L-66 King Tiger Plecos

[Bwhiskered]

I have had some activety with my King Tigers lately. They spawned one evening in early January and kicked out the eggs the following morning. I hatched the eggs 100% and had no losses until it was time for them to start feeding. The approximently 60 fry soon started to die. They did not want to start feeding on the live baby brine shrimp that they were offered. I thought that perhaps the bowl they were in was too small so I moved them to a 10 gallon tank of the parents water. In less than a week they were all dead. At the same time about five days after the first spawn a second spawn occured. These stayed in the cave until they started to hatch and because the hatching fry were getting swished out of the cave I removed them to a bowl and floated it in a warm tank. All the eggs were not yet hatched and there were some losses but I still had about 50 fry. I treated these the same as the others and started feeding them on newly hatched live baby brine shrimp when I thought they were ready and only lost 3 fry at that time. I then moved them to a little larger bowl. They are fed live baby brine shrimp twice a day and given a fresh H2O New Life Spectrum Stable Wafer every day. The water is changed twice daily with water from the parents tank. There were two runts that were dark and did not grow that have since died. The others have doubled their size and are now about an inch long. I started a week ago to move them to a tank. I moved five and after a week all were still doing well so the others are now being moved a few at a time. Why the second batch from a different pair succeeded over the first hatch treated the same way remains a mystery. You would think that they would be just as easy as the L-201 Inspectors which start out as smaller fry.

My Loricaria simillima have also give me about 60 fry. You can not beat using a bowl for eggs and young fry. I believe that in a bowl with an air stone you get better circulation than you do in a tank. Also when the fry start to feed they go up the sides of the bowl. The live baby brine shrimp also swims up the sides of the bowl. In a tank many stop when they come to the 90 degree angle of the sides. That is my theory and you may not agree but it is still food for thought.

[Rush2112]

Great news...congrats!
How big do they need to be to breed?
How do you know which are the males and females?
How can you tell the difference between an L66 and L333?

Regards
Gino

[CanadaPleco]

Awesome, glad you got a good sized batch of your L66's! Will have to come down sometime and check em out and maybe nring a few home with me :)

[mrsm]

Congratulations on your success! Thanks for sharing this info with us.

[Bwhiskered]

Great news...congrats!
How big do they need to be to breed?
How do you know which are the males and females?
How can you tell the difference between an L66 and L333?

Regards
Gino
They breed at about 6". The males develop spines on the pectoral fins and in the tail region. The first L-333's that I saw were nearly white with gray markings. Now people and dealers have the two confused calling L-066 plecs gray form and even brown form L-333. Some day you will know doubt find they are all the same fish but from different locations.

[Jonesy]

i've got 1 male and 3 females on the way. What are your water parameters??
Some sites say that current is important, some say it isn't. the male is in a 65g right now with powerhead and seems very happy...Curious to hear about your setup...Good Luck!!

[CanadaPleco]

If I remember right Charlie also has his L66's in a 65g tank, bucnh of hidy places, typical pleco setup :)

[Bwhiskered]

I have my King Tigers in a 55 gallon tank. there are two 200 Aquaclear filters and a small power head on one end. Lakeshore sand on the bottom and a few crypts and some driftwood from when they shared it with discus. The temperature is about 85 degrees. Our water is medium hard at 165 ppm and PH 7.4 to 7.8. To spawn them start changing 1/3 of the water daily for a week with RO. Then stop for a week then try again. If they are old enough and ready. It works.

[Jonesy]

steady at 85 degrees or do you drop it slowly......i was told to change it down few degrees daily with the W/C, down to about 77-78.....

[Bwhiskered]

I put the RO water in cold letting it drop down several degrees. The heater brings it back up to 85 and that is where they spawn. This works for me. Maybe other people have things work differently for them. There are lots of people out there that are full of advice and have never spawned a fish. They are experts on hear say. Listen to people that you see have results.

[Wheresmypleco]

There are lots of people out there that are full of advice and have never spawned a fish. They are experts on hear say. Listen to people that you see have results.

The great thing about the internet is how much information is available on nearly every subject. Unfortunately, much heresay is mistaken for truth and spread widely amoungst the online community.

Thank you for providing us with your experience, regarding spawning these fish. Hopefully my plecos will have no problems spawning and rearing their young; They'll have to mature first from what I hear (I read that on the internet).