning for a good 10 days now, can't really see into the cave due to it's placement but shouldn't it be time by now? I get tired just looking at him, I don't think he left the cave for food either so abit concerned for him aswell. Any ideas?

[stuby]

Eggs hatch in 3-4 days depending on the temp. Typically they stay in the cave for ~21 days total...... the male will come out at night but will not move far from the cave. So, make sure to feed right before lights out and some food right on front of his cave would help... But they can go without food for a long time too so I wouldn't worry too much.

HTH
Chuck

[Woodh]

@stuby Thank you, I suppose they have been hatched for a week or so if that's the case, tank is kept at 27 degrees but might have been warmer depending on weather at times.

Would you advise me to move the cave+male to a small tank/breederbox? They are with a group of L397s, Sterbai corys and an ancistrus.
Not really concerned about survival ratio but would be fun to have a couple of fry surviving atleast and I don't know how small/large spawn is, suspect it's just a handful since the female(s) are quite young/small still.

[bekateen]

My L397 take about 6 days to hatch at 81-85F (https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/my ... =1847#1166). Then at least week or so to use up their yolks. Typically, I wait until the fry are 4-5 days post-hatching (so they have some yolk left, but not a lot, and they aren't yet leaving the cave) and then I dump the fry into a basket to raise them there for the next 2-3 months.

Cheers, Eric

[Woodh]

My L397 take about 6 days to hatch at 81-85F (https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/my ... =1847#1166). Then at least week or so to use up their yolks. Typically, I wait until the fry are 4-5 days post-hatching (so they have some yolk left, but not a lot, and they aren't yet leaving the cave) and then I dump the fry into a basket to raise them there for the next 2-3 months.

Cheers, Eric

Thanks, I did check through the breeding reports but just get abit anxious since it's my first pleco spawn(not counting ancistrus that bred in community setting). Do you place them in a separate basket or in the tank, if the latter do you make them yourself or bought?

[bekateen]

Thanks, I did check through the breeding reports but just get abit anxious since it's my first pleco spawn(not counting ancistrus that bred in community setting). Do you place them in a separate basket or in the tank, if the latter do you make them yourself or bought?

How I care for my L397 spawns is described starting here: viewtopic.php?p=306876#p306876

Cheers, Eric

[stuby]

@stuby Thank you, I suppose they have been hatched for a week or so if that's the case, tank is kept at 27 degrees but might have been warmer depending on weather at times.

Would you advise me to move the cave+male to a small tank/breederbox? They are with a group of L397s, Sterbai corys and an ancistrus.
Not really concerned about survival ratio but would be fun to have a couple of fry surviving atleast and I don't know how small/large spawn is, suspect it's just a handful since the female(s) are quite young/small still.

It may be best to move them, but it is totally your call. I like to leave them when I can... but in some cases I do move them to another tank.

Take care,
Chuck

[Woodh]

Thanks guys, I will gamble and just let them do their thing I think, the male seems dedicated enough. If I see fry(I have not seen anything but the male is not coming out of cave ever, not even for his favorite food and I can see him moving fins all the time) I might try to move the cave into a breederbox or something.

Interesting to see your videos Bekateen!

On a sidenote do you guys think it's likely that a female that stays kinda close to the cave is the likely mother?

[bekateen]

On a sidenote do you guys think it's likely that a female that stays kinda close to the cave is the likely mother?

Not necessarily, no. It's my suspicion that any female hanging around a male's cave is either the female who just spawned with him, or it could also be a different female who is interested in spawning with the male. I've had a male Ancistrus sp. Rio Ucayali who spawned with three females in a matter of hours. While the first female was in the cave laying eggs, the other two females were sitting outside the cave entrance, waiting to get in. As soon as the first female left the cave, another female entered, and then when she finished, the third female entered. But each female, as she finished, left the cave and did not hang around.

I've also seen a male Dekeyseria picta (L052) spawn with two females in a matter of hours, with the same behavior by the female-in-waiting.

