Look what followed me home, new L114

Plecos have always been that one fish that I just can not seem to do well with, but I dropped a few bucks on this L114 from The Wet Spot in Portland and will see how it goes....

I posted this in another spot but figured should just start up a post dedicated to the fish. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
With all the little spikes on it you can see why they call it a 'Leopard Cactus' pleco.

Oh! I like it! Hope it goes well. Feed veggies

It is one of the carnivore type pleco so it does need meaty items. I will try to primarily have it on a pellet diet. Most likely Omega One Algae wafers and Hikari Sinking Carnivore that I use on my bichir.

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Gorgeous!!

poffman wrote:Gorgeous!!

Thanks

The Wet Spot had quite a few cool plecos, I was so tempted to get more! But I will see if I can keep this one alive.

DMD123 wrote:
Thanks

The Wet Spot had quite a few cool plecos, I was so tempted to get more! But I will see if I can keep this one alive.

Good plan haha!! I haven't had great luck with plecos either but I am trying again..

Oh nice, all my plecos so far are veggie heads a few need driftwood for digestion though. And one prefers tropicllake food because she's lazy.

Im sure you will do fine just make sure your fish don't steal all his pellets.

I really dont know why Ive had problems with them. Some I figure were sick when I got them with sunken bellies and maybe parasite issues. If I can keep this one going he will eventually end up in my 210g with my rhino pleco.

MorganEA wrote:Im sure you will do fine just make sure your fish don't steal all his pellets.

How true. He is in with some small cichlid grow outs and Australian rainbows which are super aggressive feeders.   
I might shoot for night feedings for a while so he will not have any competition.

I try to tuck the pellets under a rock or a log near where my pleco likes to hide that way the fish cant get to it easily

The little guy has found a home in a lava rock cave for now but I have a few pieces of Malaysian driftwood Im boiling that will end up in his tank. When I get more hiding places, it will be easier to feed him that way.

Beautiful pleco...want to see lots more pics of this one

This one is not mine, but a pic of the one madness has:
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I hope mine will get the intense reds in the fins.

Easy way to feed your plecos, cut a chunk of 3/4" pvc, at feeding time stick the pipe in the tank near the Plecos and drop the sinking food into it. Once the plecos associate the pipe with food, they will attack the food as soon as it comes out.

And 'D', the little guy looks amazing.

Madness wrote:And 'D', the little guy looks amazing.

Yours, or mine?   

I was happy to see the one I got had nice long tail trailers on top and bottom. It does not have much of the leopard spotting in the tail like I wanted but hopefully that means more red color. These plecos look amazing when big, their bodies are just covered in spines (like a cactus, thus the name)

Love the look of your new pleco.   

Thanks, Betty.

He seems to be settling in well.

now that's a great looking pleco. congrats

How big is it D?

I would say he is 2.5"

He was the largest they had.

I know many pleco seem to do just fine with no real wood in the tank and many dont require it. But my rhino did very well having a piece of mopani with in in the tank. I also added a little piece of Malaysian driftwood to the L114 tank. Sure enough he found it and hides under it instead of the lava rock cave he was in. I picked up a few different pieces of driftwood from The Wet Spot so that I can have at least one small piece in each tank. That way if another pleco catches my eye, Im ready.   

I had an open stump decoration and a piece of driftwood in one of my tanks and the bristlenose prefer the driftwood to all hang out on too. It seemms that even if its a small piece its good to have in the tanks.

My rhino can barely fit under the piece he has claimed as home but it seems plecos do better with a small chuck of wood of some sort.

I noticed last night that my piece of driftwood on the dark side where the plecos like to hide has some small, pin head sized, black balls of what appears to be algae or fungus. Do you have any idea of what that is, if I should treat it, and if so how to treat it?

I dont know. Could always pull the wood out and rinse it off.

I tried that when I had it in the tank before and even after being out of the tank for over a year the stuff has come back. I don't understand. I even boiled it before returning to the tank. I was worried it could be harmful to the fish.

How big do those guys get? I swear you guys are going to put a 125gal pleco tank in my head lol

Chiisai wrote:How big do those guys get? I swear you guys are going to put a 125gal pleco tank in my head lol

This one is not that big, about 9.4" according to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is a pic from a seller who had a nice adult
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Picture from: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Chiisai wrote:How big do those guys get? I swear you guys are going to put a 125gal pleco tank in my head lol

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose considered doing something like this! lol

Chiisai wrote:I swear you guys are going to put a 125gal pleco tank in my head lol

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:I'm glad I'm not the only one whose considered doing something like this! lol

To late, :)I beat you to it.  But this doesn't mean that I have to be the only one that has a pleco tank.

