Hypostomus Plecostomus

[Ludwig Venter]

I have this "friend" and he reproduces this strain repeatedly, but he would not tell........ Now my challenge is to also breed Hypostomus Plecosomus and rubb it in his face. (he's not a member of this forum, so I can say what I like.) All my resources says "not yet bred in captivity" but I know he does it so it has to be possible.
I've tried the natural approach keeping them in big ponds and hoping nature would take its course to no avail. If anyone out there has had any success with them, Common!! lets share info..... I'll tell you how I had success with bumble bee Gobies and you tell me how you bred your Plecostomus.

 

[Esfa]

huge ponds with huge mud banks, apparently.

 

[Colin_T]

Common!! lets share info..... I'll tell you how I had success with bumble bee Gobies and you tell me how you bred your Plecostomus.

that doesn't sound like a very fair exchange
apparently they don't mature until they are at least 5yrs old. They dig into the mud in the banks of the river and the male guards the nest like bristlenose catfish. You need to keep a group of them and let them pair off. You will probably need a huge tank or pond and they are unlikely to do anything in an average sized aquarium. However, you could try putting 3-4ft lengths of PVC pipe in the tank and capping one end. This would provide a similar habitat to a mud burrow.
Raise the temperature to about 28C and then do massive daily water changes to simulate a torrential downpour and flooding caused by the monsoons.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Collin my man!!... Once again you rise to the occassion.... I have my 4" pvc piping in position with 6 well matured 14" Plecos in another of my 4ft x 4ft x 3ft deep heated ponds and the temp is 27deg C. Somehow though, this "Friend" of mine must hatch artificially, cause he rears the babies in an ordinary 3ft all glass tank. I never see the adults, but there are thousands of babies at a constant supply.
Only thing I do not have in place is the capped one end...... and I am of the opinion that they normally breed after an intense storm (hence the vigirous water changes that you suggest). I'll try this and credit the success to your account. Now do you really want to know about breeding Bumble bees (or are you going to tell me)

 

[Colin_T]

When you say well matured fish at 14 inches, how old are they? Plecos should reach 14 inches within 2 years and this isn't their full size. Yours might not be old enough to breed.
Make sure you feed them heavily and do water changes to compensate for that. You can try offering them bits of fish or prawn. Although they are primarily vegetarian they do scavenge on dead fish and animal matter in the water. They use the protein from the fish/prawn to help develop eggs. Don't give them too much meat food otherwise it can rot in their stomach while it is being digested. A small amount every couple of days can help.
Once the eggs have hatched and the fry are moving around they can be moved into a normal aquarium for rearing up. Feed the fry on the same sort of foods as baby bristlenose catfish, algae, driftwood, blanched (partly cooked) pumpkin, zucchini, peas, etc
Try treating the fish for intestinal worms. Catfish often pick up parasitic worms from the substrate. The worms will prevent the fish from doing as well as they could.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

At your advice, I'll get prawns tommorrow when the stores re-open. to date they've been on veggie matter (mostly algae related things) and are around three years old (one of them {20"} is over 6 years) Thank you, and thank you again.... You are a walking encyclopedia. I'm looking forward to my first brood.