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Like the title says, I have a male L-200 that has had a female trapped 7 days. It would be his first spawn and the first time I have ever seen a female in the cave with him. From what I can tell the female still looks in good shape and not beat up. During this time I have done 2 water changes to the tank thinking some change might get things going. Let me know what you think I should do. p.s. I run pretty (read very) low-tech set ups.

That's cool.Have you seen the egg?

Cool. Can you give us a little more details on the setup? Tank size, filtration/water flow, aquascaping, water parameters, etc? I hope to get my L128 and my to spawn in the near future.

Hi Alga
I know you have asked for help but id like to ask you for help instead if thats ok,can you possibly give me any ideas on behavioural change prior to the female entering the cave, colour variation, did he chase her away initially, how many have you got in one tank etc. im really finding it difficult to get an idea from people with regards to behaviour prior to spawning most articles are focused on the after spawn stage.
I really hope she materialises soon for you and you see a batch of eggs.
Good luck

I am hoping she has been in and out in the last seven days. Isn't seven days long to keep her in with out food? Hopefully she just keeps going in and laying more eggs. Or maybe it's multiple females? My BN males would have many female come in and lay eggs, I think. Least I remember seeing several go in before they stopped. And he would keep them in for awhile but not seven days. Probably like hours and hours tho over and over again.

Here is a bit about the tank and the group to answer some of the above questions. First off, when I say I run low tech set ups I guess I mean I don't test for anything or do anything special to trigger any of my groups. I have been keeping tanks since 1977 and after a while you go by look and feel.

The tank, as far as I am concerned is ideal, it is an 8 foot long 120 gallon (454 liters), (96X24X12) or (244X61X30 cm). The tank is filtered by two sponge filters and a large powerhead with a sponge filter stuck to it (extra fancy, I know ). About a month ago I added an aquaclear filter to the tank to help with some of the wood debris. The tank has a very thin sand bottom, a couple long logs and a few caves (not for spawning as much as hiding). About the time I added the aquaclear I also added a pottery spawning tube. All of my tanks are drilled with an overflow and I run a drip emmitter style water change system.

The group has been in the tank for over a year and was previously kept by another member here. I think, once we combined groups we had a total of 11 or 12. I feed the tank a mix of sinking pellets (HBH super soft and moist krill and spirulina mixed), algae and meat wafers (Kensfish) and sometimes bloodworms. I have a large colony of red shrimp and endlers livebearers in with them.

The dominant male has been dominant for a few months even in the old hiding "caves", but one I put in the new spawning cave he took up shop. I did not notice any behavior that was different from before except now when I feed it seems that fewer from the group come out at the same time to eat.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps.

I don't think I would worry to much about their time in the cave, my L240 were in the cave for ten days their first time around and everything turned out ok.

i would say that 7 days is quite a while. my first eggs from the L200 i got after a two days session. the longest one was after 2,5 days!
all others were not ready of something was not right i'd say

farid

Today the female was out of the cave and at first I could see nothing as he had the end of the cave blocked. Further inspection later on showed that he had an egg mass in front of him. Now I'll sit on my hands and let him do the work.

Awesome news. Congrats!

YEAH !!!

Congratulations! Awesome news. Is this a first L200 spawning in the US?

Congrats and good luck, that's very cool news. David

Congratulations, and good luck with raising the fry.

--
Mats

Fantastic,
Great news.

Congratulations, and keep the peeking in the cave to a minimum.

what's the size of the L200

A little update. The male kicked one egg out of the cave, possibly it cam loose from the egg mass, not sure. I isolated it and it appears to be fertile. The male is at least 8 inches from nose to tail and fairly wide and very bristled.

Congrats on the spawn Brad!!

Congrats!

Thats a large male! .... how big is the female?

Cristoffer

congratulation to the US

make sure if you ever move a cave with a male, to place it back later to it's exact place...so the male knows where he is. like that you might be lucky to get another apswning soon. otherwise it hat to fight through all the males/caves to even find one who fits for him.

one of my last clutches was from a 11cm female!! quite small...at the moment a couple is in the cave...this would be the 6th spawning...of course in switzerland

smiles
farid

People that know me will confirm...I never move the caves, or anything else for that matter . The only reason I collected the egg was to see how long until they hatched out. The male decided to kick out the group stuck to other egg shells so I collected those too, not expecting much. Well, today I have wigglers, some of which are stuck to egg "shells". Wish me luck on the "extraction"

I only ended up with 4 but they appear to be sucking the bottom of the catch bin so maybe they'll do alright. I know once they start spawning they'll cycle pretty well so that's good.

Any updates? Good to hear about this so close to home. Also which 200 is this? the hemi or the other?

The update is, is that I lost all 4 . I wasn't expecting much since he kicked them out and only a few eggs survived. It's a start so I am just waiting for the next trapping...

That is bad luck

So, they laid eggs again a couple weeks ago, the male kept them longer but still kicked them out. I was able to isolate 4 of them with only 2 currently surviving but they have some pigment and are pretty darn cute. Wish me luck!

Great job alga, crossing my fingers, wishing you luck and lots of O2 saturation.

Today they are totally pigmented and the yolk sack/stomach almost absorbed...what are the best "first" foods?

Thanks

Wow this is awesome, can't wait to see pics if you can do it. Congrats!