CatBrat

Hey, That actually isn't a Whiptail, but rather it is a type of Twig Catfish. I'm pretty sure that they are Royal Twig Catfish (Sturisoma panamense). Cheers, CatBrat.

Well my pair have done it again, they spawned some time last night for their 3rd time :D. The male is in his cave guarding the eggs (on the roof of the cave this time), but I still can't really see into the cave, so I don't know how many egg's there are again :roll:. The 6 fry from my last spawn are still doing well, and my new Bristlenose's have just released their first batch of fry, so I've got pleco babies every where at the moment!!! But hey I'm not complaining! Cheers, CatBrat.

I have got photo's of a few L-number's.... L052 - Dekeyseria sp. L104 - Panaque maccus L129 - Hypancistrus sp. L128 - Ancistrinae sp. L144 - Ancistrus sp. L260 - Hypancistrus sp. LDA08 - Ancistrus claro LDA31 - Panaque albomaculatus I will try to get some photos of some others too. Cheers, CatBrat.

Just another update... Well I lost one of them about a week ago now due to unknown reasons, but the other 6 are looking good. Although I have one "runt" which is only a third the size of the other 5, buts its eating and doing fine. Here's another pic (sorry not the best quality, but i didnt have much time)... Cheers, CatBrat.

Hi, They should be ready to start breeding when they reach around 8cm in length. That tank should be alright for them for awhile (if they are the only fish in there), but as they get bigger you will need to get them a bigger tank for them to feel comfortable and be happy to breed (also a larger volume of water is easier to keep the water quality steady). Hope this helps... Cheers, CatBrat.

LOL, yeah they are looking good. They are still tiny though, less than 2cm. Cheers, CatBrat.

Just thought I would post a new picture. This is how they looked this afternoon.... Cheers, CatBrat.

There is no known sexual dimorphism in this species, or any of the other large "common" species of pleco's. The only method that I think should work is to take them out of the water and have a look at there genitalia. But even then you would need a few to compear the realitive size and shape. Hope this helps... Cheers, CatBrat.

OK...the tank set-up... There is only one male and one female in the tank which is 61cm x 30cm x 30cm (approx. 60 liters). Both fish are around 12-13cmTL. They are very easy to sex, with the male having heavy odontodes growing on the hard ray of it's pectoral fins, and the female having almost none. The spawning site both times has been a tile cave, with the approx measurements of 15cm x 4cm x 4cm. Other info: Filtration: 1x 200 lph filter, Powerhead approx. 500 lph (with air attachment thingy) Temp: 74*f PH: 6.0 GH: approx 60 (soft) Ammonia: 0 Substrate: white river sand Plants: one free floating medium sized Java Fern Food: I have been feeding them on a mixed diet of bloodworms, tropical flake, and fresh vegetables (including zucchini, yams, and some others). Cheers, CatBrat.

Course I did Alan_au I will post my full tank details in a minute. Anyway, sorry for being so slack and not giving an update. The 7 remaining fry are all doing great (except for one which is eating but still has a large clear what I guess empty yolk sac, and it is a smaller size than the others. I don't know whats going on there). The rest are all eating well on boiled lettuce, Corgette, and some of those jbl pleco chips. They are around 1.5-1.8cm at the moment, and their bodies are now fully coloured. Will try to keep you better posted... Cheers, CatBrat.

Yea, I had some . But then firstly the heater in their tank got stuck on and cooked 2 of them, then I moved the one surviver into my main tank, and that broke, and it died (along with $700+ worth of other fish ). Anyway, I'm trying to get PetWorld in Chch to import some more for me (or something similar like L66, or L333). They were the coolest fish I have ever kept, and the sad thing was that when the two females died they were both full of eggs. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey guys, I thought that I would Just post a couple of pictures of the fry... My First Ever Baby L052 - 1 hour 3 Days Old I will keep you posted... Cheers, CatBrat.

Thanks. If I raise some from this spawn I think that I will keep most of them, just to get a few to breed from later (if I can). But after that I will be selling them. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hi everyone, I now have 8 fry that are all looking good (this spawn was no where near the size of the lst one, or else a lot of the eggs fungused and the male ate them). Unfortunatly 1 fry died last night and 1 fry died some time today, but the 8 are still looking good. Nope, they are all from this spawn. All the fry look the same, and when I caught some up this morning they still had there egg cases attached. The adults are in there own tank, by themsevles. Will keep you posted... Cheers, CatBrat.

