That's a bit Flash - Keeping and breeding flash plecos

Flash plecos are a striking dark brown pleco covered with thin white to yellowish stripes. They were introduced into the hobby by Bernd Schmitt in 1994 and in 1996 they were given the L-number 204 (Evers and Seidel 2005, Ekström 2007). However, it wasn’t until 2013 that they were given the scientific name Panaqolus albivermis,

from the Latin ‘albus’ meaning white and ‘vermis’ meaning worm, in reference to their variable white to yellow patterning (Lujan et al. 2013). They originate from the Rio San Alejandro and other tributaries of the Rio Ucayali on the Andean slopes of Peru (Seidel 2008). Flash plecos are commonly found in wood piles in areas with swifter current (Evers and Seidel 2005). The water in the Rio San Alejandro in September was quite alkaline (pH 8.4), with a conductivity of 190µS/cm and a temperature of 30°C (Evers and Seidel 2005). Panaqolus species (e.g. ‘tiger’ plecos L002, gold stripe Panaques L169, clown plecos L448) including flash plecos, and a few other types of plecos (Panaque and Cochliodon species) are specialised wood grazers which consume large quantities of wood in the wild. They have robust spoon-shaped teeth to gouge wood, and they eat wood particles, but these particles pass quickly through their digestive tract (less than 4 hours), and there is little evidence that they digest significant amounts of wood (cellulose and hemicellulose) instead they appear to digest microbes (detritus, fungi and bacteria) that are embedded in the wood (German 2009, Lujan et al. 2011, McCauley et al. 2020). Ingesting wood to obtain microbes, as opposed to digesting wood, does appear to be an important component in the diet of these species in the wild and wood should be provided in aquaria. Wood also provides great natural cover and places to hide. Flash plecos are a relatively small (to about 14 cm total length, TL) adaptable species. Provided they have an appropriate diet (mainly algal wafers and veggies) and plenty of cover, including wood, they will do well in many community aquaria with pH’s of 6.0–8.0 and temperatures of 25–30oC. They are one of the more difficult plecos to breed but this has been achieved a few times overseas (e.g. Ekström 2007; Laid 2012; Heijmen Bennett-Leaver 2017). In 2006 I purchased a flash pleco, my first ‘fancy’ pleco. That flash pleco was part of a Peru shipment imported by Phill Collis and what started off as one flash pleco soon became four. They were all large adults and the following year I added 6 smaller fish – the addiction had begun. They were housed in a large fish tank (648 litres – 1800Lx600Hx600W) with plenty of bogwood, including a

Some of the large original L204s on arrival Photo: Darren Stevens

hollowed-out log, several large Amazon swords (Echinodorus grisebachii formerly E. amazonicus), and a few bamboo and ceramic caves. Over the next four years I tried many approaches to try and encourage my flash plecos to breed: raising and lowering the water temperature, adjusting the pH, large water changes (Reverse osmosis (RO), rainwater, and tapwater), adding powerheads, reducing and increasing filtration, and even leaving the tank for long periods with no water changes. Unfortunately, nothing worked but I did seem to get close. Several times I had females waiting alongside the dominant male’s cave (a hollow log), but he never let them in. It seems their difficult to breed reputation was well deserved. Then disaster struck! During a winter cold snap, I was installing a new steel tank rack in the fish room and temporarily I moved the flash plecos to a 400-litre tank in a non-heated part of the garage. After a week the heater stopped working and I lost most of the colony. I kept the two survivors for a few more years and then Geoff Haglund offered me his group of large adult flash plecos. Three years later I had a short but nasty brush with velvet disease. I had naively introduced a female Rio Ucalayi bristlenose into the flash pleco tank and she was carrying velvet but showed no symptoms of it. I now have a quarantine tank! On both occasions I considered getting out of the hobby, but I had plenty of other plecos that were doing well and except for flash plecos I rarely loose fish. I still have some of my original fancy plecos with 15-year old king tigers (L066), 13-year old tiger plecos (L002), and 13year old leopard cactus plecos (L114). I did, however, take a break from keeping flash plecos for a while. In 2019 flash plecos were back on the importers’ lists. They are still one of my favourite plecos and I felt it was time to get some more. Over the course of a year I purchased 10 in what I thought was a deluded attempt to breed them. They were initially kept with young gold stripe Panaques (Panaqolus sp. L169) but after about a year the largest ones

