I think the pH is the problem!

I have not had a 100% successful breed yet, but the mortality rate is not that high as it was in the start.
I have lowered the pH from 7,5 to approx. 6,2 now. Probably a little lower pH would be preferred, but the stability is very sensitive.
Yesterday did I change ...

IME, bloating and dying is low dissolved oxygen or organics building up in the water. How warm is the tank? Did I miss that? I actually feed all sorts of high protein foods, but they all are also high fiber. NLS grow pellets were my primary fry food for a long time. Right now I use more Repashy ...

This time the fishes already started to die just one week after hatching, a little time before their yolk sac was empty.
The fishes started to be bloated and started to die..

I have come to a point where I am very frustrated!!!

Thanks a lot for your posts.
I hope I will succeed with the other diet.

Larry: I have exactly the same experiences as young with L260 and L134 in the same tank. The L260 stopped growing completely while the L134 showed a fantastic growth of approx. 4 cm in 3½ month.

I got a batch of 17 new fry and ...

What do you feed with Jacob?

Ancistrus can't handle to much protein, especially young fry.

Hi Kris,

One more died yesterday.. Not a good sign..

I feed them with tetra tabimin, tropical super tabin B, decapsulated brine shrimps and sometimes spirulina powder.
This recipe is normally a good ...

Thank you for your posts, Barbie and claro.

I have read a lot about the pH in articles about L107. But my group is willing to breed in tap water with a quiet high pH and high hardness. But as you say Barbie, there is a hatching problem. Today the male (again again) fertilized the eggs in the cave ...

Hi PlanetCatfish,

I got a batch of fry from my new Ancistrus L107/L184 about 3 weeks ago. 17 of the eggs hatched and there haven't been any problems before now. The fry are starting to die one by one.. Now is only 9 of the fry left as the fry started dying about one week ago. Is it important to ...

Hi, you have fry already, good job.

What is your tank size, ph and temperature when they breed?
What size are your L184, and what size is your breeding cave?

Thank you Walter :-)

The fishes are probably around 5 years old. I bought them from a good friend of mine who stopped keeping catfishes ...

Hello Jacob, how are your L184 doing? Are they healthy now?

Greetings, Walter

Hi Walter,

They are actually doing pretty good. Since I posted this on forum they have spawned several times (many of the spawns was not fertilized - probably because I use tap water for them currently. I will change ...

Please.. Does anyone else have a comment on my problem?
My fishes do still have the signs.. The stools is mysterious for me based on my experiences with plecos.
Can I do anything?

I see no sign of disease. The white stuff you see on the back half looks like the typical irritation or abrasion you will see when they fight with each other, or try to mate. The stool is normal.
Thank you for your reply Andrew.
Actually one of the fishes died yesterday when I received them from ...

Dear All,

Yesterday I received a breeding group of L184/L107 (3 males and 7 females).
Unfortunately when I came home I saw some signs of a possible disease.
Below I have taken a few pictures of one of the males which have some signs of (maybe) some bacterial infections/fungus on the back of its ...

Hi PlanetCatfish,

I have a minor group of L134 which is breeding. I took some of my first fry and separated them for a future breeding group. These fishes are approx. 1 to 1½ years old now.
Based on own experiences I think this age is too young for them to breed, but what is your experiences with ...

sidguppy wrote:what are the tank dimensions?

Yes - I knew that I forgot something..

The tank are about 100-120 litres and there is a breeding group of Hypancistrus contradens 3.2 in the tank.

Hi PlanetCatfish

I have a few pleco aquariums with only L-cats. I do not have any other fishes in the aquariums because I won't disturb the catfishes and their breeding behaviour.
But I would like to see a few other fishes in the aquarium - maybe a small tetra or rasbora. The fish must be so small ...

For me it also looks like a real L260
- and yes, it is a male.

The way of giving the fishes privacy has also helped for me. I had a lot of unsuccessful spawns even after I found out that the too high dH in the aquarium was one of the key parameters which prevented them to spawn.
I was used to take the fry out of the cave before they hatched - my experience ...

Hi Neo and Nick

Thank you for your comments.
I am also very satisfied with the picture of the 3½ cm L134

Does anyone else have any experiences they want to share about the sizes' of spawns from L134??

Here is a picture of one of the first fry.

Hi Forum

Until a few months ago I had a lot of troubles with my Peckoltia compta - L134 group. The eggs wouldn't hatch. I got more and more frustrated after 8-10 failed spawns. But finally they did it the right way - or maybe I did it the right way..
In a period I used only rain water in the ...

Very nice photos you share with us!

I have some Hypancistrus contradens fry by myself, which are very similar to your L201.
Here is a pic of one of them in the age of 4 months.

Hi

I have successfully bred the L010a for a couple of years ago. My experience is that the fry normally died because of their inability to find food in the aquarium. For me it was important that the water level was very low the first days of the fry's life. When the fry hatched I moved the fry as ...

...a little update!

Yesterday hatched a new brood of eggs from my L134. This is only the second time it happens out of 8-10 times with eggs. There is about 12 fry in the brood (one of the smaller ones).
This time I focused on a low pH (around 6) and to the 100% of rainwater was added some oak ...

My group of L260 spawned for the first time, when they were around 2½ years old.
The fishes spawned without doing any special changes in the aquarium.

Thanks a lot for another very useful reply Larry!

I probably think it is because I am playing too much with the flash light. I am quite often looking for fry in the caves and if they have eggs I am still looking to the eggs to see how they develop. Maybe I should stop doing this and see if it helps ...

Hi Mats

1. I cannot say that they are not fertilized by 100% confidence. I judge it from what I see: They are getting white quite fast after the female had laid the eggs.

2. I have tried all the things. Both leaving the eggs with the male in the main aquarium, taking the eggs away from the male to ...

Hi Forum

I have some problems with my Peckoltia compta which lays a lot of eggs but the eggs isn't fertilized and therefore I am asking you for help..

My L134 probably laid eggs for 8-10. time! But out of all those times I only had 1 litter out of it (it was for 8 broods, although there were ...

I already mentioned that I doubted whether your fish had Ich but just for the sake of discussion, if you hope that UV will protect your fish from that disease, consider this:
Most UV ratings are for how much UV radiation with a wave length of 253.7 nanometers are required to kill algae. It takes 22 ...

corybrummie2010 wrote:Fantastic vids Jacob,thanks for sharing

No problem ;)

WIth this long of a thread I will admit I may have missed it but have you considered adding a UV sterilizer to your system? I have them attached to the outputs of my Fluval filters as extra insurance. When you have very rare or expensive fish this can be a lifesaver. Since adding them I have only ...