Just an update... I came home from school this afternoon to find the first fry out of the cave :D . It is quite large (about 8-9mm, i guess), has a realitively small yolk sac and it seems to be fairly well developed (it already has some body pigment which surprised me). As far as I can tell this is the only egg to have hatched out so far, as the male is still in the cave fanning, and the few egg's that I can see haven't hatched yet. Apparently the male does not care for the young like male BN's do, rather he just kicks the fry out once they hatch. Will keep you posted... Cheers, CatBrat.

I'm not sure about the microwave, why don't you just try soaking them in boiling water? That should do the trick. Cheers, CatBrat.

Just an update... Not much to say really, other than that the male is still in the cave fanning. I can still only see a couple of eggs (the ones closest to the entrance), so I am hopeful that there are more eggs further inside the cave. I think that they should be hatching in the next day or 2. Will keep you posted... Cheers, CatBrat.

Woohoo!!!! I have just found my male guarding another spawn, and he seem's to be doing the right thing this time!! :D:D This time the male is in the spawning cave and guarding/fanning the egg's in there, so hopefully I will have more success with this lot of egg's. I can't really see in the cave properly (I had to use a little tourch, and even then I can only see about 1/3 of the way into the cave), so I'm not sure how many egg's are in this spawn. I will try to keep you better updated this time. Fingers crossed... Cheers, CatBrat.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Hehehe, I didn't mean to do that :oops:. My camera is good-ish (Fuji Finepix S5500), but it's more about understanding how to use it, and what the diffrent functions do, rather than the quality of the camera. Having said that having a good camera does make a huge diffrence!!! Please don't feel embarrassed, and post some pic's...someone . Cheers, CatBrat

Hi Everyone, I thought that it would be cool if you guys could post some pic's of any pleco's that you keep (common or not). Anyway, I thought that i would start off (sorry if you have seen a couple of them before)... Male Clown Pleco (L104): Female Clown Pleco (L104): Male Hypancistrus sp. L129: Male Matto Grosso Ancistrus (LDA08): Female Butterfly Pleco (L052): Kylefish02's Female Whiptail: Cheers, CatBrat.

Hi there, Sorry, I have been meaning to post an update. Well its not good news really. Only one of the eggs hatched (and that fry only survived about a day) and the rest of the eggs fungused. I'm not too worried about it though, because it was there first spawn, and pleco's can sometimes take a few attempts to get things right. So hopefully things go better next time... Cheers, CatBrat.

Hi, From your pic's it is hard to be sure and some more information might make it easier to get an ID. Would you be able to answer these questions for me... 1) What is its length? 2) How long have you had this fish? 3) Does it or did it have any spots? Has its pattern changed since it was young? 4) What did you buy it as? I think it is most likey something like Synodontis nigrita, but it is hard to tell. It might pay to have a look Here on PC to see if you can find your fish, or maybe post a questions on the PC forum. Cheers, CatBrat.

Thanks guys! Both the male and the female are around 13cmSL. I got the male about 3 years ago when he was still very small, and i got the female about 2 months ago off Trademe. I am very happy . Cheers, CatBrat.

Well my Butterfly Plecos (L052) have finally done the deed and have spawned :D. The male unfortunatly kicked the eggs out (I'm not too sure why, but it is probably because it is his first spawn and isn't sure what to do.), so I have put the eggs in a floating container with an air stone to see if they will hatch (thats if they are even fertile, fingers crossed though). Here is a pic.... I counted 42 eggs in this bunch, and there are a few other lose ones around the tank, so that seems like a pretty good sized spawn. Cheers, CatBrat.

I use pumpkin quite often, but i just put it in raw (I get the firm flesh). The fish seem to like it, and it seems to last a lot longer in the water without going mushy. Other vegies that I feen my plec's are zucchine, cucumber (they don't seem to like it as much as zucchine), pea's, yams, potato, and even apple. So there are a lot of fresh foods that make good fish food. Cheers, CatBrat.