Video: Corydoras concolor & Hypancistrus debilittera Sharing a Meal:)

I'm going through the mess that is my files and found this gem of C. concolor and H. debilittera (L129) sharing a meal of mussels, enjoy:)

Hypancistrus zebra, L046 t-shirt

I have started to design my own t-shirts, this is the first one and it is now available HERE (www.happypleco.tictail.com).

First out is the stunning Zebra Pleco, L046.

Hypancistrus debilittera, L129; fry development

I just fished out these little lads from their parent’s tank. They are from one of my first spawns of Hypancistrus debilittera, L129 and I believe that I managed to catch roughly two thirds from that batch.

It is very important for the growth and well-being of young plecos that they are not kept in too crowded conditions. Even more so when several batches share the tank as the smaller ones will have a very tough time competing for food and hiding spots against their larger siblings. 

These fish were moved so that their younger siblings can get a chance to grow properly and become strong little fishes.They have now moved to a 72 litre tank with strong filtration and plenty of hiding spots.

L046, Hypancistrus zebra t-shirt design

The Hypancistrus zebra, L046 design is now finished and t-shirts sporting this motif are available @: www.happypleco.com. This stunning species is now along with many other species under threat from the construction of the Bela Monte Dam, Rio Xingu, Brazil.

Notes on breeding Hypancistrus debilittera, L129

There are three positive sides which made me decide on this species; it’s small, beautiful and relatively affordable compared to many other L-numbers. Its small size makes it easy to keep a decent sized group. The males have showed very little aggression so far which also helps.

The group was bought from Seahorse Aquariums in the beginning of June 2013 and consists of two males and three females. The individuals were wild caught young adults in good condition which made it easy to sex them by viewing them from above. The males had a distinct V-shape and showed “hairy” odontodal growth along the lower body, the females were quite plump in comparison. I have been wrong many times when sexing plecos but these were quite easy (or I got lucky).

The group reside in my 125 litre corner tank along with 12 Ember Tetras and some Otocinclus cocama.
The tank is filtered by a small air driven sponge filter as well as a 600 L/H powerhead with a large sponge, the powerhead creates a moderate currents which flows along the front glass of the tank.

Readings:
Temp 26°C
pH 6-6.5
German hardness °dH 3

Wood and roots comprise the furniture as well as six small sized (often used for L046) breeding caves plus a few coconuts.
The dominant male chose a cave near the front of the tank with the entrance exposed to the current. Strangely the second male never settled in one particular cave. The females seem to prefer roots and coconut shells as temporary hiding spots.

Four spawns have taken place so far with a few weeks in between each. It looks like the females take turns to mate with the dominant male. The male has only guarded one clutch at a time compared to for instance common Ancistrus where the male can guard clutches from several females at the same time.

This is the point where I started to have problems. The tank is not a dedicated breeding tank hidden away from disturbance, its placed in the living room. Any disturbance such as a water change or a lot of movement in the room has triggered the male to eat the larva and fortunately in the process “fanning out” some of them that could be rescued.

The last time I witnessed the event it was extremely frustrating watching dead larva with their yolk sacks eaten being flushed out from the cave. The cluthes seems quite small, I'm not sure exactly but it seems that the egg count have been around 10-15 max, maybe less.

Both Darren and Bart from www.irishfishkeepers.com have advised to cover the tank and this would probably work. I would however prefer to find another solution as the tank was supposed to be a “display tank”. Before going down this route I will cover up the males cave with roots and hope that this will make him feel a bit more secure and obscure his line of sight from movement in the room. The male is also young (possibly first spawns) and he might get more comfortable in time.

Not all was lost though as I have managed to catch some of the newly hatched larva that were flushed out. These were raised without problems in the floating breeding trap above, they grew fast and at a length of about 2cm TL they were released back into the tank to fend for themselves. The breeding trap was cleaned once per day; the sides were gently brushed with a tooth brush and uneaten food was removed with a turkey baster. The fry were fed twice per day with a variation of dry foods. The box also contained oak leafs which the fry seemed to feed greedily from. Fresh water from the main tank was flushed into the box trough a small air-lift sponge filter. I let few snails reside in the breeder box as a clean up crew for any uneaten food that i might have missed.

