L206 Panaqolus sexing and breeding advice?

[Tacocat]

Hello,

I have just recently acquired two L206 plecos from an importer that I've been eyeing for a bit. He told me he's been keeping this particular pair for a while and I took the last two that he had. He did mention that they might be a male and a female, but I have no experience with plecos, only sturisoma, so I don't know that much about sexing.
Here are some pictures:


I also want to begin another breeding project, so any advice for breeding this pleco species or any adjacent ones would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[CassCats]

I'm not sure on how to breed these, as I've not had experience breeding panaqolus, but you do seem to have a male and female. The larger fish has larger odontodes on his cheeks and pectoral fins, but in good breeding condition he should also show long odontodes near the tail as well (odontodes are the hair like spines on the body, males tend to have very pronounced ones, just in case you or anyone else reading this does not know what they are). He is also a slimmer shape than the smaller one which is significantly wider in the midsection.

I'd get them in good condition and watch for more odontodes to be 100% certain.

 

[CassCats]

You can see what I mean in regards to the odontodes being very pronounced by the tail on mature breeding conditioned male panaqolus genus plecos here:

 

[anewbie]

I don't know about these but there are several breeding reports on L208 (flash pleco). You might want to read one of those - vaguely without double checking i think they need a fair amount of current and the clutch will be fairly small (which is why l208 is rarely bred).

 

[Tacocat]

I don't know about these but there are several breeding reports on L208 (flash pleco). You might want to read one of those - vaguely without double checking i think they need a fair amount of current and the clutch will be fairly small (which is why l208 is rarely bred).

I found some breeding reports of L206 on planet catfish but none of them taught how to incite breeding behaviour, only how to care for fry. I'd imagine it'd be similar to other pleco species, but I'm not sure. Do I lower temperature, RO water change? Feed different stuff? The lower temp and RO worked for royal farlowella, but not for the red lizard whiptails.

thanks

 

[CassCats]

I found some breeding reports of L206 on planet catfish but none of them taught how to incite breeding behaviour, only how to care for fry. I'd imagine it'd be similar to other pleco species, but I'm not sure. Do I lower temperature, RO water change? Feed different stuff? The lower temp and RO worked for royal farlowella, but not for the red lizard whiptails.

thanks

It can be helpful if the breeding reports state their temperature range and other parameters, so you could imitate those. I know many plecos rely more on the warmer temperatures of their ranges for spawning, but this also varies.

 

[anewbie]

I found some breeding reports of L206 on planet catfish but none of them taught how to incite breeding behaviour, only how to care for fry. I'd imagine it'd be similar to other pleco species, but I'm not sure. Do I lower temperature, RO water change? Feed different stuff? The lower temp and RO worked for royal farlowella, but not for the red lizard whiptails.

thanks

I don't know - the only reason i picked L208 was that it is in the same genus; there are many pleco from different regions and different genus that have different requirements and i never paid attention to L206 nor have i collected information on it. I did pay attention to L208 since i have 9 of them but havent' taken the time to collect them or attempt a dedicated breeding environment since i'm focused on dwarf cichild right now (mostly uncommon species of apistogramma).

 

[Tacocat]

I don't know - the only reason i picked L208 was that it is in the same genus; there are many pleco from different regions and different genus that have different requirements and i never paid attention to L206 nor have i collected information on it. I did pay attention to L208 since i have 9 of them but havent' taken the time to collect them or attempt a dedicated breeding environment since i'm focused on dwarf cichild right now (mostly uncommon species of apistogramma).

I probably should make a breeding diary on this. I'm currently out of town for first year uni but when I'm back over the summer hopefully the fish will be acclimated enough to start breeding.

What kind of apisto is it? I'm also interested in dwarf cichlids but I've never had the chance to focus on them before.