L333 quad help with breeding

hearny

Member
Jul 9, 2010
13
0
1
nsw
Hi
Ive had L333 quad for about 15+ months now, since about 7cm.
They are now about 9-10cm
Have had them sexed at 2m and 2females

currently in a standard 5ft tank with a fluval 405 + 2 sponge filt.
other tank mates are 5 whiptails and driftwood

2 round ceramic and 2 slate caves
2-3 always caving, sometimes all 4 taking a cave
I have never even seen any of them fanning...

a few months ago I added a 1500 filter
I was told to blow it directly into the cave and also have tried it facing across the front of the cave for a few months.

They all look really fat and the "vent" (where the eggs pass through?) looks to be quite open compared to my other plecos.

temp is 28-29degrees
I was doing water changes once a week
am now doing them once every 2 weeks 30-50% sometimes.
adding ph down to my tap water to bring ph to neutral


anyone have any ideas or suggestions
as I said, I have never even seen fanning.
see below for photo of them setup
if theres anything ive missed just ask
thanks in advance
mat

 

hearny

Member
Jul 9, 2010
13
0
1
nsw
hey mate
I try to give them something different each day of the week, including the following

-tetra colour bits
-zuchini (2 times a week)
-NLS
-spirulina algae wafers
-new era plec pellets
 

Irene0100

UK Support Team
May 14, 2009
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Norfolk, UK
any idea what the tds is? may need to add some rain water or RO.

maybe they are laying but the whiptails are spooking them to eat the eggs? need to watch at night with infra red light maybe??

can you post photo of tank as that may give us some ideas?
 

hearny

Member
Jul 9, 2010
13
0
1
nsw
hey
I have tried using rain water for water changes in the past but not regulary?
not exactly sure what tds means?
i keep a pretty close eye on them, im 90% sure I would have noticed any eggs.
I will get some better photos of the tank and L002's as it was over 12 months ago
I had them sexed
thanks
 

jumon

Member
Nov 2, 2011
93
2
6
Nouméa
TDS means total dissolved solids:
This is in fact the amount of dissolved solids in your water:
After all decomposition of food, waste etc, in order to get a small level of tds, make sure to change your water more regularly on a small range of days instead of big water changes once every two weeks.
The fact that you do not have sand in the tank is a good thing to maintain a proper water quality!

I hope I brought you some answers!
;)
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Suggest stop using pH down and add more wood to the tank. It will naturally pull the pH down over time and makes for better hiding spots.

You might also want to add in a bit of rainwater or r/o water to lower any high gH. My town water is too high in gH for plecos.

I know its hard but make more hiding places and over hangs for the fish, more caves and stop looking in them for eggs. If you can see a tail sticking out a cave, thats enough. If you see that tail exceptionally wagging for a length of time, then wait about 5 days and then have a sticky beak in the cave for wrigglers hanging like bats from the roof.

Watch the two males, they maybe doing more fighting than breeding.
I have 2 L201 males in a 4ft tank and you would think thats heaps of room but obviously not as I see the dominant male quite regularly slip up to the far end to uncave the subordinate one.

If you have another tank see if giving the less dominant male a holiday away from the breeding tank will produce some fry.

Mininum water change once a week of about 30% and a few extra smaller ones if there is rain or storms coming.

You might also want to tape some backing to the tank and maybe even the sides. They like privacy, not eyeballs looking in from all 4 sides.
 

Bigjohnnofish

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Apr 15, 2010
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too much effort is put into tds levels in my opinion... unless you are exceeding 500-600 ppm than i wouldnt bother trying to lower them down... i have spawned 333,66,201,397,260,046,128 plus others in treated tap water with tds levels 300-500ppm...... heres the secret - one word - nitrate.... :thumbup: pay attention to that....
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Nitrate rises are a part of what the TDS will read. I notice my TDS rises during the course of a week without any water changes.

It's just a whole lot easier for me to quickly read 29 tanks with a TDS pen than doing a nitrate test on each tank.

Agree with bigjohnnofish on the TDS reading not being the be all and end all of importance in water.
Everyones TDS is different. You need to see what your regular level is when your tank is nice and clean and kh/gh balanced and use that as your benchmark of tank health.

Be it 150 TDS or 500 TDS. Either one could be right for your particular water.
 

jumon

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Nov 2, 2011
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You need to see what your regular level is when your tank is nice and clean and kh/gh balanced and use that as your benchmark of tank health.

Be it 150 TDS or 500 TDS. Either one could be right for your particular water.
how could it be so different? to me, a proper pleco water, is a clean one, so with the lowest TDS possible, you're telling me that TDS can be high, and everything is alright for the fish?

TDS is pollution (lets use big words) so basically, the more you have pollution, the more you get problems??

I'm not following Brengun...:dk:
 
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Bigjohnnofish

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exactly as brenda said... very important compound is calcium carbonate in your water... its prob the biggest factor that effects your gh/kh and ultimately whether or not your ph will crash....... and kill your plecs

visibly clean water doesnt mean anything as far as tds go...

your prob even more confused now!!! :dk: sorry :whistle:
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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They all look like females to me but perhaps they aren't quite mature enough yet of the photo angle of noses is deceiving me?

There is very little wood in the tank and no tannins from it so you will have to add your own bit of blackwater if you wish to go that way.

Can't help thinking with all 4 sides open, when the lights come on you have them lit up like a Christmas tree. They like it dark and mysterious and at least cover the back and add a nice big piece of slate over the caves so the females can move around under there and wait their turn to spawn when a male is present.