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"Fuzzy" growth are actually tiny spines called odontodal growths. Males generally exhibit more of this stuff than females, and even then only after they are well conditioned .

Once the stuff comes together, you put it in the fridge to let it set. Once set, put it in the freezer and it'll store indefinitely. From there on out, you can just throw the stuff in the tank and the fish will eat it as it is. I mix up what goes into the recipe to ensure they get a variety of foods. If you can find them, too, freshwater vitamin drops could be added to ensure the fish get the nutrients that may be lost in the freezing process, though this is unnecessary if you alternate between dry foods and this stuff.

That is awesome....maybe he is a boy since he's so hairy...and in good condition too.

Thanks for all your help Cup!! You've been so great. My little pleco's gonna be so fat and healthy because of your help.

Everyone with a bottom feeder should pay attention when you speak.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

They are relatively easy to breed in an outdoor environment, are cheap, produce huge batches of eggs and do so on a 2-3 week basis. THAT'S why they stock commons.

Blue has great fish (my L 262 can attest). L-129s are nice fish as well; good choice.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 30-Nov-2005 19:25

I love scribble plecos! They are great looking little fish. I would liek to get one liek that for my 55 when I finally get to set it up! I have been planning on getting a clown pleco because I like them too and I can get them at the LFS in my home town. I would love to get one like that though because they are less common and you dont see one everyday. I like having fish that not everyone else has because then people notice you know? Well good luck with your little guy! I hope he does well!


Christina

Thanks y'all!

Yeah, Noodles, I've been talking to Blue this week on the phone, he's a nice guy. I can't wait to get this fishy in my tank, he sounds like a guy that really takes good care of his fish.

Chrissy-I'll let you know how it turns out..I think one of these guys and a clown pleco would look great in your 55.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Very nice markings on the Pleco I would like to see a larger and better photo when it arrives home.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tanks]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

No problem......he's being delivered to my office today, and I'm taking my camera to work with me, so I will post a pic by this afternoon. That's the best time to get a pic of a pleco, while they're still in the bag. Once I put him in my tank he will probably be hard to find.....lots of hidey holes for a tiny pleco in my 29!!

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

That's a nice little Pleco. Yes, much better than a common one.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Congrats, very nice looking

Because shipping costs are so high I ended up spending a lot of money on my shellies

Looking forward to seeing more pics!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Well, this pic kinda sucks (it's a lot harder than I thought to get him in the bag.....kinda blurry), but you get the general idea. He's so little and cute!!! I hope I can get some better ones once he's settled in my tank. Yay, exoticfinds.com!

I agree shipping fish is an expensive proposition, but sometimes, when you want something very specific there's not much of a choice. My LFS will order stuff for me and probably pick up the tab on shipping since it would come in with their regular order, but I got tired of waiting on them to call me and tell me what they could get in the way of a small pleco (still haven't heard from them and it's been two weeks ]:| ) So, I researched until my eyes almost fell out and got exactly what I wanted! Might of cost more, but definitely worth it!! Here he is, still in his bag.

crazyred attached this image:

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Aww, cute!

Just took a look at the page ... 2.8 inches is pretty small by usual Pleco standards. As a plus point, the species has been spawned in captivity (though it only produces a small number of eggs with each spawning) and it's territoriality probably means that getting a male/female pair by the usual route of obtaining six juveniles needs fairly spacious quarters to keep the quarrels down to a minimum. However, it's a species I'll keep a lookout for, and see if it turns up in my area. be nice if it did, though I suspect it would cost a small fortune to buy ... those sky high desirable Zebra Otocinclus, Otocinclus cocama, are still a whopping £30 each where I live (that's around $50 US per fish!).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have looked high and low for the zebra otto with no success....at least you get them. $50 is pretty high, though. I paid $25 for this little guy, but add 30 buck for shipping and there you go. I really had no choice, we wanted a pleco (not for algae, just because we like the fish!!), and the only pleco that are ever available around here at any LFS is the common pleco.

I can't figure out why fish stores stock these common plecos so abundantly and sell them so readily.....they are tank busters. I venture to say that the majority of people that buy common plecos do not have a tank large enough to possibly keep it as it grows. The people that do have a big enough tank know better than to buy one.

