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As some of you already know last summer I recieved half a shipment of L. Filamentosus w/ the other half going to another club member, who unfortunatly lost all his by the 2nd month. Well with the shape they came in from Peru (Very aenemic) and they're disapproval of nearly every food offered, I've wound up housing them in my 120 Gallon instead of the planted 40 breeder I had setup for them. Now that I've had them for some time I'm ready to attempt to breed them. There seems to be 1 rather large obstacle, their diet. From what I've observed they seem to only feed on Diatoms and wood and rarely anything else. I've had numerous veggies in the tank from day one along w/ various meatier foods and have rarely seen them graze upon anything but wood and algae. I even suspect that they're mearly scraping algae and maybe micro-organisms off the wood. Now whether or not the other loricarids are keeping them off the Veggies seems to be unlikely because they are for the most part the only day active ones in the tank.
With all of the background now out of the way, are there any suggestions on ways to get them to consistantly eat other foods? Jools, have your's taken to anything in particular? Has anyone else had success keeping them?

My proposed breeding set up. A 33 long (48"x13"x12") with a lot of there favorite rocks and a medium sized piece of wood moved over from the 120 into their new house. I also will be adding another (4 lb) newer piece of wood a large Ruffle Sword and numerous Java Ferns to there tank. This will house all 4 of them and possibly a shoal of coral red pencilfish.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

ps...If I missed any info that would be pertinent, let me know and I'll happily add it.

Mine eat prepared foods (flake, sinking pellets, frozen bloodworm) and will eat cucumber, courgette and melon rind. They live exclusively on tubes or branches only leaving the places to go eat on the SAND.

Other than that there is a good but not strong water flow and dim lighting. Temp = 77F, pH=6.0, softish water.

Jools

Hi,

Lamotichthys filamentosus has already been bred by Dani Madörin in the Aquarium of the Zoo in Basel (Switzerland).
A short summary:
-breeding tank: 280l
-overall pump-capacity: 4000l/h
The current of the pump was dircted to the tank's backplane. Here the fish spawned on the glass hardly visible behind stones and wood.
-5 fish, 4grown up, 1 smaller (12cm) which turned out to be the male that spawned.
-2weeks before spawning waterchanges were made every second day, at which conductivity dropped.
-Water values @ time of spawning:
27°C, conductivity 50µs/cm, pH 7,3
-eggs: size: 3,7-3,9cm; n=45-50
-eggs hatched after 8 days
-hatched fry size: 12mm +1mm filament
-eggs and larvae bigger than Sturisoma, fry with extremly round head.
-the jung fish died unfortunatly some weeks after spawning due to a inadvertence of the Aquarist.

source:

Evers, H. G. & Seidel, I. 2002
Wels Atlas Band 1
Mergus Verlag, Melle 860 S.


Greetings... Achim

Achim... I've read that article but my German is horrid, to say the least, and the translators seem to mess up the part about sexing the fish. Can you or someone else let me know the proper way to sex them acording to the article???

Also a quick update... I finally picked up their tank... I decided a 29 would be a better option. So I have a 29 gallon setup river tank style running 2- 370 gph water pumps and a 40 gallon sponge filter for added O2. The tank is almost ready so I'll be moving them over along w/ some of their favorites piece's of wood and rockwork from their current tank soon. On a positive note, I have finally found an Algae tablet they like... Marineland BioBlend Bottom feeder is readily accepted by them every time it goes in the tank.

Thanks

Andy

hi, Filamentosous needs alot of water movement, or current. They love it In fact they hang in the driftwood where the current is most powerful.. Try feeding them some fatty food in order to increase the rate of breeding.. They also need clear and clean water.. And try to water change every other day for 30-40 percent Goodluck, hope this helps

Achim,

Is there any detail on how to sex these fish?

Jools