I find P.maccus to be quite an inquisitive and secretive little fish
I started off with 4 in my community tank. There was at least 2 males and one found a "cave" in the stump end of a piece of wood. I say "cave" because it was only deep enough for the fish to get half of his body in there, so what you could see was a hairy half a fish wagging its tail 100 miles an hour all the time. :lol:
At some point I travelled to Australia and picked up some D shaped breeding caves from dotsgraphic on this site. They seemed smaller in the tank than I anticipated, but looked as though they might be perfect for the P.maccus
I dropped a couple of caves into the tank, and sure enough the clown loaches thought that they were for them. :wb: They didn't fit, but that did not deter them. In fact if anyone wants the perfect contraception for pleco breeding then a few clown loaches will do the trick.
One day I noticed a cluster of eggs at the entrance to the cave. It must have been the P.maccus because they were the only potential females in there. Time to move them I guess, if I want to give them a fair go!
I didn't really have any spare tanks so I put them in with the L002 breeding colony......... and added a couple more P.maccus. (this is a standard 4 foot tank - 122x45x45cm)
That was nearly a silly mistake!
P.maccus vs. L002 over a cave..... and the winner is ....... P.maccus. :yes:
They turned out to be a very stroppy fish when wanting an empty cave. One even went white down one side. Looked like he had the sh!t kicked out of him.
hmy:
Another half a dozen caves seemed to overcome that wee issue.......
The L002 colony was still spawning and the P.maccus didn't seem to stop that process.
Then an interesting thing happened....
Once the temperature got below 28 the L002 seemed to stop spawning, and then the P.Maccus started.
It was April.
temp 27 C
pH 5.5
TDS 141
The first batch was lost to the tank. I think that there was too much testosterone in the tank, so with all the fighting between the L002 and the 4 P.maccus males the eggs just couldn't be protected.
The next batch I rescued the cave, the male, and the eggs, and placed them in a smaller tank which was "floating" in the main tank.
After 10 days the eggs hatched.
After another 15 days the babies could be found outside the cave at night, but were back in there during the day.
After approx. 25 days since egg laying I extracted the babies and put them into their own tank and then put the male in his cave back to the exact spot that I took him from in the beginning.
Over the next 2 days there were a few fights as the pecking order was re-established, and then the next day there was another spawn in the cave, so the rescue, hatch, grow, extraction process started again.
This cycle continued for the next 3 months, broken slightly when the other female also spawned with another male, so at one point there were two "floating" tanks.
After 3 months the fry tank seemed to be getting a bit overcrowded, and I wondered if I was doing more work than the fish? so I decided to move the adult P.maccus to their own tank and re-unite them with all the fry.
This tank is 72x60x35cm. These are custom tanks I have made with a big footprint, for bottom dwelling fish.
The only established item on this tank was the filter; I used new sand and wood.
I ran a power head over the short length and set all the caves facing the short end.
So the filter (Aqua clear 110) would flow the water onto the top of the caves and it would flow over the entrance.
The power head would bounce a stream of water off the front wall of the tank and this would flow into the entrance of the cave.
I had one male with fry in the "floating" setup so I just put him straight into the new tank.
They only missed one cycle and have started spawning again.
pH 5.4
TDS 143
It will be interesting to see if they stop spawning as the temperature rises, or if they continue through the summer.
I only seem to have one picture, this guy is 16 days old. I will update this eventually with pictures of the new tank.
I started off with 4 in my community tank. There was at least 2 males and one found a "cave" in the stump end of a piece of wood. I say "cave" because it was only deep enough for the fish to get half of his body in there, so what you could see was a hairy half a fish wagging its tail 100 miles an hour all the time. :lol:
At some point I travelled to Australia and picked up some D shaped breeding caves from dotsgraphic on this site. They seemed smaller in the tank than I anticipated, but looked as though they might be perfect for the P.maccus
I dropped a couple of caves into the tank, and sure enough the clown loaches thought that they were for them. :wb: They didn't fit, but that did not deter them. In fact if anyone wants the perfect contraception for pleco breeding then a few clown loaches will do the trick.
One day I noticed a cluster of eggs at the entrance to the cave. It must have been the P.maccus because they were the only potential females in there. Time to move them I guess, if I want to give them a fair go!
I didn't really have any spare tanks so I put them in with the L002 breeding colony......... and added a couple more P.maccus. (this is a standard 4 foot tank - 122x45x45cm)
That was nearly a silly mistake!
P.maccus vs. L002 over a cave..... and the winner is ....... P.maccus. :yes:
They turned out to be a very stroppy fish when wanting an empty cave. One even went white down one side. Looked like he had the sh!t kicked out of him.
hmy:Another half a dozen caves seemed to overcome that wee issue.......
The L002 colony was still spawning and the P.maccus didn't seem to stop that process.
Then an interesting thing happened....
Once the temperature got below 28 the L002 seemed to stop spawning, and then the P.Maccus started.
It was April.
temp 27 C
pH 5.5
TDS 141
The first batch was lost to the tank. I think that there was too much testosterone in the tank, so with all the fighting between the L002 and the 4 P.maccus males the eggs just couldn't be protected.
The next batch I rescued the cave, the male, and the eggs, and placed them in a smaller tank which was "floating" in the main tank.
After 10 days the eggs hatched.
After another 15 days the babies could be found outside the cave at night, but were back in there during the day.
After approx. 25 days since egg laying I extracted the babies and put them into their own tank and then put the male in his cave back to the exact spot that I took him from in the beginning.
Over the next 2 days there were a few fights as the pecking order was re-established, and then the next day there was another spawn in the cave, so the rescue, hatch, grow, extraction process started again.
This cycle continued for the next 3 months, broken slightly when the other female also spawned with another male, so at one point there were two "floating" tanks.
After 3 months the fry tank seemed to be getting a bit overcrowded, and I wondered if I was doing more work than the fish? so I decided to move the adult P.maccus to their own tank and re-unite them with all the fry.
This tank is 72x60x35cm. These are custom tanks I have made with a big footprint, for bottom dwelling fish.
The only established item on this tank was the filter; I used new sand and wood.
I ran a power head over the short length and set all the caves facing the short end.
So the filter (Aqua clear 110) would flow the water onto the top of the caves and it would flow over the entrance.
The power head would bounce a stream of water off the front wall of the tank and this would flow into the entrance of the cave.
I had one male with fry in the "floating" setup so I just put him straight into the new tank.
They only missed one cycle and have started spawning again.
pH 5.4
TDS 143
It will be interesting to see if they stop spawning as the temperature rises, or if they continue through the summer.
I only seem to have one picture, this guy is 16 days old. I will update this eventually with pictures of the new tank.
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