Conditioning wild caught L134

[tobalman]

Hi

This is my first time bring in some Wild caught L134 Leopard frogs and I needed your advice. What type of food should I feed them ? how often should I do a water change, light or no light.


I will be getting 6 at 3" to 3.5".

They will be my 20gal tank (standard size) withe one Hydro spong filter and 1 aquaclean 200, fine sand and a heater.

currently water temp 80Deg F. pH=7. 6.'


Thank you very much for your help.

[celticfish]

And the poison depens...

Diet wise they take anything!
As in meat or veggie.
Quite indiscriminate omivores if you ask me.
Some mentioned notes is to not feed them a canivore diet exclusively.
I can't prove the above as I have not had them long enough to tell.
But I pin this "rumour" down to an article on PCF.

Water wise I do believe they are tolerant like most plecos.
But if breeding is in your mind very soft water is required IMHO.

They are a lot more gregarious than L46 and will readily come out in light to feed.
I definitely enjoyed them for the short time I had them.
And I would reccomend these to any hobbyist lloking to get into plecos.
Not fussy at all!

[tobalman]

Great post my friend,

Thank you for the information.

[barmby]

I recommend 2-3 times of water change per week. 25% each time. Anti Chlorine. Anti Flouride.

I have tried once a week water change. The fishes do not like it and died. This apply to L134 especially. I feel that they are quite fragile.

[deds]

i think L134 is quite hardy once they settled in your tank. in contrary to what celticfish said ...mine are very shy ... i hardly see them ...let alone seeing them eating

[khtee]

i agree with celticfish, L134 is more daring. They will be the first to go for the food. My L333 and L66 always loss out to them.

[tobalman]

Thank you for the great advice, what you the ideal temperature for these plecos ?

[khtee]

I keeping them at room temperature, roughly 28 to 30 degree celcius. PH about 6.5 to 7.0. Do provide them some cave or DW for hiding. Although they are the active type but they do like privacy.

[tobalman]

Hi wow that is a bit too hight but good to prevent ick, I notice that my L134 have some white spot at the moment. So far I have to increase the temperature so far 84Deg F (29 Deg C), will try to get to 86Deg F(30deg C) tomorrow. This is a risk that I willing to take when order Wild Caught fish.

[celticfish]

New WC fish are very prone to ick.
What I do is take the temperature to 32/33C for 3 days.
Then lower 1C per day till 30C.
By the time the temperature gets to 30C the spots should have lessen if not disappear entirely.
But you must keep the temperature high at 30C for a duration of at least two weeks.
This is to break the cycle as the cyst take two weeks to hatch.

Its relatively easy for us to maintain the high temperatures in Singapore.
And I can understand why most dont keep the temperature that high in Canada.
It'll blow a hole in your monthly utilities bill...
But its all relative and I won't be surprised if you can clear the infection at 29C too!

[tobalman]

Hi

Thank you for your fast reply.

At the moment the temperature is around 29.5Deg C. I will try to go abit higher tonight.

Do you use Salt at all ? I just at 4 tablespoon (flat level) in my 20gal (QT) their tank mates (Cherry shrimps and small 1.5cm Bushynose pleco) seem to be fine.

Hopefully I don't stress them out to much.

Thanks

[tobalman]

Updated, the after three days treatment: Bad news and good news

The bad news is I lost two out of six yesterday.

the good news is ick seem to be reduce a lot, two smaller L134 are very active and get all the nice colour and pattern back. The bigger two look better with less ick but still fanning their tails and fins alot in the open not sure if this is a good sign.

Tank parameter, pH=7.4, temp = 31deg C, and already has 8 tablespoon of sea salt in 20gal tank.

I feed them mainly blood worm. (twice a day) the uneat food that got stuck at the intake of the filter get clean out once a day.

[celticfish]

That's good news there.
The ones that make it will be very though fellas when they recover.
Just keep the feeding high till the fatten up.
You might want to change one of the two feeding with a good granulate/tablet food.

I must say I've never used salt for treament of plecos so far.
I will need to do some research on this soon.

Do remeber to quanrantine new fish if you get replacements for the two lost!

[tobalman]

Don't know what happend but went home on Friday I found two more dead the next morning the last two also gone too. A total lost. I have contact my supplier and he promise to give me six replacement plecos at his cost. We have to wait and see.

[khtee]

In the mean time while waiting, can you give more details on the your filter setup, tank size, water parameters (GH, KH, NO2, NO3, Ammonia). Best to have a pictures of the tank setup.

[barmby]

The fish will not have a chance if there is ammonia or ammonium in the water column. 1) This stem from immature tank usually. 2) Lack of O2

[tobalman]

They were house in a standard 20gal tank, this tank have been running awhile (1year), this was my grow out plecos fry and I just move them out and after 20% water changed I set these new L134 in this tank.

filter consist of 1 aquaclear200, 1 hydro sponge filter, 2 extra air stone.

I used fine silica sand (1").

all the parameter should be fine.

[khtee]

how about PH level?

[tobalman]

when I first got them the pH was at 7.6 a bit high for these WC but I got them for an importer, he has condition them for 7 days already.
but the ick start showing two days after I received them.
It must be coming from his tank.

[celticfish]

I'd pin the loss on stress from transit and initial tank temperature.

I noticed that L134 is quite "frail" from the initial transit process.
I've suffered sudden deaths from new wild caught last season.
And I had quite a few fish (30+) to base this experience on though I didn't keep them for too long...
Conditioning for 7 days is also not quite enough IMHO.

After some research and "experiments" I reckon a minimum is 14 days for the whole quarantine and basic conditioning process.
All wild caught fish should undergo treament for internal and external parasite.
This is because the stress of being caught and confined can make the most robust fish deteriorate dramatically in health.
Thus making it subceptable to many parasetic infections.
Each internal and external treatment takes about 3 days.
Also, while they are in transit they are fed minimally or not at all.
This is why I take 14 days as a minimum for conditioning and treatment of wild caught fish.

Don't take the loss to heart.
I say "Charge it to experience and move on!"