Breeder's Award Program

Hobby/Common name: "Leopard Zebra Pleco" or L174

Scientific Name of Fish* Hypancistrus sp. L174

Method of Reproduction: Cave Spawner

Number and Gender Distribution of Parents: Group of 2m 2f

Origin of Parents: Wild caught

Approximate number of eggs or fry: 10-12 eggs as far as I can tell (difficult to see) first spotted on 8/21/2021.

Date of Hatch or Birth: 8/24/2021

Date of Free Swimming If Hatched: Pending

Approx. Number of Fry at 30 Days: TBD

Approx. Number of Fry at 60 Days: TBD

Aquarium Conditions:

pH (0 to 14): 7.0

General Hardness (ppm): 5-15ppm

Average Temperature (F): 84 degrees F

Average Nitrate (ppm): 0

Aquarium Size (L X W X H and Gallons): 18x18x36/ 40 breeder

Water Source: RO

Water Changes (how much and how often): 50-70% once or twice a week.

Filtration System(s): Hamburg mattenfilter with 2 home-made jetlifters and a Maxi-Jet 1200 driving it.

Additives (Salt, iron, etc.): None

Décor (Please include all that apply): large, smooth rocks & pleco caves of various shapes

Live Plants: A little bit of subwassertang.

Caves or Similar Hiding Places: Caves

Substrate: Sand

Lighting Type and Timing: None.

Food Fed to Parents and How Often: Tropical sinking carnivore pellets, frozen cyclops, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms. Fed once daily.

Food Fed to Fry and How Often*: Pending

This is my 2nd spawn from these fish. From the first spawn, I raised 3 fry of 9 hatchings. The young are EXTREMELY susceptible to bacterial infections and need to be kept very clean (no uneaten food, no stuff growing biofilms). Adults seem to prefer caves that are "semi-circle" shaped and are maybe 1-1.5" wide. Caves should be placed in the corner opposite the source of water flow at about a 30 degree angle so that current hits the end of the tank and rebounds across the mouth of the cave, rather than flowing into it. My water flow comes from the top half of the right side of the tank, the caves are stacked in the back left corner.

When a male is trying to attract a mate he'll vibrate his paired fins at a very fast pace, in intermittent bursts. Right now my 2nd male has a female trapped in a cave and he's still "buzzing" his fins at her. I'm not sure what triggers spawns in these fish. While this spawn was a few days after a large (75% by accident) water change with cool (76 Degree) RO water, the last one was at least a week from the water change at a time when I'd been a bit neglectful. Also noteworthy, looking for fanning fins is not a reliable way to tell if a male is sitting on eggs. They seem to fan/clean the eggs using their mouths to create water movement and really only fan fins to kick excrement out of the caves. I've seen males fanning fins in response to a flashlight, but never when they were on eggs. This group is housed with the L134s that also recently spawned.