This week, my super reds, red lizard catfish and zebras all decided to spawn. It may not be as exciting as watching young discus feed from their parents, but seeing a little tail fanning eggs makes this catfish nut pretty happy. Now if only the L134 got with the program too...
Has anyone ever mixed red lizard catfish (L010/L10a) with discus? They are cool bottom feeders and absolutely not afraid to come out and compete for food. My only concern would be whether or not they would latch onto discus like sturisoma. Unlike sturisoma, they ignore algae. Perhaps this would make them less likely go after slime coat? Here, they have shown no interest in other fish and eat earthworm sticks, spirulina sticks and frozen brine shrimp.
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Al Sabetta
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80°F, but they seem to handle 76°F-84°F. Nice having a loricariid that isn't afraid to be seen.
My L134 are a bit over 3 years old. Beautiful fish, but the males have some serious attitude problems. Pretty sure their favorite activity, besides sitting in a cave doing nothing, is sparring with each other. Should probably sell 2-3 excess males and see if that makes things happier.
Just recently got my L134 from Mark (Discus Origin) wild caught and still in QT. Hope to breed them... we will see. I really like them alot.
al
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>>>>>I am a science guy.. show me the science minus the BS
Al Sabetta
Simplydiscus LLC Owner
Aquaticsuppliers.com
I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images
Hey Al,
I picked up 9 tank bred L134’s back in July from Bryan at Discus N More. I haven’t taken them out to measure them but they appear to have at least doubled their size from the 3.5cm they were then. I was nervous buying them so small but luckily I haven’t had any issues with them and I got them for a killer deal at $32 each. How big were your wilds when you got them? None of mine have started to develop the stereotypical male furry tails but I just bought 7 caves from plecocaves.com
Sounds like they will need a year or so before they start spawning. Odontodes (the furry things) are useful for sexing fish that are ready to spawn, but males will shed them when stressed or when they want a break from spawning (it's rough going 2-3 weeks without food). Venting is the most accurate way, but they need to be sexually mature for it to be accurate.
The red lizard male ended up eating the wigglers. He did not adapt well to being moved into a hatching tank, so I may have to isolate him in the breeder tank with a critter keeper or something.
The zebra male is still on ~9 wigglers and will be for another week or so.
Super reds are still busy. Both of the males were on eggs, but the alpha female did not appreciate the alpha male caving up with another fish. She booted the homewrecker's eggs and replaced them with her own. The other fish ended up leaving the eggs alone, so I siphoned them into a flow-through breeder box and they hatched this morning.
It’s great that with your quick reaction you were able to save the fry. It’s really neat to see them with their yolk sacks still attached. I saw a video on YouTube where a breeder was saying that he offers dried oak leaves and wood to fry that still have their yolks sacks and they still eat it. He said even carnivorous pleco fry will eat the wood and leaves because you could tell by their color changing with the food in their bellies and the poop they left behind.
Not a fan of leaves (messy), but I always include some wood and a little bit of waste from the breeder tank when I have to use a breeder box. I try to avoid using boxes, but sometimes males need a few spawns to get it right.
Adam would the Red Lizard Catfish be considered a whiptail catfish? They look similar iirc
Pretty sure they are. The species name depends on who you ask, so at the very least they look very much like whiptails.
Updated pic of the super red fry. A bit less "extraterrestrial" and almost "cute" (okay fine, they are "cute" at this stage). Dad is on a couple more spawns at the moment, but their fate will be decided by him. Already have a couple hundred in fry boxes eating almost half can of green beans a day.
Here's a zebra daddy with 2 generations of fry AND a trapped female in a 1" cave (you can see the very tip of her tail just below the male, bottom center of the cave). Imagine a cramped room with 10 kids, 2 spouses and no food for days at a time. PASS.