After I had to tear down 5 of my tanks due to my unfortunate house flood 2 months ago, (not tank related) I was left with, now that it is completely remodeled, what to put into them once I set them back up.  Well,    I decided to turn my 130 gallon in my bedroom into my Pleco/small breeding fish, fish tank.  

So the tank wood pile is 2' long x the width of the tank 18" x 30" tall. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]" />

The other end is not completed yet.  I still need to add some silk plants and another pot, also need to throw in there a few pleco breeding caves.  

Here are a few, not very good phone pics. I currently have 21 plecos in here.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]" />" />

Well, for whatever reason possibly the internet speed here at my condo in Reno, I cant load anymore pictures on here.

So now the urge is even greater, so get busy you 2 and get them pleco tanks started.

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:

Chiisai wrote:How big do those guys get? I swear you guys are going to put a 125gal pleco tank in my head lol

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose considered doing something like this! lol

Just do it!

Hey madness, nice to see some pics of the tanks getting back up and running!   

Haha I guess I kind of do have one. I converted my 30 gallon over to planted last night and it currently houses 1 angel, 1 xray, 1 emporer and 6 bristlenose pleco. One pleco will be going to a different tank and this will be my breeding tank for my 5 LF bristlenose pleco's. The xray and emporer are old and I'm just waiting for their days, then it will just be the angel. Which I have had for probably close to 7-8 years now.

Madness those are some good looking plecos. You should get a group of true zebra's in there. We need a breeder in washington! You'd be the perfect man for the job!

Tell me about it, I would love to get a breeding pair, and I guarantee I wouldn't sell them for $150 each at 1.5". I would also love to get my hands on a pair of L024's and L025's

Madness wrote:I would also love to get my hands on a pair of L024's and L025's

Those too are on my favorites list, along with the L600. All similar patterned to the L114.

If you got them I would buy one from you in a heartbeat! I love them but they are definitely costly they are the highest on my wish list when I win some money, some how. lol I watch aquabid and the prices soar through the roof.

So looking at online info, "(L46) need to be approx. 2-4yrs old before they are at breeding age and they only lay about 10 eggs at a time." Along with the import ban can see why the command such a high price.

That's odd they lay so few eggs when so many others have large batches?

Internet info so I cant confirm truth to it. But seems to be very few breeders out there, so the cost continues to be high. Maybe we need to do a business venture....

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Here is some good info, looks like they lay a couple of clutches of eggs. I wonder if maybe 10 eggs per clutch. Sound like they are hard to feed as fry from what I read on a couple of forums. I would love to breed them and try atleast if I could afford to get some breeding ones lol

Wow, $500 a pop at: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Pulled these two posts from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"Re: Breeding L46 hypancistrus zebra
Postby Orinocensis1 » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:31 am

Thanks for the info! Yeah it might be tricky in this big tank but I will give it a shot, with all my breeding projects going on, this is the main one i am really paying extra attention too it lol. What diet do you use for them?
Orinocensis1, posts: 45

Re: Breeding L46 hypancistrus zebra
Postby jac » Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:13 pm

In the mornings I give carnivor tablets and at night I feed frozen foods such as brine shrimp, mysis, black en red mosquito and daphnia. Ones a week I give them spirulina/plancton tabs."

DMD123 wrote:Wow, $500 a pop at: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Yeah! I've looked there and found them cheaper on aquabid but they are still $200+ on there

So this rare pleco comes from the Rio Xingú, which is in the process of having a large dam built on it.
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So most likely man will end up killing this off in the wild and then all we will have is tank raised fish.   

These on aquabid are cheaper a piece but the initial cost for 5 of them is amazing.

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DMD123 wrote:So this rare pleco comes from the Rio Xingú, which is in the process of having a large dam built on it.
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So most likely man will end up killing this off in the wild and then all we will have is tank raised fish.   

I had read that before too Unfortunate this happens to so many species.

Nice looking Pleco! We have a few Plecos, and we feed our Gold Nugget Repashy Spawn and Grow, or Repashy Shrimp Souffle. Stinks like crazy when cooking it, but it's like Pleco Crack to those little guys! Have fun raising this one!