My Bnpleco's Are Breeding.

NickAu

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So I got 2 BN plecos a week ago 1 standard male and an albino female, In the last 2 days the male has been acting strange around his cave not coming out not eating so I looked into the cave and found he is looking after eggs.
 
I am so exited.
 
 
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Now what do I do?
What special care if any do I need to take with the fry? How long before I see fry? Should I place some food at the entry to the cave for the male? HELP LOL

PS I am too young to be a grandfather.
 
What to do depends on their tank. If it is a dedicated breeding tank, then you need to do nothing. When the fry have consumed their yolk sacs and go free swimming, dad will push them out and get ready to spawn again. The fry will eat the same thing as adults, just less.
 
I this is a community tank, then most, if not all, of the fry would be on the menu. You will need to pull the cave with dad and almost free swimmers to a grow tank. My normal procedure here is to allow the dad to remain there for about a week after the fry emerge. During this time feed him well and get him back in shape for the next go around. After a week return him and the cave to the main tank in about the same piistion it was before.
 
Its a community tank With Hengeli Rasboras, Kuhil Loaches Apple snails, and a female betta.
 
I intend to separate them, the male will go in the 6 foot tank and the female will stay in my 2 footer.
 
Unless you are pulling the fry, there is no reason to move the male unless you wish not to have spawns. Bn plecos do not eat their young. Dads who think the other fish around will eat the babies tend to try to keep them in the cave a bit longer than they normally would. I think they are hoping they will gain some size.
 
Hmm I hear they spawn every 2 or 3 weeks.
 
The main culprit that I would expect to possibly eat the newly emerged fry would be the fighter, but only when the fry first leave the nest when they are showing colour instead of being little yellow wrigglers with egg yolk attached. That said I have had BN fry survive just fine the hungry mouths of guppies, Pakastani loaches and numerous other potential predators.
 
I have started putting some food just outside his cave and he comes out to eat, he is never away from the eggs for more than 2 minutes.
I also put a rock across half the cave to keep the apple snails out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_cqKHc0MGc&feature=youtu.be
 
We have babies, They are just little yellow blobs with a tiny tail. At this point the guy who gave me the 2 plecos took the male the cave and the babies home, When he gave the Male and Female to me we agreed on this. I will get the male back in due course.
 
Aww! How cute!!
 
Pics please, your video states its for private viewing only. 
 
Congratulations on your Grand-Fishies!
 
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So my Plecos have bred again, This time I kept 2 albino fry, They now happily live in a 20 lt shrimp cube.
 
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Yes I know that tank is too small for BN plecos, But i dont think 2 fry will be a problem for a few months.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5HRLc0dRr8&feature=youtu.be
 
Since its only shrimp in with them, you may get away with having them in there for a little longer.
 But trust me the sooner you can get them into a large tank with little or no competition they will rocket along in size. I know with my BN fry as soon as I can start moving on the larger 3-4 cm young the smaller ones that where hovering around 1-2cm very quickly get to the selling size of 3-4 cm.
Best of luck with the fry they certainly are cute at that age, oh and for now you should see the fry out and about almost all the time hovering food, but soon they will go into hide mode and preferring to only come out either at night or for special morsals of food.
 
They are the only inhabitants at this time I want the tank to mature before adding shrimp worth 30 plus bucks each.
 
Congrats on the babies....

They are cute little boogers
 

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