apistomaster's brood of Peckoltia sp. L134

[apistomaster]

Here are some of the 180 L134 juveniles I sold so far this year. I am currently growing 42 Juveniles for sale and 10 more from my first spawn as future breeding stock.

[Tangfan]

[apistomaster, thanks for sharing. I have recently been bitten by the pleco bug & have bought 6 x L134. A 2ft x 1ft x 1.5ft tank have been setup for them with about 10 cardinals. I am interested to breed them in future, thus, can you share your experience on the following:

1) water condition - temperature / ph /water change, etc.

2) type of food - what to feed / how often

3) ratio of male to female for breeding / how many shelters are required

4) at what age / how big do they start to breed

thanks

[900801]

water condition,ph would be 6.0 - 7.4.It is advice to do water change because they produce a lot of feces,maybe once a week or twice a week.
For food,frozen blood worm and hikari carnivore,once a day would do.

[apistomaster]

I have 2 males and 3 females set up in a 20 gal Long, 12 X12 X 30 inches.
Sand bottom, 2 rectangular caves just barely large enough for 2 fish to squeeze into.
There are a couple small pieces of wood covered with Java Moss for additional furnishings.
Two large sponge filters, one in normal air lift mode, the other has a 160 gph power head plus I have an air stone running vigorously.
Water temperature is 27 to 28*C. The TDS is about 100 ppm and pH is 7.4.

I feed them 2-3 times a day.
Mainly earth worm sticks, frozen blood worms and live black worms.
They spawned regularly for 6 months, one time a male spawned with two females about four days apart.
I have had Ancistrus cf cirrhosus breed consecutively like this many times but it surprised me that L134 did it, too.
They seem to be taking a break from their frequent spawning.
I normally get 25 fry per spawn but sometimes 30 or so.
Their last spawn was their poorest.
I just found one stray fry instead of 25.

They appear to need to be about 3 years old to breed.
My breeders are wild fish that were about 2-3/4 inches when I bought them.
They did not spawn until I had them 2 years and they had grown to about 3-1/2 inches.

Their young grow more rapidly than Hypancistrus fry or even those of common Ancistrus.
It takes them about 4 months to reach 1-1/2 inche on a diet similar to the adults except made up of more earth worm stick food.
I normally change 2/3 their water twice a week.
That is standard for all my aquariums.
That are not any messier than any other 3 inch catfish I have kept and bred.

[Savant]

Thanks for sharing...

The fishkeepers here in Singapore were hit badly by L134 fever last season... Quite many of us have a sufficient number to make a small colony (5-8 pieces)... Waiting for them to grow out now...

I have at least 10 pieces in my 4ft tank, waiting to grow out... Will probably transfer them into a Species only tank when they are large enough or when I can afford the space...

Wonder who will be the first to get them going in SG...

[SCOPE]

wow...it is great to hear a L134 factory....in long term it helps to make the hobby cheaper.

[Savant]

This factory in the US leh... but Sg got quite a few pre-production liao...

[wasabi8888]

I have 2 males and 3 females set up in a 20 gal Long, 12 X12 X 30 inches.
Sand bottom, 2 rectangular caves just barely large enough for 2 fish to squeeze into.
There are a couple small pieces of wood covered with Java Moss for additional furnishings.
Two large sponge filters, one in normal air lift mode, the other has a 160 gph power head plus I have an air stone running vigorously.
Water temperature is 27 to 28*C. The TDS is about 100 ppm and pH is 7.4.

I feed them 2-3 times a day.
Mainly earth worm sticks, frozen blood worms and live black worms.
They spawned regularly for 6 months, one time a male spawned with two females about four days apart.
I have had Ancistrus cf cirrhosus breed consecutively like this many times but it surprised me that L134 did it, too.
They seem to be taking a break from their frequent spawning.
I normally get 25 fry per spawn but sometimes 30 or so.
Their last spawn was their poorest.
I just found one stray fry instead of 25.

They appear to need to be about 3 years old to breed.
My breeders are wild fish that were about 2-3/4 inches when I bought them.
They did not spawn until I had them 2 years and they had grown to about 3-1/2 inches.

Their young grow more rapidly than Hypancistrus fry or even those of common Ancistrus.
It takes them about 4 months to reach 1-1/2 inche on a diet similar to the adults except made up of more earth worm stick food.
I normally change 2/3 their water twice a week.
That is standard for all my aquariums.
That are not any messier than any other 3 inch catfish I have kept and bred.

interesting, you change 70% of the water twice a week. That is something that is not common here.. also you feed 2-3 times a week which explains probably the frequency and amount of water change. This is not common here. I change about 50% of water for 2 of my pleco tanks for the last 1 year and have almost no fatality as well.

[apistomaster]

My L134 spawned regularly from March to early September of '08 then stopped.
I believe they are merely taking a break but I should know for sure later this spring. I held back about 40 to raise as future breeding stock but if my colony resumes spawning, then I will sell some of the 40 I have on hand.

I live in the Pacific Northwestern USA so shipping to Singapore is beyond the scope of my distribution area. I ship only within the USA although some customers from Canada have made arrangements to pick up my fish from a USA address just across the border.

Dear wasabi8888,
I feed my fish 2-3 times a day, not per week. Making 70% water changes 2 X weeky is essential for successful breeding of L134.
It is my practice to change this much water per week on all my tanks. I keep and breed many Discus so water changes of this volume have become second nature to me.

