I'm a pleco noob, so take this with a grain of salt. Other members of panaquolus or
panque sp. are known to spawn in driftwood caves- logs with holes, branches tied together etc. I would hazard a guess that providing a cave-log, protected dwelling would be a good start.
According to the planetcatfish datasheet on L002 (actually, many in
panaque) breeding behavior is "unreported".
I did read however, that other sp. of Loricariidae will breed following a period of "simulated drought". Essentially they dropped the water level and let the water quality decline over a period of 2 weeks. Then they refilled the tank with fresh, slightly cooler water to simulate the return of the rainy season- which triggered the pair to spawn.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not an expert and I'd be pretty hesitant to let my water maintenance slide for 2 weeks. I don't even know if this method is applicable to L002. At the very least, you'd have to be sure you were working with healthy, mature specimens that could wiststand the temporary "drought" conditions. Obviously they'd need to be conditioned (feeding-wise) for breeding. Seems like alot of trial an error is ahead, if you decide to try.
On the other hand, it may be just as simple as conditioning and providing a cave, then POOF! lots of fry.
I guess the pros have a replenishable supply of test subjects, so they can always afford to try.
GL in your quest!
Oh yeah- Nice fish!
