L340

I have been getting a lot of questions about these fish lately, and have yet to write a species profile for this site, so it is only fitting that my favorite pleco be the first. I had been looking for this species since I first saw them listed as LDA19 in the original Aqualog. I wanted them before this, but that was the first time I saw an actual name given to them. Before that point, it was just a very pretty fish that I would buy if I knew what I was looking for. Not a lot of chance of finding a fish if you don't know what to order.

The common name given there was "mega-clown" pleco. It wasn't long after this that the rest of the world was looking for the same fish, and mega-clowns could be found on any number of import and wholesale lists. This is where the real problem begins. L340 apparently shares a large portion of its range with L129, and to the untrained eye, aka the collectors, look identical in color pattern.

Both L129 and L340, the moniker given by DATZ for LDA19, have both been being collected for the entire time, but L129 were the only ones making it to the US. The reason for this is that there are buyers at a lot of the export locations that make the vast majority of their companies income by purchasing only the cream of the crop. When L340 is compared to L129 based upon color, L129 is going to be the last to be bought nearly every time. And, those countries that don't have the advantage of "local" buyers are going to come up on the short end of the stick. We in the US were getting that "short end".

Now, to current day. Earlier this year, there was a discussion in the planetcatfish.com forum about the physical differences between L129 and L340. The discussion basically came to the point that L340 has a longer nose. This sounded rather vague to me initially as there are several species which have similar color pattern but appear to have a longer head. It wasn't till I actually saw the fish that I understood what a "longer nose" really meant. Just anterior of the eyes and interopercular spines, the fish appear to be "pinched" if viewed from above.

Early June, I had the opporotunity to purchase a group of 15 true L340. These were the first I had seen other than the occasional oddball, but didn't want to buy single fish with the rarity of the species nearly insuring that I would never find a mate. Needless to say, I bought the entire group to begin setting up breeders. At the time of this writing, I have acquired 2 more shipments of these fish, and established 4 groups to work on breeding.

It took a couple tries to really get a good ratio of sexes in these groups based upon vent checks. Initially, I was basing my sexing method on the interopercular and pectoral odontodes because I thought that the fish were apparently well conditioned if not a bit thin. As it turns out, both sexes apparently grow a lot more odontodes than I am used to seeing on a Hypancistrus. For that reason, I began vent checking the fish to get a more definitive ratio in the groups.

After much eye-strain, and a lot of what seemed futile sexing from a total group of 40 fish for a decent ratio, the colonies began to actually condition. Once this happened, it got really easy. I don't completely rely upon the following method since it is proven to be inaccurate in my other groups, but is a good guideline to get a start at sexing.

When the males became fully conditioned, they started getting a very dark pattern of large spots on their undersides. Up to this point, I have not noticed any females showing this pattern. This combined with a vent check has proven accurate, and has given me at least a small degree of pre-spawning activity.

I've been putting this update off for way too long. To make a long story short, L340 is a very easy pleco to breed. I kept 3 colonies with me during the move in 2006. After reaching a size of 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches SL, the females began filling with eggs. At that point, I cut back water changes to only what was needed to keep the tanks clean. After 3 weeks, a 50% water change was done to lower TDS. Within days all 3 colonies, each in separate tanks, had eggs. This is pretty much the norm for all Hypancistrus. However, it was surprising at how easy it was to convince them to spawn. Most species tend to require a couple of cycles of this technique before being successful. The only noteable drawback to this species seems to be the size of the spawns. Anything from 5-12 eggs seems to be the norm. It may be that the breeders were very young, barely mature, but these numbers seem to match up with what other breeders have experienced as well.