[Wackytpt]

Do you aged your water when you do water change?

I am in the midst of setting up a 2ft tank for my L134.

I did lost a batch of 6 to 8 pieces of L134 after a night of water change

Cheers

[wasabi8888]

Do you aged your water when you do water change?

I am in the midst of setting up a 2ft tank for my L134.

I did lost a batch of 6 to 8 pieces of L134 after a night of water change

Cheers

Personally i have never used aged water in my life.. always direct into my tank with Seachem Prime. And I usually changed at least 50% of water.. something must have contaminated your tank..

[Wackytpt]

Seachem Prime is for what used?

I only used Geoliquid.

is Seachem Prime better?

[wasabi8888]

Seachem Prime is for what used?

I only used Geoliquid.

is Seachem Prime better?

I probably cant comment whether it's better, but I have used it without much fatalities...

[Wackytpt]

What is the purpose for Seachem Prime?

[wasabi8888]

What is the purpose for Seachem Prime?

Prime™ removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia.

[Wackytpt]

Hmm...maybe I should go and get a bottle.

[StanChung]

I feed my fish 2-3 times a day, not per week. Making 70% water changes 2 X weeky is essential for successful breeding of L134.
It is my practice to change this much water per week on all my tanks. I keep and breed many Discus so water changes of this volume have become second nature to me.

Hi Larry,
That's what I thought!

I've started a colony with their own tank recently but so far haven't seen any males. Mostly young-perhaps 1-1.5 year olds. The alpha is a big female that I've had for almost 3 years.

You're right about the WC. So much poop in one day alone. I'm surprised you use sand in your setup. Luckily this fish is not picky with food. They seem to like New Life Spectrum sinking pellets, so they get to eat 3 times a day with the occasional beef heart and frozen blood worms.

Can't wait to get them to spawn. Really like the picture you posted.

[Nick- Seachem Prime is one of the better water conditioners in the market-especially suited for Sg's tap water IMO]

[apistomaster]

Hi to all my fellow L134 enthusiasts,
I have been keeping and breeding tropical fish almost 45 years and since municipalities began using chloroamine in the water supply I have tried all the major respected brands sold in the USA. On a drop for drop basis, SeaChem Prime seems to be the best value and I have never experienced mysterious post water change deaths. I cannot say the same for some of the other popular formulations. I also do not like water conditioners that have hydrocellulose(artificial slime) additives in them. I use SeaChem Purigen in my large tanks where I keep my wild Discus. I place the Purigen in PhosBan reactors modified with pads of fine filter felt to retain the small diameter granules. Purigen is a bleach rechargeable organic scavanging ion exchange resin that has an apparently infinite life. It is hard to quantify the benefits of purigen but it seems to me that my Discus act more comfortble when I use Purigen. I use large capacity home made wet/dry filters on my wild Discus tanks and keep the purigen filled reactor in the sump. SeaChem claims that dechlorinating water conditioners containing artificial slime impairs the performance of Purigen.

Peckoltia sp L134 adults are not quite as easy to sex as many other small Hypancistrus spp. I find the most reliable method is to view a group of them from above. The males have an even straight line taper and the females have a bulge between their pectoral fins. Of course the fish must be adults and of similar age to have high confidence in sex determination.

Newly imported wild caught L134 seem prone to a high loss rate during the first 10-14 days after they arrive in my tanks. They are a little delicate and wild specimens are usually infested with all the parasites a fish can get. I treat new arrivals with metroniadazole, flubendazole 10% powder and Hikari PraziPro(praziquantal) in quarantine for 14 days the with out medication in quarantine another 2-4 weeks. I find if I use even just a thin sprinkling of fine sand on the bottom that I have better success during acclimation and later on in spawning. I find in general that a thin layer of sand results in better survival rates among the fry of my L134, L260 and all Corydoras.
I also prefer a little sand for purely esthethtic reasons. As long as the sand is only ~0.5 cm deep it is no more difficult to keep my tanks clean and most catfish and the Discus I raise spend time in between feedings searching through the sand for bits of food.
I usually have a couple pieces of wood in my tanks with Anubias barteri and Java Moss growing on it. I also allow the top 1/3 of the water column to grow a dense cover of Ceratophyllum or Najas. I raise Cherry Shrimp or their Yellow form in all my catfish spawning set ups and fry tanks.
A pleco breeding tank with caves looks empty nearly all of the time and the pleco spawns are not predictable. Allowing shrimp to share the catfish tanks helps with cleaning up food left over by the catfish, adds some signs of life and the sale of the surplus shrimp contributes a little to to cost of fish food.

I have allowed my L134 a period of several months of minimal care but their spawning season(My theory) is approaching beginning lat February. I am just now beginning to make more frequent and larger water changes to simulate the onset of the wet season. This is a widely practiced method of many successful breeders of the small Hypancistrus and Peckoltia spp.
Wish me luck. I hope last seasons success was not just a fluke.

[StanChung]

Good info and thanks for sharing Larry.

I read in Planetcatfish the males have some odontode growth on the back portion pictured here

[platanoeg]

Hello apistomaster,
Do you know any place in the US where I can get the L-134. The same one that you have. I have 4 of the different patterns. I like yours because the pattern is really clean. Theres a guy selling them in aquabid but they have the same pattern as mine. If theres any info that you can give me it would be greatly appreciated. I would love this addition to my tank, thank you.