▷ L134 Catfish in the Aquarium | All information and details

data sheet

Synonyms – Common designation:
Leopard Frog Pleco, Banana Yellow

Scientific name:
Peckoltia compta “L 134”

Origin:
South America (Rio Tapajós, Rio Jamanxim, Pará, Brazil)

Size:
up to 12 cm

Aquarium

Length:
from 80 cm edge length

Contents:
from 150 liters content

water values

Temperature:
26ºC and 30ºC

pH:
5.5 and 7.5 pH

Behave

Area:
lower area, ground level, middle area

Lining:
Frozen food, dry food, algae

Behave:
peaceful, braver than other catfish species, easily socializes with other peaceful species

Number:
in the group, at least 5 animals, more males than females

Difficulty level:
Beginner

habitat

The natural habitat of L 134, Peckoltia sp. “Rio Tapajos”, are the fast-flowing waters of the Rio Tapajós in Brazil. However, a strong current seems to be of secondary importance in the aquarium. The aquarium can be well planted and decorated with lots of stones and roots.

The demands on the water are not very high for the care, medium-hard tap water is completely sufficient. The animals are about 10 to 11 centimeters tall. The animals are grateful, peaceful fosterlings. You are not aggressive. If there is food, they are also active during the day. Most of the time, however, they lie in front of their caves, with their heads towards the cave. They don’t eat plants and don’t make a lot of dirt.

gender differences

The sexes are moderately easy to distinguish on the basis of the spines on the back of the body and on the odontodes or interopercularodontodes, i.e. the spines on the gill covers.

The males have small bristles on the caudal peduncle in front of and behind the adipose fin.

The interoperculum is the intermediate gill cover that many armored catfish have. These caps are easy to see in catfish catfish when they are making “fat cheeks”. Then the odontodes sit on it.

If you look closely, you can see them on the gill covers directly behind the head on the sides as more or less pronounced bristles. These are much more clearly developed in males and longer than in females. They look like awns or just like bristles. The entire gill cover spine looks like a small whisker. However, this is not clearly evident in all animals.

breed

Breeding is not easy. In contrast to most other loricariids, L 134 need soft, acidic water for breeding.

Flow doesn’t seem to matter.

Breeding has been successful, e.g. B. at a pH value between 5.0 to 6.3 and a conductance of 180 to 200 µS, the tank was actually designed for Apistogramma.

The animals spawn in burrows. Caves with different radii should be offered for this purpose. As a spawning cave z. B. open, smooth clay tubes are used, the diameter of which is so large that the male just fits into it. The male takes care of the clutch.

rearing

The young swim freely about 14 days after spawning. Shortly before they should be shaken out of the cave and z. B. be placed in a spawning box that hangs in the aquarium. The young are then already about 1.5 cm tall and can easily be fed with food tablets.

The water in the spawning box is slightly circulated by the filter flow. So you have stable water conditions due to the large amount of water and can still feed specifically.
Feeding is done twice a day with food tablets. Because part of the food is flushed out of the box, it must be fed regularly. On the other hand, a good supply of fresh water is achieved and manure is flushed out of the box.

Some snails in the spawning box eat leftover food that could otherwise start to rot. There should also be a piece of wood in the box to hide and eat growth.

Artemia is suitable as food for the young, but not absolutely necessary. Only well-known brands of vacuum-packed food should be used as tablet food. Tablets from transparent bags have usually already lost a large part of the nutrients and vitamins.

With good food, the young are already 2 centimeters tall after two weeks.

Lining for L 134

Algae are at most scraped off disks or roots if they are only fed a little.

L 134 eat snails

There are reports of L 134 eating apple snails. Accordingly, they begin to gnaw the lid until the lid has a hole. Then the snail is eaten.
However, there are also reports that apple snails and L 134 live together without any problems.

Tower snails z. B. are probably not eaten maybe they are too hard.