What's new
By:
Filters

Baby BN Plecos?

Fishmanic

Fishmanic

Hammer Time
Staff member
Global Moderator ⚒️
Tank of the Month 🏆
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
Messages
13,015
Reaction score
14,191
Location
Northeastern USA
I noticed two little wiggly things about 1/2 inch long on the substrate. They look like tiny plecos. I am thinking my Plecos spawned. In the 29 gallon tank, I only had two full grown Plecos, one male and one female, two black skirt tetra survivors, and a 4 year old peppered cory.
I know nothing about feeding baby plecos. I usually drop in a couple of wafers every few days, some flakes for the skirt tetras, and occasional shrimp pellets.

Does anyone have any advice for raising the two baby plecos? What do I feed them? Do i need to remove them to their own tank or will they grow fine in my present tank?
 
Last edited:
I dropped in an algae wafer and they were nibbling at it. I will drop in a piece of blanched zucchini later.

I have seen two of them so far. I wonder if more will show up later as they are very tiny and hard to see. But they do show up nicely against the white pool filter sand substrate.
 
Last edited:
Fishmanic said:
I noticed two little wiggly things about 1/2 inch long on the substrate. They look like tiny plecos. I am thinking my Plecos spawned. In the 29 gallon tank, I only had two full grown Plecos, one male and one female, two black skirt tetra survivors, and a 4 year old peppered cory.
I know nothing about feeding baby plecos. I drop in a couple of wafers every few days, some flakes for the skirt tetras, and occasional shrimp pellets.

Does anyone have any advice for raising the two baby plecos? What do I feed them? Do i need to remove them to their own tank or will they grow fine in my present tank?
Click to expand...
Tiny sized pellets for pleco fry are ideal. I don't know the rest yet because I haven't raised plecos yet.
 
I see two more so I have a total of 4 (so far). Dont see any eggs but I imagine there may be some in the small caves in the tank. I have never had fish spawn in my tanks so this is exciting. Seeing I have few other fish, I may just concentrate on having a Pleco tank. When they get much bigger, I'll have to bring some to my LFS with which I have a good relationship so I think they may take them or give me credit. I didnt see any BN plecos in their tanks, just one common pleco so I think they might be glad to take them.

I read that they are clear looking when first hatched but darken up after 2 to 3 weeks. So I am assuming these guys are a few weeks old already.

I'll have to be very careful now when doing a substrate cleaning with my Python.
 
Last edited:
Fishmanic said:
I see two more so I have a total of 4 (so far). Dont see any eggs but I imagine there may be some in the small caves in the tank. I have never had fish spawn in my tanks so this is exciting. Seeing I have few other fish, I may just concentrate on having a Pleco tank. When they get much bigger, I'll have to bring some to my LFS with which I have a good relationship so I think they may take them or give me credit. I didnt see any BN plecos in their tanks, just one common pleco so I think they might be glad to take them.

I'll have to be very careful now when doing a substrate cleaning with my Python.
Click to expand...
Good idea. The LFS will help you.
 
First pic.. video to follow.
Here they are munching on an algae wafer.
IMG_3001.jpeg
 
I did not intend to have the BN plecos spawn. A couple of years ago, the female BN was in a 35 gallon tall hex tank and the male BN was in the 29 gallon tank. The 35 gallon tank sprung a leak so I decided to move the female BN to the 29 gallon tank. Never noticed a spawn in the 2 years they were together but I had Tiger Barbs in the tank which may have well eaten any fries that may have showed up. The barbs slowly died out and I did not replace them.

This was a total surprise to me to find the 4 BN fries today. Luckily I spotted them before I might have sucked them up with my Python on the next WC. It is possible on the last water change I may have sucked up some fries as I hover right over the substrate to pick up detrius from the Plecos.
 
I hate plecos but very cool that they had babies.....nice size to flush down the loo







Don't flush fish down the toilet people...I'm just kidding
 
I just kind hope they dont breed like rabbits. I heard you could get as many as 100 plecos per spawn. 4 fries are cute. 100 would be a disaster as I’d have trouble even giving them away. I might have to buy another tank to separate the two adult BN. I hear they can breed once a month. Once a month times 100 would be 1200 plecos in a year. And then in a year when the fries mature and spawn, I could get many thousands more plecos.🤪 And then they will take over the world :lol:
 
Last edited:
Fishmanic said:
I just kind hope they dont breed like rabbits. I heard you could get as many as 100 plecos per spawn. 4 fries are cute. 100 would be a disaster as I’d have trouble even giving them away. I might have to buy another tank to separate the two adult BN. I hear they can breed once a month. Once a month times 100 would be 1200 plecos in a year. And then in a year when the fries mature and spawn, I could get many thousands more plecos.🤪 And then they will take over the world :lol:
Click to expand...
And then I'll have to borrow Colin's spaceship to leave the planet 🙋‍♀️ see ya!
 
I now count 11 baby BN Plecos. I imagine there may be several more hiding. I dropped in some India Almond leaves and am feeding algae wafers. I dont know if my LFS will take them once they grow another inch or so.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TheDudeAbides818
Pleco appetites??
Replies
5
Views
247
TheDudeAbides818
TheDudeAbides818
TheDudeAbides818
Picky angels
Replies
0
Views
113
TheDudeAbides818
TheDudeAbides818
Fishmanic
Feeding pleco
Replies
14
Views
565
ghyti
G
Magnum Man
Strangely carnivorous plants???
Replies
0
Views
145
Magnum Man
Magnum Man
biofish
Downsizing number of tanks, question on pleco
Replies
2
Views
293
Colin_T
Colin_T

Most reactions

Useful Links

Back
Top