Breeding L397s

[RubyFlutes]

I have been looking into breeding some L397 plecos. Just wondering if anybody has some experience breeding these plecs and if they had any advice that was different from the typical info that can be found online.

[tolstoy21]

I've been keeping L397s for about three years now and last year, when they finally came of breeding age, they spawned over a 100 fry.

Unfortunately, I really don't have much new advice that can't already be found on the www, but I can provide you with a general idea of my setup.

I keep their water very clean. The Ph is about 6.4 - 6.6, but my hardness and TDS are quite high -- 9dGh, TDS around 330. I have the tank on auto water change, so there is a good deal of clean water going into their system on a regular basis.

If I had one suggestion it would be this-- if you have more than a couple fish, go bare bottom and keep minimal decorations in the aquarium. I have wood and caves and nothing else. I have about a dozen adults in my colony and they can make quite a mess of their tank (they are real poop factories).

My aquarium is 60 breeder with and Aquaclear 110 running full blast. A lot of the fish waste winds up in one corner of the tank as a result of the flow and I siphon it out every morning (this takes maybe a minute).  I also keep a number of L183s with them.  So I probably have about 20 fish total in that 60g, so like I said, it gets messy quick.

I originally had these fish on a sand substrate, but cleaning that was a real pain. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by tolstoy21