Breeding Bristlenose Pleco

Hi everyone,
 
I have 3 bristlenose pleco's at the moment and i want to breed them. 2x females and 1x male. One of the females is 4.5-5 inches and the male is about 3.5-4 inches, i have made them a pvc cave as the one the originally had could barely even fit him in it and she couldnt fit at all, not that she really tried. the new cave fits them both perfectly and i have placed the opposite end of the pipe against the glass and covered that part of the glass with 5 sheets of paper so it is still dark, but i can lift it to see if they have made any progress.
 
Yesterday after installing it, the male made himself at home. The female would come and sit next to the entrance of the cave but never enter, the male would then come out of the cave and start rubbing up against her which i am guessing is the courting phase. The only issue is that the female runs away from him and hides. From all of the vids i have seen, the female doesnt usually run.
 
Is the issue that she is too big for him? or is she just genuinely not interested?
 
The 3rd pleco i have is about 2-2.5 inches, am i better to wait for her to get abit bigger?If so, how long until she should show interest, if any?
 
The attached photo is of my male pleco infront of his cave (the hole to the left)
The cave was made with 65mm pvc pipe with a 45 degree elbow at the end so i can have it against the glass to view, also because i thought it would look odd having a dead straight pipe in the tank)
I also had a spare half pipe style log that i slipped over the end to hide the pipe, then covered the whole thing with the rocks in the cave to look more natural.

Could you keep us updated on your progress? I am really curious about breeding different species. Sorry I have no help to give .

Everything is fine, she just isn't ready yet. Pleco sex and courting can be rough, scale or fin damage is not uncommon. He will eventually trap her in the cave and not let her out til she gives up her eggs. then she is out of the loop, he will tend the eggs and wigglers at the back of the cave.
 
I would suggest you get real caves with closed back ends. Get 2 or 3 and spread them across the frony of the tank so you can look inside from the front using a flashlight. here are a couple of my pleco breeding tanks to illustrate:

Thank you for your help, TwoTankAdmin.
I would be glad to keep you both posted on progress, and i have decided to put a piece of cardboard over the end of the hole (the back end of the pipe is against the glass) so that i can lift that when i want to have a look.
I am not exactly in a financial situation to go out and get some caves so im using what i can around home. I actually cut an ice cream container in half to shorten it. then cut a hole in the front. I put rocks over the top to hold it down and make it darker cause the light was going through the container, but i have a bit of the container against the glass so that i can flash a light on it and it puts a dull light into the container allowing me to view inside.

I'll be following this one for sure! 
 
And I'm also a big fan of the 'homemade' approach to fish keeping, so well done!  

Thanks Robbo, 
Ill put up a couple of photos of the caves but i havent worked out hpw to put pictures in comments yet

TwoTankAmin said:

Everything is fine, she just isn't ready yet. Pleco sex and courting can be rough, scale or fin damage is not uncommon. He will eventually trap her in the cave and not let her out til she gives up her eggs. then she is out of the loop, he will tend the eggs and wigglers at the back of the cave.
 
I would suggest you get real caves with closed back ends. Get 2 or 3 and spread them across the frony of the tank so you can look inside from the front using a flashlight. here are a couple of my pleco breeding tanks to illustrate:

Click to expand...

 
I like the aquascaping in your tanks
All of them actually lol

Hey guys, slight update.
Was checking a few sites and learn't that the activity i mentioned in the original post is actually him chasing her away to show her that he can look after the cave and the eggs!
Eventually he will let he into the cave, is she cant fit she will normally try and go in backwards, lay the eggs and he will proceed to push them further into the cave
Im now excited that it is actual courting and not her being a cow xD

Best of luck man!
I'm super excited to be buying two 3cm peppermint bristlenose on the weekend, hopefully when they grow up I can try breed them too!

Awesome! Good Luck!
I have heard alot of people say that you should have atleast 2-3 females per male, but i dont know about bristlenoses, i only have a male and 2 females,  but the other female just swims around (Dont think she is big enough yet)
 
Oh, and 3cm is tiny lol they wont start breeding until about 2.5 inches (6.5cm)

TigerOscar11 said:

Awesome! Good Luck!
I have heard alot of people say that you should have atleast 2-3 females per male, but i dont know about bristlenoses, i only have a male and 2 females,  but the other female just swims around (Dont think she is big enough yet)
 
Oh, and 3cm is tiny lol they wont start breeding until about 2.5 inches (6.5cm)

Click to expand...

Yeah I know they are way too small, adult peppermint bristlenoses are not cheap mate
Around $100 AU here, so my only option is getting them young. As for the ratio's, shouldn't be a problem having 1m/1f, as bristlenose are not overly aggressive/annoying like say some livebearers are, nor do they 'colony spawn' like american cichlids. 2 males can often get a little bit aggressive, so it's not advised to keep just 2 males together in a small tank. 

thats a good point haha
 
Yeah, they should be fine, some people say have a 2/1 ratio for the fact of the male may not want the female you have given.
 
I am moving my fish to a bit bigger of a tank, they were in a 60ltr but now they will be in a 92ltr tank. So they will have abit more room to move

Hey guys,
 
Have to put a small hold on this topic from alittle bit as i am moving my fish to a bigger tank
I will kepp you posted though as i plan to use my older tank as a breeding tank

Intrested in following too

AHHHH Feel stupid asking this.....
But how do i add pics? i know how to add them from a webpage but cant get them from files on my computer

Photobucket > make an account > upload onto there > click on image > click IMG link > paste here > post reply