I guess common plecos are my "jihad". I wish they would stop selling them (or at least control it to where the only folks buying it have a large enough tank to keep it. I can't say how many people I've heard of that ended up "taking back" their common to the LFS. What do they do with the big ones? I only ever see little ones in there.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now!! It's just that I loved my common pleco, but could not keep him......it's one of my greatest regrettable mistakes in fishkeeping. I bought him before I knew what I was doing.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I've ordered a new baby for my tank, and he should be here tomorrow!!

My son was very upset that I took his "Lips" (common pleco) to the LFS.....I tried to explain to him that he was just too big and messy. He understood, but it was so sad....I've been sad too. I had to realize, though, that, even though I'll be getting a 55 for Christmas, I just couldn't keep him. I figure it would have been a matter of time before he outgrew that tank too,and then what?

So, since it made me sadder than I thought it would, and since the trauma my son suffered was pretty signif. I ordered me one of these:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/hypancis/211_F.PHP

It's a scribble pleco (L-129) and it only grows to 2.8-3 inches instead of feet!!!

I'm so excited that we're going to have a "Lips" again, but one that will stay small and not kill my plants. Yeeee haw!!!

Here's a pic from the website where I ordered (http://www.exoticfinds.net/index.html) Yes, it cost dearly, but I figure that's my "penance" for buying a fish that I couldn't keep and having to go through the horror of getting rid of a fish that we loved. Good luck Lips, wherever you end up.


crazyred attached this image:




Last edited by crazyred at 30-Nov-2005 19:22[/font]

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Reading the above, the thought strikes me that someone could make a serious killing if they devoted a breeding facility to the rarer L-numbers. At the moment, Hypancistrus zebra is a whopping £120 per fish in my locality (and a special order to boot) which translates into nearly $200 US per fish. Now admittedly the startup costs of the project would be high, but the returns would be amazing. in fact Cup_of_Lifenoodles suggested I put my now vacant breeding aquarium to that very purpose, namely breeding some L-number Loricariids (I wish I could afford the parents to start with!). There but for the lack of capital go I - I'd also turn out C-number Corys as they're pricey over here, and if I could obtain the starting capital to get a breeding colony of Otocinclus cocama up and running I'd do it tomorrow because I know I'd have people beating down my door waving wads of cash in my face for the offspring!

Now if I'm thinking along these lines (I was dwelling also on breeding Lamontichthys species, which are also hideously expensive here in the UK) surely there must be people across the pond in the land of gung-ho capitalism doing the same? In fact, I'm willing to bet that the only thing stopping half the FPilians from launching into projects of the very same kind is lack of starting capital. Surely not everyone who has this idea lacks the funds?

Okay, the boom times wouldn't last for ever, because once the supply increased, the prices would come down (possibly to the point where even I could afford them!). But once that happy state of affairs was in place, and we had a good reliable supply of Hypancistrus zebra at less than sky-high prices, supplies of those cute Scribbled Plecs, not to mention a brace of other adorable species with gorgeous markings that are just begging for someone to up the supply, we wouldn't have the Common Pleco problem on such a scale anymore, because [1] the catwalk stars among the Loricariids would be present in numbers and more affordable [2] most people walking into a shop seeing a glittering array of exotic small Plecos at reasonable prices wouldn't look twice at the dull brown Common Pleco anymore, and therefore [3] dealers would stop carrying them. Let's face it, if your LFS had a tank full of Zebra Otocinclus, L-129s, Hypancistrus zebra and C050 Corys at, say, $10 per fish, they'd sell like hot cakes.

Any venture capitalists looking for a business to sponsor, try Calilasseia's Breeding Emporium™ ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thouroughly enjoyed your post....put me down as an investor. I would be all over an opportunity like that.

You're right, if we could manage to get the zebra otto to spawn we'd have people beating each other up and going insanely broke to get one. Shoot, I'd knock down a door to snatch a zebra plec if I thought I wouldn't be charged with theft over $200 and locked away for 20 years.

These higher priced, smaller plecs would blow the commons out of the tank in no time.....then the common breeders would hate us.

Oh well, who cares??? We would be rich!!

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Most "fancy" plecos are relatively fragile hypostomini tribe fishes which produce small, delacite clutches. Compare this to the 200 odd fry produced from one batch of pterygoplicthys pardalis. It just doesn't measure up.

That is such a darn shame. Doesn't Mother Nature know that we need the good looking fish to be more prolific in breeding, and more hardy so that they will be more available?

