Need help getting Xanto to yellow up

[theunytedone]

Aloha everyone,

Well i do have my thread introducing my Xanto to all MFK...but now i feel i need to extend my hand and flag someone down for assistance. Basically here's the situation

-bought xanto (6in)
-threw it in with a 12in common
-it darkened up from being food hogged/bullied by the common
-i chucked the common
-xanto not really showing signs of lightening up.

Its VERY hard for me to distinguish whether or not the xanto is lightening up again after being stressed out, as i tend to look at it very closely every day.

Since raising 10 plecos, ive learned the effects of "dithers"
-bunch of gold barbs for Xanto dithers purchased.

____________________
Does anyone have any ancient chinese secrets or something for these fish?
Here's my setup right now

-90g
-Fluval 405 w/ bio media + peat granules + mechanical media
-AC110
-bare bottom
-driftwood

Water is 6.5pH, not sure about ammonia etc...tank's overfiltered AND bioload is very small. Tea color of water is also very prominent. These fish are supposed to love it.

Does the fish need natural sunlight in order to achieve the yellow color (I noticed this lightening-up effect after placing my baby royals in a location where they receive much more sunlight than previous.)....figured its a discussion-worthy matter.

I'm hitting a brick wall here, help me out all you pleco guardian angels!!!

Thanks very much in advance.

Nigel

 

[1043]

Xanto's colour will tell the condition of your water. They need very good water in order for the " Gold " to shine.
Maybe yours are stressed by the 12" common and at the same time u'll need to check ur parameters.

 

[theunytedone]

They need pristine water conditions, copy that.

I'll be purchasing a water test kit fairly soon. May be high in metal content because my tap water pipes are old etc...
Kind of OT but kind of not-what should I do to attain the necessary parameters? Never fudged with my water quality before to be honest.

And how about for lighting? I have a 4ft light bar, stock purple light blah blah...leave it on for at least 8hr a day.

Thank you, btw!

 

[RianS]

I've never kept a xanto due to the price and scare it can give a fish keeper.
But i've read a lot about them and what other fish keepers do so one day when i do take the plunge everything will be at it's best. The following is the information i've collected about xanto over the years. Take it with a grain of salt or however you please since i don't have any first hand experience.

First off as you already know water parameter is everything with these guys. For PH it's whatever works for you. 6.0 - 6.5 is ideal but some do as low as 5.0

As far as lighting, these guys tend to be more active at night or when the lights are off. As long as your tank is set up to give your xanto several hiding places it'll be fine.
Also people say that they really like to hang out in the flow of your filter output so positioning your wood to give it a hideout next to the flow would be something to try.
Once it's settled in it should come out during the day for a feeding.

What are you doing about diet? Are you doing mainly algae wafer and greens with supplement of hikari carnivore and meaty foods? If so good job and keep it up.

Overall i feel your doing a great job. The first several months seem to be the hardest and if you pass that hurdle then your on your way to owning a gold bar. It may take up to two years but watch a particular part of the fish for minor changes in color. The last part to morph is it's panda eyes. Keep us updated with pictures

 

[theunytedone]

RianS: Thanks so much! Who would have thunk it that so much information on this bad boy would come from someone so close to home. I find it funny that you've refrained from keeping one partially because of how it can scare the keeper. I won't lie, i definitely had the impression that i had been doing something wrong this whole time. The fish had gone from looking the way it did in my avatar, to almost the entire head being a blackish grey, and only the thick spine on each of its fins remained yellow, along with a spot about the size of a quarter where its nostrils are. Now im preeeeeeeetty sure i see yellow peeking through again in some areas, and his body has started to turn light gray. Apparently i'm expecting him to change fairly quickly. ((hard when i have an indo dat in the 85 underneath that changes color as fast as an octopus lol))...

i've noticed he's a bit more active at night. is the color of light okay for him? he also always chills in the same spot, pretty sure its where he feels the current from both filters, facing the direction the current is coming from. i've had the water level dropped, and was sacrificing the silence of my bedroom for what sounded like a river. maybe i'll do that again for the amount of good current it generates. For some reason i guess i equated "difficult to care for" with "fragile"

feeding: currently i've been feeding it the following
-Hikari Algae Wafers soaked in garlic extract (alternate between soaked/not soaked)
-Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets (not soaked)...the barbs nibble on them too.
-Hikari Massivore Delite (not soaked)...just a bigger sinking carn pellet right?
-frozen bloodworms for the dithers of the tank.

i havent really offered anything else...maybe i'll go get a vegetable to stuff with pellets after work today? *shrug*

I believe the eyes have changed actually...is it the last change to happen for the fish? i certainly hope not...in the picture they look like black orbs...now, they look like angry panda eyes...

i'll try get pics of the setup today and email them to myself so i can have them to put up tomorrow when i come in for work.

There's also a fairly large diameter section of PVC in there...like 8in diameter lol. im sure a lot of current will be un-diffused ifi remove it..itd make room for more wood too.

so i guess here's my homework
-water test kit
-take pics

Big Mahalo!

 

[RianS]

I'm not sure about the light...
I would say it's fine but then again it's not a natural color.

Your diet seems to be good. It'll be even better with the introduction of vegetables.

As far as the eyes being last to change what i mean is hard to explain. it's best to look at planetcatfish. When your xanto is almost full gold usually the last spot is the black over the eyes in picture #5. Then full gold would best be described by picture #10. It's very minor.

Lastly your xanto only turned really dark because of the common. If you already noticed it changing back then your on your way already.

Hopefully a real pro can chime in. Maybe pm Matabula to see if he has any comments. He seems to have an overwhelming amount of knowledge on plecos mostly Panaque's though. Yet he would probably still be able to help.

 

[theunytedone]

great idea, mahalo again!

its been a good minute since ive seen anything from matt...

i'll PM him now.

 

[Allan01230]

I have a large L-114 in a 90 with a small L-600. Also have 3 redhooks in there as dithers. This is a 5 foot tank. I use a light off a ten gallon tank on this 90. It is subdued lighting that the plecos like but I can still see them well. It leaves a lot of dark areas in the tank but again I can see them just fine. When I had the light that came with the tank on all the fish hid constantly even after a water change. Now they are all in the open but do retreat to the bogwood but have no promblem coming out again. Just check out the light strip from a ten. It may solve your promblem.

 

[theunytedone]

Also, i read something from another user on this board that there are actually 3 variants of this fish?

-one is grey (im assuming regular L56)
-one is grey/yellow/orange
-lastly is the full yellow version...

i asked my importer about this, and he argued there are no varients.

not sure who to believe so i bring it to the attention of the MFK board.

 

[theunytedone]

I have a large L-114 in a 90 with a small L-600. Also have 3 redhooks in there as dithers. This is a 5 foot tank. I use a light off a ten gallon tank on this 90. It is subdued lighting that the plecos like but I can still see them well. It leaves a lot of dark areas in the tank but again I can see them just fine. When I had the light that came with the tank on all the fish hid constantly even after a water change. Now they are all in the open but do retreat to the bogwood but have no promblem coming out again. Just check out the light strip from a ten. It may solve your promblem.

hmmm....this sounds like a pretty good idea. i'm actually using a 10g light/hood assembly for my 30L with an L190 and L114..its balancing on two HOB filters, so its kind of recessed as well as subdued...should make for a pretty good mod for the big tank.

PS, Allan: interesting on the 90 being a 5ft tank, is it still 18" wide?