The breeding male (90 mm TL) above and likely breeding female (91 mm TL) below Photo: Darren Stevens

were showing signs of maturity, so I transferred them to their own 270 litre (900Lx600Wx500H) tank. The tank had a thick bed of fine gravel (Daltons™ Propagation Sand No.2) and it was furnished with a selection of D-shaped ceramic caves, topped by a slate tile, and surrounded by large river rocks and plenty of bogwood. The tank was initially filtered by two Eheim classic 2217’s (2000 l/hr), kept at a temperature of 26–27°C, and lit for 10 hours a day by a single T8 fluorescent tube. Every two weeks I gave the tank a 25–35% water change with tap water (pH 7.2, c. 60 TDS) and once a month a good gravel vac. They were fed each evening on mainly JBL NovoFect or JBL NovoPleco with small amounts of JBL NovoTab, NLS Thera A+, or Repashy Community plus. After three months I removed one of the Eheim 2217’s to reduce the current and filtration to try and stimulate some activity. I was also about to go away for work for a month, so I gave the tank a good clean removing the furnishings and giving the gravel a vacuum. There were now two obvious spiked up males (one with a really nice spotted pattern) and three obvious females. I set the tank back up again and topped it up with rainwater (pH 5.9, c. 60 TDS, about 40% of the tank volume) followed by a similar rainwater change the next day. I hoped the rainwater would drop the pH and reduce the dissolved solids. When I left, the tank had a pH of 6.5 but after I got back the pH had dropped to 6 and the water looked crystal clear, so I decided to leave them alone for another month to see if a long period of no disturbance and stable water parameters made a difference. It may have made a difference for Farid Laid in his 2012 Amazonas magazine breeding report. This could surprisingly be due to flash plecos breeding during the dry season in the wild. Evers and Seidel (2005) found juvenile flash plecos were common in the Rio San Alejandro during September and suggested that they either breed year-round or only during the dry season. After two months I stripped the tank down for a good clean and when I upended one of the ceramic caves into a bowl with tank water, to my delight 24 roughly 2-day old young out fell out. I was lucky, if I had stripped the tank down earlier I would have had to raise eggs, which I find more difficult. After some coaxing, the male came out of his cave and he was the attractive heavily spotted one. I only hope some of the young have similar patterning. It looked like breeding had been a rough event as the only female with a slender belly had her fins and tail chewed halfway back to the base. She has since made a quick recovery. Interestingly, while there were two larger females in the group, the male and likely breeding female were almost the same size (90 and 91 mm total length, TL). I transferred the young to a homemade floating ‘Gerdbox’ (see Aquarium World 60:3) to which I had added a thin layer of very fine black gravel and several small pieces of bogwood. I floated the GerdBox in the parent’s tank and placed a piece of black Corflute over the cover glass above it to block most of the light until they were feeding (12 days old). I cleaned the Gerdbox out daily. I lost one young early on but otherwise

they proved easy to rear. At 12 days old they were almost 2 cm and starting to eat NovoFect. At 1 month old they were 2.4 cm and looked like mini adults and at two months old they were almost 3 cm (2.8 cm) TL. While my history of keeping flash plecos has been difficult they still remain one of my favourite plecos. Breeding them has been challenging but extremely rewarding and a personal highlight of 15 years of keeping fancy plecos. When they are large enough, most of these young will be passed on to another breeder. Hopefully we can both get them to breed again. Thanks to Geoff Haglund for his comments and improvements on an earlier version of the article.

Flash pleco young at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 days old Photo: Darren Stevens

References

Ekström J (2007). Spawning Panaque sp, L204. PlanetCatfish. https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld. php?article_id=354 Evers H-G, Seidel I (2005). Baensch Catfish Atlas Volume 1: South American catfishes of the Families Loricariidae, Cetopsidae, Nematogenyidae and Trichomycteridae. Mergus press, Malaysia. 943 p. German DP (2009). Inside the guts of wood-eating catfishes: can they digest wood? Journal of Comparative Physiology B 179: 1011–1023. https://10.1007/s00360-009-0381-1 Heijmen Bennett-Leaver J (2017). Breeding Panaqolus albivermis (L204), the flash pleco (Siluriformes: Loricariidae). Journal of the Catfish Study Group 18 (1): March 2017. 10–13. Laid F (2012). Breeding Panaqolus sp. L204. Amazonas JAN/ FEB 2012: 44–49. Lujan NK, German DP, Winemiller KO (2011). Do woodgrazing fishes partition their niche?: Morphological and isotopic evidence for trophic segregation in Neotropical Loricariidae. Functional Ecology 25 (6): 1327–1338. https://10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01883.x Lujan NK, Steele S, Velasquez M (2013). A new distinctively banded species of Panaqolus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from

the western Amazon Basin in Peru. Zootaxa 3691 (1): 192–198. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3691.1.8 McCauley M, German DP, Lujan NK, Jackson CR (2020). Gut microbiomes of sympatric Amazonian wood-eating catfishes (Loricariidae) reflect host identity and little role in wood digestion. Ecology and Evolution 10 (14): 7117–7128. https:// doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6413 Seidel I (2008). Back to Nature Guide to L-Catfishes. Fohrman Aquaristik AB. Sweden. 208 p. Flash pleco young at 14 (1.7 cm TL), 25 (2.2 cm TL), 35 (2.4 cm TL), and 44 (2.6 cm TL) days old Photo: Darren Stevens

Flash pleco young at 66 days old (29 mm TL) Photo: Darren Stevens