17 replies to this topic

[BT]

Currently
Cichlids
Altolamprologus calvus
Aqueidens Pulcher (Blue Acara)
Cichlasoma [Thorichthys] Meeki (Firemouth)
BN Catfish
Ancistrus temminckii
Ancistrus hoplogenys
Ancistrus brevifilis
Ancistrus claro

Previously
various Pleco (Hypostomous, Royal...)
various Panaque sp.
Convicts
Electric Blues & Yellows
Tiger and Albino Oscars
various tetras and other food (for above)

[BT]

Heya everyone

While this is 'just' a register, and I know Im new to post here, but shouldnt this room we have been granted be used for more than just bragging rights?

All well and good... but I for one know how much I would learn from other peoples experiences, collected and collated here in one place.

Seems like there is a lot of experience in Perth (The geological oddity that it is...)

I for one have had a little experience with Tanganyikan and Southern / Central American fish (mainly cats I'll admit) but I would prefer to read about peoples experiences and methods rather than just perusing lists -please excuse mine above Im happy to share...

Sorry if I have stepped on anyones toes, but it seems to me that the classifieds are a better place to let people know what you have for sale...

Regards (and successful breeding!!)
BT

[bigfish]

hey can you share how you breed the pleco's.

cheers

p.s i only thought they breed in ponds

[BT]

Heya Bigfish,

I have never come across anyone who has successfully bred larger pleco's in a tank, and while I have had the females spawn, the eggs never made it to fry.

The biggest consideration I believe for pleco's is space on the floor of the tank, and not depth of water (ie you need a tank with bottom surface area.) My fish were about 14" when I was breeding them the first time.

Thats not to say that they don't need stuff to hide in etc (and this is the problem as I see it - where do you find a tank which can hold things for plecos to hide under!!) They are very shy when in a normal tank (if you have things for them to hide in) and don't really like being looked at all the time.

So you need a tank with lots of room at the bottom, lots of places to hide (and spawn) and no one eyeballing them... (yay!) The easiest way for this to happen is to put them in a tub or pond.

If you have a pond make sure it is not in the sun, or if it is there is shaded areas for the fish to run to. (This is to make controlling the water temperature easier) The heat is the main consideration - light will get the pond into shape providing more algae for the fish to snack upon.

Depth isn't so important, but by all means fill it up to give the catfish peace of mind. I have a pond made from universal rock (Water fall stuff I got from Tropigold - my lfs). The edges however are well covered to stop the fish jumping out.

(Phew, I haven't even spoken about water quality yet...)

Water quality is something that seems to change quite rapidly in a pond (more so than a tank) so I was always keeping an eye on it. These fish like very warm soft and slightly acidic water.

I had more success with flowing water than without, and of course it is important to have bio as well as mechanical filtration (I always put the bio filter before the mech. filter.) The pump I use moves about 3000 L/h. The pond I have is about 1200 L. Get your pond ready with some of the tank water, and let it cycle as normal. Oxygenate, Oxygenate, Oxygenate.

Move your fish to the pond. Do not mix the species, or put in more than one male as they tend to get violent (unless you have a swimming pool you are willing to dedicate !) Separating them at this stage is not easy and it can hurt - believe me!

As the fish grow to maturity it helps in my experience if you allow them to grow together. This means a big old tank in the end. A partition may be needed however, if they start getting territorial. It does mean though that you have somewhere to put them after the spawning has taken place - to recover. If they grew up together they wont be so restless. Taking them from a tank to a pond and back to a tank can be a bit hard on them, but they generally wont be so territorial. (In my experience...)

Make sure that that the water is moving well, and there is lots of oxygen (being a pond don't get it into your head that there is plenty of surface area for the oxygen to dissolve.)The heat you need strips oxygen from the water. Otherwise they will jump out looking for air, or bash themselves to death on your cover.

After about a month of feeding these fish up and getting them adjusted to the pond (the Royals, 2 females and a male. Hypostimus I had one of each.) I would do a water change. You do need to do your regular maintenance - these guys make a LOT of mess.

The main reason for this is to soften the water. I believe this gets the female to fill with eggs, along with the coolness of the water. (Hence the pond is not in the sun, otherwise it is hard to keep the temperature cool enough for long enough.)

The hardest part is coming up now. How do you know that they have done their business. You don't. Unless you pull down the pond to see what is going on, you cant tell. And this will spoil their mood, and you wont get them to spawn despite all your best efforts. I have only ever seen the male fanning his eggs once while the female was with him. Unfortunately this spawn didn't succeed, the parents apparently made omelet - a territorial dispute no doubt.