I’ll update this post if there is any news on the nervous male, he is at the moment guarding a new batch so fingers crossed.

Update 1:

 I just fished out these little lads from their parent’s tank. They are from one of my first spawns of Hypancistrus debilittera, L129 and I believe that I managed to catch roughly two thirds from that batch.

It is very important for the growth and well-being of young plecos that they are not kept in too crowded conditions. Even more so when several batches share the tank as the smaller ones will have a very tough time competing for food and hiding spots against their larger siblings. 

These fish were moved so that their younger siblings can get a chance to grow properly and become strong little fishes.They have now moved to a 72 litre tank with strong filtration and plenty of hiding spots.




Update 2:
After the spawns described above the male calmed down and started to raise the fry himself, no further intervention was needed and the fish now spawn regularly once per month.

Happy Halloween!

www.happypleco.com

Update; L129, Hypancistrus debilittera fry

The fry of my L129, Hypancistrus debilittera that were kicked out from the cave as larva on the 30th of September are now 10 days old and are doing very well.

There is still the six of them residing in a small floating container. As the breeding box I had planned to use for this type of situations broke recently I'm in the process of building a new one which if it works well will be presented as a DIY post here in the future.

As you can see from the rounded bellies and yellow coloration the fry are still absorbing their yolk sacks, the critical stage in rearing pleco fry starts when they are ready to eat as they need allot of food that easily pollute the water if uneaten.

I'll keep you posted on the progress with these.

Hypancistrus debilittera, L129, kicked out larva

Our male Hypancistrus debilittera, L129 still has not gotten the hang of raising the little ones. 

I collected six newly born yesterday that had been kicked out from the breeding cave. This can happen with inexperienced or stressed males.
In this case it was the males second spawn and he is still learning, hopefully practice will make perfect.

These little larva have gotten their own net container in the parents tank, an airstone ads oxygen and circulates the water.

The temperature at the time of spawning was 26C and the pH 6, I might write a proper breeding report about this species in the future.

Quick tank updates,

Things are moving along quite well and I just wanted to share some smaller updates of what's going on in the fish tanks.

The 125 litre corner tank above has changed quite a bit (don't mind the algae), the breeding pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus "nigeria red" had to move to a separate tank. The pair was moved as they were getting to aggressive during spawning to let me keep community fish in this tank.

One Red Tiger Lotus, Nymphaea zenkeri which had outgrown one of my smaller tanks has been added and I think it really makes the difference.

12 Ember Tetra, Hyphessobrycon amandae moved in and they really seem to enjoy this environment and are constantly schooling. The colour of this fish also matches that of the Red Lotus plant very well.

I have been trying to spawn the Ember tetras for the last few weeks but have had no success so far.

A group of five L129, Hypancistrus debilittera have moved into the tank and they have already spawned in there which is great.

The pair of Nigerian red have moved to a separate tank and they seem to enjoy their new home, they are now guarding their second batch of fry.

Finally my group of Corydoras concolor are getting on well, they are growing like mad and have started to excibit their trademark hi-fins!

That's all for now,

Happy fish-keeping!

Hypancistrus sp., photos

These photographs are not of the best quality, but they are of a very special little fish and will be added to the gallery.

 

In 2010 I ordered some Peckoltia compta, L134 at the time and the fish below came in as one. After some speculations on various sites it seemed to resemble the L080, a Peckoltia species. 

 

Having taken some photographs of its dentition it was however confirmed that it was a Hypancistrus species.

 

I have been in contact with people around the world that keep a similar Hypancistrus and there is a possibility that this is a so far unidentified species. 

It has a total length of around 10cm and seems to be an adult male.

The fish has been an absolutely joy to keep, a real character fish.