Bristle nosed plecs

[Willow 123]

Hi all
I'm a newbie to the forum but have had fish tanks for a number of years ( If I break any orum rules please be gentle with me).
Any way I have 2 tanks set up, a 30l one as a breeding tank for Mickey Mouse platies with a sponge filter and the other, a 60 litre cube as a general community tank which I am fitering with an air driven Matten filter.
My question is, I have 2 albino bristlenosed plecs in the community tank about 2 inches long and 1 is digging himself a pit under a large pebble. is this spawning behaviour?

 

[CassCats]

At that size, no, not yet.

But as they mature they will likely spawn where they can make a cave. I've had them do this. But at 2 inches, they're too young to breed.

Just building shelter--for now

 

[Willow 123]

That was my thoughts, but I've had them for about 6 months and this is the first time anything like this has happened.
As an aside what size/age are they likely to breed?

 

[MaloK]

Around a year maybe a little more, the male will develop it's bristle, then one day the female will disappear for days in the cave, laying eggs.

At this point it will take 5-10 days for the eggs to hatch, from then I start to feed very soft boiled spinach.

And start to think what you are going to do with 200 fry

 

[Willow 123]

200 fry? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, although it'll be a good excuse to get another tank

 

[CassCats]

In experience, they don't typically breed until they reach at the very minimum 3 inches not including the tail. But, it could happen, weirder things happen after all.

 

[MaloK]

When they start practicing, it proves the water conditions are right.

But I never seen very young ones, breed successfully. In fact the older couples where a lot more successful, that seems to imply some kind of acquired experience.

The setup they need is so simple, a piece of slate flat on 3 inches coarse sand substrate, you can put a couple rocks under to prevent them from sagging in too much... And spinach bunches.

They love to dig their own caves.

 

[CassCats]

You may even find fry will show up even without anything too. And then they'll spawn almost every month, and nothing eats the fry. And you got a large number of pleco fry coming out of the woodwork and you start going crazy telling your fish to stop it

From experience.


But baby plecos are the cutest baby fish you can possibly get.