You can keep an eye on your fish for only so long also, so, what I generally do is a large water change, followed by a good feeding (High fibre and lots of it... Zuccini or cuccumber works well, pleco spirulina.). After about 24 hours to two days I would move the female fish. This seems like a lot of hit and miss, but moving her now will calm the male and keep any eggs from being ruined. He tends to his eggs when his territory is safe, and only then in my experience. Do it when she is still.

If it didn't work, well the pond is still ready to go and you can try again when you are sure. Or leave her in the pond and risk it, but continue doing the water change - if you cant get her to spawn through weekly changes, do two a week, until it happens.

In my experience going from high 30's to 25 degree's will fill her. The rest will occur as long as the male is well fed. He has to do the real hard work after all... *cough cough* I have read that these fish like to sit at about 37 to 45 degrees C...

Personally, while I like these fish, it becomes a handful when you have to dedicate time to anything else. Just keeping the pond in order takes a big chunk of the day - EVERYDAY - even if it is their permanent home. Big cats are great, but breeding them... Mind you, if your pond is inside in an air-conditioned shed or something, then it would be a lot easier.

Panaque's and Peckoltia's breed a lot better in a pond too from my experience, but I have had an odd spawning in the aquarium.

(Wow this is a huge post - most of it you have probably already read elsewhere... Phew, maybe bragging rights would be better - if just to save room on the server he-he.)

Regards
BT

[ikan]

Hi BT,
You are the first person that I know on this forum that has bred panaque. Are you in Perth?
By the way do you have any interesting ancistrus for sale?

[BT]

Heya

Im living just the other side of Rockingham...

My breeding experience with the Panaque's (Tiger "Peckolita"(L002) and Flash (L204)) are mainly pond again, though one or two decent sized spawns occured in a 10 x 4 x 4 setup I have used for a community.

L005, L006, L015, pulcher, and L201 are the Peckoltia I kept and tried to breed with a little success. These happened in the aquarium a little more often than the Panaque...

These fish like to spawn, believe me. But you do need to have a set up that works for them. It seems to me that when people buy the Panaque or Peckoltia, because of financial restrictions (and the rarity of them to start with) they often buy fish that results in a homogenous pair (ie two male or two female.)

I have had a little bit of experience, but as yet I can only guess at the sex of these fish - whether or not I am successful is another thing. Hopefully with a bit more experience I will turn into a master hehe. My best guess at the Panaque situation in Veba's... $3500 for two males... Even Im not that crazy.

At the moment, aside from Blue Acara and Firemouth cichlids, I keep Ancistrus Claro, Brevifilis, Hoplogenys, Temminckii (for breeding...)

Im trying Hypancistrus zebra at the moment (with one spawn on the way shortly by the look.)

I have a breeding pair of Tiger's and Brown Dot's (L006) who aren't that interested in spawning at the moment. Plus my pond is full of Western Long Neck Swamp Tortoises at the present... I have just introduced some Gibbi's to the pond and so far no problems. I will not risk the more expensive cats in there though.

Before christmas I had some Peppermints and some Brevifilis for sale, the Brevifilis seem to be at it again, but my Hoplo's are not (the male seems to be all studded out at the moment.)
I have the Claros ready for spawning to with a bit of luck. These are new to me and I have only had one spawn from them.

I need to get another Hoplo male, but I am looking for the "snowflake" description to come by. The Peppermints that are marked like dolichopterus are not that spectacular (at least not to me...)

So, I have for sale at the moment, nothing. Some of my pets are pretty rare, so Im comforted if people are able to look after them. I dont sell to "lfs" unless I have an abundance of common bristlenoses or cichlids.

When I have something to go, I will post it here as soon as Im happy with the state of the fish.

Regards
BT

[BT]

Heya's

Just a correction to what I typed earlier

"In my experience going from high 30's to 25 degree's will fill her. The rest will occur as long as the male is well fed. He has to do the real hard work after all... *cough cough* I have read that these fish like to sit at about 37 to 45 degrees C..."

This should read going from 30 to 25 and 27 to 35 degrees C... Late night posts in the dark prevail once again haha.

Regards

BT

[ikan]

Thanks again for the info.
So far I only bred peppermint cats and at the moment I have too many males. From the second generation that are growing up now around 8 -10 cm they are mainly males.
They bred twice last year and has not done any more breeding since. Not sure why and how to trigger more spawn.
I just put a power head yesterday to increase the water flow hopefully it induces spawning.
I like peckoltias that don't grow too big (max 20 cm). Peckoltia pulcher I was told is not very difficult to breed but the supply tells me otherwise. To date I have not heard anyone in WA that has sucessfully bred zebra pleco yet. I quess it's a matter of time but the price still be very high for a long time. I have seen the panaques at Veba's and someone has tried to breed them for many year and finally returned them to Vebas. So I was told.

[BT]

Hey Alan

No problems moving the post. Hope it will help someone.

