Breeding BN Plecs

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Barday

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Hi all,

I have heard that many people here have had quite a bit of sucess breeding bn plecos. I have had my male for about 6 months & my female for about 1.5.

I feed with frozen blood worms, artemia, or krill pacifica ever other day, and with flake food and algae tabs on the other days. I also put some peeled frozen peas and cucumber in the tank too.

Is there anything else I can do to get them breeding?


Thanks for any help

(tank is 30g heavily planted with bogwood and slate, occupants are 3 gourami, 4 mollies, 5 corries and 2 ADF's)
 
ours took about 4 months to settle in and get together...

They might never get down to it if they arn't happy with each other.
 
i don't know what to tell you, i had mine for a couple of months when they bred, i didn't do anything special, didn't think they would, but they did. maybe i just got lucky with the two i picked out. good luck!
 
I had my golden bristlies for about 6 weeks and there was lots of eggs and about 100 babies :hyper: then about 6 weeks later more eggs, all in all they had 3 batches in just over 3 months so I seperated dad for a little while to give her a break. Do they have anywhere he can hide? I bought a barnacle thing and he immediately took to it, only came out to eat then lots of eggs :D mine don't stop breeding (given the chance!) I didn't feed anything specific just algae wafers and cucumber.
Good luck with breeding :)
 
Ok this might be good news.................

My male has gon missing from the tank, I did not see him for a good couple of days, untill I spotted him today. He has burrowed under my drift wood and has stayed there. I have put some food in the tank, bloodworm artemia and cucumber and he has not come out. Do you think he is looking after a few eggs? :hyper:

Or do you think there could be something wrong?? :unsure:

If they are eggs how long will they tanke to hatch?

The others in the tank are, Mollies gouramis, corries and ADF's. Will any of thse eat the fry?
 
Hi, I would say he is guarding eggs, you can pick the wood up and look he won't move he's guarding them. All your fish would eat the fry so if you have a small tank available I would move him on the wood into a pot and into another tank on their own otherwise its unlikely they'll survive :( they take about 3-5 days to start hatching they will look like little flaps hanging off the eggs and will stick to the glass, they live of the yolk sac for about 5 days. Dad will not harm them in anyway, so they are safe to stay with him.
Good luck
 
Sounds like he may have eggs... can you see with a torch?

It'll take about a week for the eggs to hatch - then about a week untill he'll let the out of the cave :)

good luck and keep up with the water changes :nod:
 
Thanks for the replys shark & Smith ;)

I tried looking with a torch, It was the first thing I did! :p Unfortunately I couldn't see anything :/

I dont have anywhere to put them once they hatch which is pretty unfortunate because I love BNs :(

If I find them in time, I'll put them in a breeding trap. Do the bn fry stick to wood and glass or will they be swimming arround?

also, what do I feed them if i do catch them? Algae wafers and crushed flakes? :dunno:
 
Defo looks like he's guarding eggs, same thing happened when I first got mine ! ;)

Only 17 days after putting the pair in the tank, I had fry swimming around my tank.

From that first batch, I've got about a dozen fry still alive. Not sure how many there were originally...... and I did disturb them a bit early.

I'm planning on getting a 2nd breeding tank, so that the fry can grow-out in a nice safe environment.

Good luck with it anyway mate ;) If things don't work out 1st time round, you can sure bet that there'll be a 2nd/3rd chance etc etc ;)
 
Monitor for another week or so. If he doesn't come out to eat, then for sure he is guarding the eggs... ;)

Once they begin to breed, they breed non-stop! You will get a spawn pretty much every month...
 
yhbae said:
Monitor for another week or so. If he doesn't come out to eat, then for sure he is guarding the eggs... ;)

Once they begin to breed, they breed non-stop! You will get a spawn pretty much every month...
Cool! Sounds like I gotta get the red light out, coz someones gonna get busy in my tank! :p Thanks guys!!

Andy - Just out of interest mate, what else did you have in the tank and how big were the fry when they were free swimming?
 
I had the fish that are in my signature ;)

2 Clown Loaches, 4 Zebra Danios, 6 Cardinal Tetra's, 3 Swordtails, 5 Platties, 1 Guppy

The fry were about 5-6mm long when I accidentally released them into the main tank. Think the male was almost ready to do that anyway.

To be honest, I think the pair must have been a breeding pair anyway when I bought them, which kinda helps things a bit ;)
 

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