What is wrong with these Acarichthys heckelii

[Plecolove]

Hello dear forum

I am from Germany so i want to apologize for my enlish at first.

I have a question about which I haven't been able to google / find an answer, which is also the reason for my registration. Maybe I can be given expert information here. I dedicated myself to keeping and breeding L Plecos 10 years ago. However, since it has somehow become too boring for me recently that there is always "yawning emptiness" in the large pools because the Fish are constantly hiding, I decided to integrate a few additional fish.

I quickly fell in love with the Acarichthys heckelii, they also fit well into my system from the water values and the temperature. Briefly a few information about the pool 250cm long 100cm deep 50cm high. 28.8 ° C and fairly soft water.

In July the year before last I was able to buy a group of 6 young fish, these were about 3cm-4cm in size at the time of purchase. In the meantime, they have grown like the plague and appear to be in excellent health ...

But now to my real question!

What about the humps on the forehead, these are becoming more and more apparent. I feed too much and that's bacon ... or something is wrong with you. All other Acarichthys heckelii that I have seen or googled definitely do not look like that ... The expression started around August last year. They are now about 19cm tall and quite beefy. Not all of the 6 animals have this but only 4 out of 6. The other 2 look like they should. But they were all bought together. If needed i can post additional Pics


Can someone tell me something here? It would be a pleasure for me.


Love from

Claudia

 

[tlindsey]

Hello dear forum

I am from Germany so i want to apologize for my enlish at first.

I have a question about which I haven't been able to google / find an answer, which is also the reason for my registration. Maybe I can be given expert information here. I dedicated myself to keeping and breeding L Plecos 10 years ago. However, since it has somehow become too boring for me recently that there is always "yawning emptiness" in the large pools because the Fish are constantly hiding, I decided to integrate a few additional fish.

I quickly fell in love with the Acarichthys heckelii, they also fit well into my system from the water values and the temperature. Briefly a few information about the pool 250cm long 100cm deep 50cm high. 28.8 ° C and fairly soft water.

In July the year before last I was able to buy a group of 6 young fish, these were about 3cm-4cm in size at the time of purchase. In the meantime, they have grown like the plague and appear to be in excellent health ...

But now to my real question!

What about the humps on the forehead, these are becoming more and more apparent. I feed too much and that's bacon ... or something is wrong with you. All other Acarichthys heckelii that I have seen or googled definitely do not look like that ... The expression started around August last year. They are now about 19cm tall and quite beefy. Not all of the 6 animals have this but only 4 out of 6. The other 2 look like they should. But they were all bought together. If needed i can post additional Pics


Can someone tell me something here? It would be a pleasure for me.


Love from

Claudia

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Welcome aboard
Nothing wrong most Cichlid will develop Nuchal Humps particularly males but sometimes females also.https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/acarichthys-heckelii.703172/ those in the pics were given hormones your Heckelii have natural Nuchal Humps.

 

[Plecolove]

Hi tlindsey

Thank you very much for your advise/information, i startet to worry about these "Nuchal Humps". Because they getting bigger and bigger... Nice to get such a quick answer, i tried in varius german forums but didnt even get one answer.. Thanks alot

Greetings Claudia

 

[tlindsey]

Hi tlindsey

Thank you very much for your advise/information, i startet to worry about these "Nuchal Humps". Because they getting bigger and bigger... Nice to get such a quick answer, i tried in varius german forums but didnt even get one answer.. Thanks alot

Greetings Claudia

I'm tagging a member that has lots of experience with Heckelii duanes .

 

[duanes]

This is normal maturing event in male Acarichthys.
If you want them to spawn, provide some type of tunnels.
In nature they spawn in tunnels plecos dig.
In aquariums, lengths of PVC pipe of about 3" (7.6 centimeters) or lathermay work .
Durning the spawning rut, mine all killed each other in a 150 gal (568 lire) tank, so if you can use a larger enclosure would work better.
An aquarist I know of had success using a 260 gal (990 litre) tank.

 

[Plecolove]

Hello Duanes,

Thank you very very much for your Advise and Tips. Btw this is such a nice Forum with lots lots Informations.

My Aquariums are all custom build 1250L Aquariums with the same Dimensions 250x100x50cm so unfortunately i can`'t put them anywere else (bigger).
Can i somehow prevent them from spawning or what can i do if i dont want them to spawn..? Or ist this impossilble to prevent. I dont want them killing each other.

Right now there are pretty peacfull and get along very well with each others and the Plecos. I mean they started to dig arround quite heavly but i have only like 4cm of subtrate, which they shift around. But this goes like 3 to 4 Months.

Greetings Claudia

 

[duanes]

Mine were very peaceful until they hit that maturity stage, they did not show overt aggression, if I remember right Started with 6 or 7 and they seemed to intimidate each other to death at maturity, it was disconcerting to say the least.
My water was quite hard, pH 7.8, 280 ppm total hardness, so this may have had a negative effect.
Maybe you'll have better luck, nothing in the aquarium world is absolute

 

[Plecolove]

Mine are now arround 18-20cm big.. I have a really huge root or woodpiece in the tank so they cant see each other if they dont want or can move each other out of the way but now i am a little concerned. Ive seen them sometimes interlocking each other with their mouth and pushing each other arround but nothing serious happend.. When i feed they are really excited but dont fight for the food...
How do that fights look like or the intimidation, maybe i can split them up... I have soft water but can i do something else to prevent them from killing each other... and does this always happends or only if the tank is to small

Greetings Claudia