My little "Scribble Lips" is doing well in my tank. He's hiding in my shipwreck, but I saw him out on the gravel this morning. As soon as he saw me looking at him he went back to hiding in the shipwreck.

He'll soon come to realize, just like the other fish have, that I'm the nice fish lady what brings fishy food.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Cup, in repsonse to your observation, valid as it is, I have the following to add.

Back in the late 1980s, virtually all Panda Corys that were available (at similarly obscene prices to today's Zebra plecs, by the way) were wild caught. Consequently they were a challenge even to a veteran aquarist to adapt to aquarium life, let alone spawn. However, once spawning got under way in earnest, and we started to obtain aquarium-bred specimens in some numbers, those specimens were better adapted to aquarium life than their wild ancestors. Consequently, although Pandas still have a reputation for being somewhat delicate compared to more 'mainstream' Corys such as Bronze and Peppered (which I contend are not only intrinsically hardier as species, but hardier still in the aquarium because they've been domesticated for 30-plus years), they are capable of being placed in a suitably chosen community setup, whereas back in the 1980s, they were candidates for a species aquarium set up like an intensive care unit.

I therefore contend that if someone exercises the effort and spends the initial capital, the same will apply, namely that the aquarium bred Zebra Plecs and other L-numbers will be better adapted to aquarium life, and will therefore be hardier. Okay, this doesn't address the numbers problem, but then Panda Corys only produce 25 eggs per spawn, yet I can now obtain them for a price that is 'relatively expensive but affordable' instead of a price that is astronomically expensive. I believe that concerted effort to produce L-numbers in quantity will reap the same long term rewards. Wouldn't you just love to be able to buy Zebra Plecs at $10 each instead of $200?


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Perhaps, but in my experience with pandas (wild caught, I believe), the spawning trigger was little more than a cool water change and some good quality food. I obtained about an 85% hatch rate from a clutch of about 60 (25 eggs? are you positive you counted correctly?), about 15 infertile. Hypancistrus are much trickier to spawn, require caves, have a longer gestation cycle in which they will care for their young. Combined with a clutch size of, at maximum with large species about 30, it just doesn't add up. In fact, the two times my zebras did spawn, they both resulted in 100% infertile clutches, the second of which the male completely ingested.

That's a bummer. I should would like to see the breeding efficacy of the beautiful plecos increased. My little "Scribble Lips" is beautiful. Maybe with a little research and trial and error your zebras will get it right Cup!! Do you still have them? I would love a zebra pleco, but too much $$$$ for me.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

No, sadly, I do not. I let them go for 80 bucks a piece to a friend in LA who currently has an active breeding group (hopefully, he'll have better luck with them than I will); IMO, the longevity of the species in the hobby is more important than the few years of fun I would have with them. On a lighter note, my L-66 spawn on a regular basis, and I have about two generation of fry swimming around the 20 long.

Here was the gravid female, ripe with eggs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/Kleevage/ooo023.jpg

and this is the pair, spawning for the first time, and not even in a cave--just underneath a piece of wood;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/Kleevage/zebrasex.jpg

I still miss them, though .

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 02-Dec-2005 21:49

You got sixty eggs from a single Panda spawning? WOW.

I think the most I've ever had in one go was 25. That was the biggest single count in no less than ninety-eight spawnings. And that took Mata Hari and the boys five and a half hours to produce. Which, given the amount of live food I threw at them and the water changes they got, suddenly seems precious little return for the effort I put in ... sigh ...

My game plan with the Pandas was to let them spawn once in the breeding aquarium, wait till the fry were a week old, then let them loose again, and raise two consecutive batches of fry together to build up the numbers. But if you had sixty eggs from one spawning ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Those pics were great Cup....I'm gladd you're having spawning success with that fish, it's one good looking fishy.

Is it normal for my scribble pleco to hide all the time? He's been hiding behind a piece a driftwood for a couple of days (he was hiding in the ship wreck before that). He'll come out a little and then go back behind there. I did see him out on the glass Saturday night after lights out, but just briefly. I know they're probably nocturnal, but I would like to see him eat...I'm worried.

How can I be sure he's okay and eating. I drop in a Tetra-Min tablet for him (shrimp pellets too), but even though I wait until lights out I'm afraid the other fish are eating it before my little one comes out to get it. Is there anything I can do to make him more comfortable and hide less?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."