Forum Newb With Baby Plecs

hi there,

i only just signed up, but i have kept fish for many years, only tropics or coldwater, but never really ever tried to breed anything.

I have one tank thats got 6 fish in it, well did have, which are 3 coolie loaches, and 1 big sailfin plec (7inches roughly) and 2 small plecs about 2 inches long, one of them being a bristlenose.

2 days ago i discoverd baby plecs in the tank, and they are about 10mm 12mm and so far i have done a count of 10.

This really surprised me as i didnt even think i had a breeding pair, and not being the full expert on plecs, didnt even think possible as one is a bristle and the other not. Is it possible that is a gender difference of the species. I can only assume its the 2 small ones that have bred, as spot (predicatably named!) is just huge compared to them, kinda like domestic cat V tiger size comparison!

Does any one have any knowledge, the small plecs are what i call normal plecs, dark grayish colour and spotty but not really in white spot more kinda dull markings. certainly not like the ones that have zebra marks or pineapple style scales!

I also got another tank with a breeding pair of angels and 2 eels, one fire, one tyre track

thanks

you might find one is a male bristle nose - with bristles and the other is a female, without bristles

any chance of a photo of them?

Here are a couple of pics of our commons bristlenoses
This is a male


and this is a female

double post - sorry...

ok i just took some pics, just gonna upload in a sec, but your pics are good, the non bristle (female i now know ) is pretty much a 100% match looks exactly the same, and its act prob nearer 3-4 inches on second judgement. my bristle looks pretty similar too, only slightly differnt pattern so prob the same type too.

pics up in a sec....

ok the pics werent too great, so much so that its not even worth posting, but i reckon from the pics you shown me thats what they are, thanks for that at least I know now it wasnt some new hybrid or something unusual! I never realised plecs bred easily, just ignorance in that sense, but reading some the other threads in here seems they arent such the miracle I first thought!

heres a pic of the small and the big!

13 little ones at last count they are getting braver by the day

Fed our 2 days ago to find that our mixed brown and albio pairs have finally started breeding

Check the tank after lights out - they will be scooting about all over the glass