Cheers, Eric

[TwoTankAmin]

I am one who prefers not to pull fry or a cave with dad and fry. However, there are exceptions to this. I get a lot of spawns and eventually I have to do a pull w/ dad so no more fry are being added to the total in the breeding tank.

Also, in when one is working with a group which contains multiples of both sexes, the females develop a pecking order just like the males. The top females are the ones that normally get to spawn. Sometimes a gal lower in the pecking order will try to sneak into the cave when dad slips out for a bite to eat. If she can do this, she will eat the eggs or even new wigglers.

Females can produce eggs about every two weeks while dads take 3 - 4 weeks to kick out the kids. Then he is ready to spawn again. (Having multiple females one after the other in a short period of time is not the same thing.) Once a dad is tending the eggs/wigglers he will not let other females in as he knows what they intend to do.

I should say this is the case with the Hypancistrus for sure as I have worked with a number of them. I saw this with P. compta as well. I can not say this generalizes to every pleco species/L-number.

[Woodh]

Great input with lots of good information and fun tidbits, think my male also had a second interested female on the day it happened but doubt he could handle two, let alone three in an hour haha. He seems to be able to keep others out of the cave for now though.

The male is still in the cave but I have not seen any signs of swimming fry, he has been in there since the 4th now. I am starting to suspect, or well fear, that there might not be any fry and that he simply lost his mind since I can't spot any but he seems pretty convinced there are. Contemplating buying a breederbox and move the cave there tommorow to find out the truth.

Also a bit confused as to what threat corydoras Sterbai pose to the fry once they are large enough to eventually leave the cave, if they even exist that is.

Anyway hope I will be able to post some pictures soon but for now all would be a tail sticking out at times.

[Woodh]

I have investigated now(held the cave up towards light so that I could see into it) and there are definitely eggs if not fry(saw some rather large orange looking things but was hard to determine if it was eggs or the yolk sacks), hard to see since the male blocked most of it and I didn't want to hold the cave for long as to not stress him more than necessary.

Would simply lifting the cave into a tank with matching temperature be a good idea?

[bekateen]

Would simply lifting the cave into a tank with matching temperature be a good idea?

Myself, I would prefer to leave eggs alone until several days after hatching.

Cheers, Eric

[Woodh]

I suppose that doing less is sometimes the best option and that I am just overthinking(quite obsessive with it at the moment but guess that's to be expected from first spawn?), I have set up a little floating cage in the maintank and will try to move fry there once I see that the male lose interest. Will post pics as soon as possible and hope to be able to do my first breeding report on the site, even though I also apparently have corydoras metae fry in a tank at this moment. Guess it's the time of the year?

[Woodh]

Cancel the party, egg/fry are gone no idea what happened this morning when I woke up he had simly left the cave and there are none in there. Maybe the female eating them thing happened since I have seen atleast 2 females sitting around the cave more often than not.

Or the male is just not experienced enough? Well hopefully he will have another try sooner rather than later.

[stuby]

Cancel the party, egg/fry are gone no idea what happened this morning when I woke up he had simly left the cave and there are none in there. Maybe the female eating them thing happened since I have seen atleast 2 females sitting around the cave more often than not.

Or the male is just not experienced enough? Well hopefully he will have another try sooner rather than later.

Sorry to hear they did not make it! My suggestion would be to leave the male be till the fry come out or remove the wiggles right after they hatch....... a male will often eat the eggs/wigglers if you mess with him or shine a light in his cave when they are not used to it. Other times having other females wanting to breed can make the male or another female eat the eggs. I have two groups of L397... one group does fine, and the male takes care of the babies. The other group I have to remove the eggs before someone eat them.....

Take care,
Chuck

[Woodh]

Cancel the party, egg/fry are gone no idea what happened this morning when I woke up he had simly left the cave and there are none in there. Maybe the female eating them thing happened since I have seen atleast 2 females sitting around the cave more often than not.

Or the male is just not experienced enough? Well hopefully he will have another try sooner rather than later.

