# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Catfishes >  johannes' Hypancistrus sp. L260 (Queen Arabesque) spawn!!!

## johannes

hi folks went home from work and noticed a wriggler kicked out from cave, 

(pic showing wriggler on the left of cave)


got them December 2008, and since january they have been showing spawning activity, a pair has been playing "trap the female" more than 10 times, and each time i was kinda disappointed as the next day the female left the cave without eggs, so i somehow stopped being hopeful and kinda left them on their own..... and patience has its reward!

egg count was 13 ... some hatched liao...

hope some survive as i recently suffered from plenty of fry loss! :Crying:

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## torque6

congrates bro.

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## illumnae

wah master breeder johannes strikes again!

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## Champ-BKK

Happy to hear that  :Well done:

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## johannes

another surprise from my Queens....

this morning before i left for work, i shine another cave and saw a male is guarding another clutch of eggs, i thought it was another male but after looking hard found that it was the same male but bred with a different female...

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## celticfish

I think we need to christian you Pleco Master Johannes!  :Grin: 
Nice work on the plecos dewd!

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## johannes

> I think we need to christian you Pleco Master Johannes! 
> Nice work on the plecos dewd!


come on.. look who's talking .... :Grin:

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## Philosophos

Congratulations on the spawn. Are the Queen arabesque's typically harem spawners?

How did you end up with that baby L46? Did you manage to spawn zebras? If so, I wouldn't mind hearing about your techniques.

-Philosophos

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## johannes

it depends, pleco can be a harem spawners but there are few things to take note, as in the first place there must be more plecos to make up the harem, such as

enough hiding place, personality of members and whether they wanna do it or not... :Smile: 

i managed to spawn that L46 and that was the sole survivor of the clutch... :Opps:  :Smug:  haha kinda pathetic at some point.. :Razz: 
basically techniques to spawn hypancistrus is similar across the species..

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## Philosophos

Then they'll pair as well without too much trouble? It must be the low egg count/viability that drives prices up on them.

L46 are little different than other hypancistrus to spawn? What causes such a difference in price for them? The fact that you've even got 1 viable is pretty impressive, given how few people actually try to spawn them.

-Philosophos

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## johannes

sometimes its the fry raising part that is difficult...

the price difference between 46 and other hypans is due to many unexplainable factors... :Razz:  i also dont know.. :Opps:

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## drakeho

Hi Master Breeder !  ::smt038:  Time to change your nick !! Anyway Congrates !!!

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## Luc Tango

Master Breeder! congrats bro. lol. i think you have to expand your fish room soon eh?

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## johannes

after few weeks, the L260 fries have grown and they are ard 1.5 cm and already showing adult coloration!

update:

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## nomuken

nice....

btw were you still active in o-fish forum bro? i pm'ed but no response  :Very Happy:   :Very Happy: 

have plenty of questions queued....

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## SCOPE

> after few weeks, the L260 fries have grown and they are ard 1.5 cm and already showing adult coloration!
> 
> update:


Great production! bro...hope to see more

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## johannes

update:





getting bigger :Grin:

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## drakeho

How many pcs are there in total ?

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## johannes

left with 10 plus pieces :Smile: , from 3 separate good spawns

disappointing as some fry didn't make it due to human error hehe... :Sad:  :Crying:

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## soltari007

hey johannes, don't be so smug can?  :Wink:  
 
do a double spawn for them next rd la

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## ash

the ones that make it are very beautiful...  :Grin:

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## apistomaster

L260 seem to be identical in almost every way to H. zebra.
Size of spawns runs about 8-12 among my group and they don't spawn nearly as often as my L134 and L333. I have 3 pairs of wild caught L260 set up in a US 29 gal tank. I think there is a dominant male which is doing most of the breeding. I have considered removing one of the males but I haven't convinced myself that would increase their production any. L260 fry seem to be more delicate along the lines of H. zebra, too.
I figure L260 are a perfect "practice" species for a warm up to tackling H. zebra. I keep them between 28 and 30*C.
I only wish they sold for as much! Their fry are both slow growing compared to some Hypancistrus not that Hypancistrus fry in general grow very fast.
Great photos of your fry and juveniles. I love the way these early stages of Hypancistrus or Peckoltia L134 fry look.

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## johannes

yup, i agree, L260 fall on the more sensitive type as well...

sometimes i experience batch of unhealthy eggs (the whole egg ball either didnt make it or the fries that hatch are unhealthy), i wonder what's the cause... :Crying:  :Opps:

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## johannes

update and progress:

5 mth old


since 1 mth pattern start to form and by 3 mths look like miniature adult liao

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## apistomaster

I have some suspicions that older juvenile L260 crept into a recent spawn and consumed the eggs/larvae. The adult breeders never seem to object too much whenever an older fry enters their breeding caves. This has made me decide to be more careful about leaving older fry too long in the breeding tank. The problem is that I already did remove all those I could find much earlier but some must have hid in the occupied breeding caves so i missed them. I removed 11 fry of about 3/4 inch. I just set up a new breeding tank and so far have only moved the males. I'm conditioning my females still in the former breeding tank for about 2 weeks. During this more thorough removal of furnishings I discovered I still had 7 more juveniles nearly 1-1/2 inches long. I knew I missed some but I thought only 3 remained so i was quite surprised to find i actually had 7. I have 18 juveniles in the range of 1-1/2 inches.
I lost a more recent spawn of about 16 fry freshly released from their breeding cave. The reason I lost that brood was I made too large and too cool of a RO water change. The older fry and adult were not bothered in the least but the very young fry were much more delicate and the change too drastic. I expect to get a couple spawns fairly soon after I recombine the sexes because the females are becoming very laden with ripe eggs.
I have had better success using very soft water than than tap water. My tap water is not bad compared to some locations in the USA. The pH is 7.4, KH 6, GH 7 and TDS is 340 ppm. Borderline moderately soft/moderately hard. For breeding L260 i prefer to keep them in water with a TDS of about 50-75 ppm, KH 2, Gh 3 and the pH naturally drops to about 6.4 to 6.6. I don't use any acid to lower the pH but I think the combination of low KH and presence of wood and fish wastes is enough to lower the pH.

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## johannes

i normally remove the fry when they hatch, i am afraid the adults, especially the female, prey on the wriggler... :Razz:

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## johannes

some random picture that i took 


rather slow grower, around 8-9 mths, biggest is around 4 cm

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## johannes

nicer picture while partially hiding


it's like the miniature of the adult

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## dolphex_tang

Congrats bro... Finally your L260s spawn for you!!! Any action for your L262???

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## barmby

Nice picture. That is why its call Queen Arabesque !

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## johannes

> Congrats bro... Finally your L260s spawn for you!!! Any action for your L262???


I spawned the L260 since 2009 le, haha... :Grin: 
For L262, it would be on another thread...

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## hck

Looks like I am being poisoned already - Beauty!!! I am already so fascinated by my ABN fry, now seeing your L260 fry, I am even more tempted to convert.

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## johannes

picture taken bro *desmondekker*, big thanks to him!  :Smile: 

one of my babies

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## barmby

They are so desirable...!

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