Kind Regards

BT

[BT]

Heya Ikan

Water flow is important, and so is oxygen. To get any BN's to spawn feed them up and do a 50% water change with cool water. Make sure your breeding male is in good condition if you are keeping more than a few in a tank.

I have had hoplogenys and claro males pick on the male fanning eggs too many times. If he is in poor shape (generally when the fry are free swimming) he will get abused. This is why I remove the fry (and male) from the tank, with no exceptions. The male goes back in the tank when the fry have reabsorbed the sac and has been fed back to condition.

I have that problem (too many males get spawned) with temminckii and I think that there is a parameter guide somewhere for water quality which shows hot to get a predetermined batch by sex (more females or more males)

I am not sure if it is determined by temperature (like crocodiles) or by some other parameter but I have looked at it recently and will try and locate it again.

Whether Hypancistrus has been bred successfully in WA, I would say yes. I have these fish thanks to a friend. I traded some of mine for some of his. So far we are both happy with the trade.

Zebra's are a wonderful fish, and to get them to breed in Western Australia would be a good thing for the whole fish keeping community (not too good for the breeders I am sure.)

Still, I think that like myself a lot of people would not care to take a batch of fish to a lfs after the trouble it takes to breed certain fish - no matter the financial gratification.

Peckoltia pulcher is pretty typical (of S.A. Catfish), but given time, the right conditions it will behave naturally. This is a very nice fish and I am glad to have cared for them.

Regards

BT

[mrseby]

Hi Bt

was wondering if you had any cats 4 sale
I also have a fancy for these little devils and live close-by

Was going to send u email but none listed ?

Send me email be good to chat

[Hypo Zebra]

The list of fish you keep is very impressive especially given the fact you have bred them all.
I would like to buy some ancistrus claro please reply with sizes and prices thank you.

Hypo Zebra's Web page

[ikan]

Hey BT,
do you pump oxygen into your breeding tank (with air diffuser of air pump). Do you find it necessary to have air pump if the tank already have good surface movement and a lot of current. I just installed additional internal powerhead 1250 ltr/hour that already has cannister filter 1000 ltr/hour. The tank size is 36x18x18".
I can see fish like neon and rainbow have to work harder to keep up with the current.

[ikan]

I also like to get few peckoltia pulcher since they are nice looking and probably cheaper than some other cats.

[BT]

Heya

G'day H. Zebra: Those fish are what I have bred, keeping in mind that most are fish I have had to encourage. I have many other species of fish, and these I have left to spawn by themselves, or not at all. So far. Some fish on that list I no longer have.

Ancistrus claro are on the list to spawn again soon, Im just shaping up the male. I have brevifilis on the way. A female is chasing the male to his hideout now.

When I sell them they are 4 cm long (not inc. tail.) If I have any to sell, then I will post in the classifieds.

Hey ikan.

I have few tanks set aside specifically for breeding, and it depends on how heavily planted they are as to how much air I pump in (as this pushes the Carbon Dioxide out), but yes even with a powerhead, if the fish are big, and the water is hot, I put air in (especially in the pond...)

If the current in your tank is pushing any of your fish around too much, I would slow the output down, give them a largish rock to hide behind or move them... If you increase the output gradually the fish may get used to the exercise.

I would say that for a 3 foot tank, that is quite a lot of water movement. For about 150 litres in your tank, you are potentially moving the water body ~ 15 times in an hour. This is fairly quick...

Peckoltia pulcher are great fish. These fish are probably my most rewarding success.

I havent seen any of these guys in Perth (except mine) for a long long while. I have three (~ 7 cms) I am not breeding at the moment, but may try again. I would like to get another male.

Nothing like this will be cheap in Perth. Pulcher is smaller than most so... In fact vittata is the only sp I have seen of late for sale in Perth, and that was privately.

To me, the best looking of the Peckoltia that I have seen is the Brown Dot, Oligospila. I would love to get hold of a female or two.

Good luck with the P. pulcher. If you find them in the shops let us know.

Regards

BT

Edited by: BT at: 1/5/04 2:13 am

[ikan]

BT,

I know this is a difficult question. If P. Pulcher is available for sale what would be a fair price for adult fish? $300? $500?

[BT]

Heya

A fair price on P. pulcher would be one that the rest of the world pays, but thats not going to happen... I have noticed that there is a factor of 3x to 5x the price if one was purchasing the fish in America or Singapore and for the price of a Mars Bar here in Perth, you can just about have a breeding colony of your choice from Indonesia / Malaysia / Thailand.

That being said, if you could buy adults privately you might expect to pay about this amount. I would not like to hazard a guess as to what a lfs would sell them for.

It is probably more viable to buy fish to mature yourself, economically and supply-wise. I dont know of many people who keep Pulcher. And a lfs is more likely to recieve babies than a colony.

Anyone here on the forum have P. Pulcher?

Regards

BT