Sorry to hear they did not make it! My suggestion would be to leave the male be till the fry come out or remove the wiggles right after they hatch....... a male will often eat the eggs/wigglers if you mess with him or shine a light in his cave when they are not used to it. Other times having other females wanting to breed can make the male or another female eat the eggs. I have two groups of L397... one group does fine, and the male takes care of the babies. The other group I have to remove the eggs before someone eat them.....

Take care,
Chuck

Shit happens, on the other hand I found suprise fry from corydoras metae when about to empty a tank last week so there's atleast some success.

Guess I might have scared him, "curiosity" got the better of me and in hindsight I shouldn't have lift the cave up, or something else like the females eating it happened maybe a combination. Next time I will try to be more patient.

I got 6 individuals(think it's 2 females and 4 males but might be 3 of each, strongly suspect one without hair is a male with low status though , I am moving first of October(small fish room incoming yay) so I plan to split them up then and try to get some individuals from other source since mine are all siblings the offspring might not be good anyway? Are yours from different sources?

Hopefully there will be a next go at it, maybe after the move. The male is acting quite weird, almost like he still thinks that there is something to protect in the cave.

Thanks for all tips!

[stuby]

S@@t happens, on the other hand I found suprise fry from corydoras metae when about to empty a tank last week so there's atleast some success.

Guess I might have scared him, "curiosity" got the better of me and in hindsight I shouldn't have lift the cave up, or something else like the females eating it happened maybe a combination. Next time I will try to be more patient.

I got 6 individuals(think it's 2 females and 4 males but might be 3 of each, strongly suspect one without hair is a male with low status though , I am moving first of October(small fish room incoming yay) so I plan to split them up then and try to get some individuals from other source since mine are all siblings the offspring might not be good anyway? Are yours from different sources?

Hopefully there will be a next go at it, maybe after the move. The male is acting quite weird, almost like he still thinks that there is something to protect in the cave.

Thanks for all tips!

Congratulations on the fry.... nothing better than surprise fry!

We all look at first..... so don't beat yourself up over it! One of my groups is wild the other group tank bred. The tank bred group is the one that is a good dad... I typically just pull the eggs from the wild group now. I left them the first few times and he either kicked or ate the eggs. Some learn to be good dads other never learn... I hate losing all the eggs but I might move and separate some and see if that solves the problem. I have 3 females and 2 males in the wild group and 2f x 2m in the tank bred group..... had a 3rd pair in there but a friend wanted them.

Take care,
Chuck

[Woodh]

Feel like I am blessed and cursed at the same time, the corydoras fry keeps dying and I suspect there are no more than 3 left and I have lost all hope that any will survive, maybe they are just not strong from the beginning. Always thought the parent group didn't look healthy and I did buy them in part to try and nurse them back to health, fry was just unexpected and happened randomly.

Anyway the party is back on, today saw a little L397 venture out of the cave for the first time, I have moved the cave(like 1 week or so ago) with the male in it to a breeding basket since I saw him fanning like a madfish again shortly after last batch disappeared but never had much hope and I never actually saw fry or eggs until just now(deep cave, breeding net in the way and very obstructive dad) when a little one simply peeked out for a couple of seconds. Suspect the clutch is very, very small but it's still very exciting.

I just pray they don't meet the same faith as the corydoras fry, also I am abit worried since I am about to move in a couple of weeks time.

For now I am looking for input on what to feed, I have chucked some yams and green beans(and piece of wood) in there but maybe I should try to add something with more protein tonight, if not for the fry maybe for the male? Tommorow I will try to get the fry out of the cave and the male back into the tank itself, his work is done! Hopefully I can manage some pictures then I am just scared of doing much at all.

[Woodh]

Sorry for the not so great photos. I did get 8 fry out of the cave but there are atleast 3 left in there, the male didn't wan't to let go and there could very well be another 5 or so that I didn't see. The remaining ones in cave will have to try and live in the main tank and hopefully I can catch most of them when my upcoming move is about to happen.