Plecos

[mells]

Hi,

Im trying to breed plecos, I currentley have four of them, one bristlenose, albino & 2 common ones. Am I right i saying that they need to be a certain age, and will have to pair off.

The trouble im having is, I cannot get any decent info on how to sex them, especually the common ones.

Can you tell me that they will need to be the same species to breed together, sureley this cannot be right as how do then get constant new varieties!

Can anyone help?

Im gutted to, i popped to my local ps they had a breeding pair for sale, and now their sold

Thanks

Mells

 

[smithrc]

bristle noses are quite easy to breed once they are old enough - sexint is straight forward - males have a very brisly nose

the femals has a lot less or none at all.

they will breed from about 3" upwards

Do a search on here - there is more info on here than you can shake a stick at

 

[andywg]

I am pretty certain that commons and plecos do not breed together (think trying to breed a great dane with a bulldog... ). Constant new varieties are discovered rather than produced.

Considering the eventual size I would certainly not want to breed commons...can you cope with numerous 18 inch monsters? And most shops won't give much money for them as they are readily available.

 

[BOD]

i agree with andyw...why are you trying to breed common plecs there a nusiance as it is without having more of them around, not a lot of people can house these things as they get huge, i would bother if i were you...sorry just my opinion...

EDIT POST NUMBER 666 HAHAHA!!!

 

[mells]

I can certainly see your point about common plecos, I have a hug one already which im debating giving away, as she is way to big and monsterous.

I am currently looking at breeding L Pleco's called King Tigers as there beut's, the L no is L66.

you guys got much expeirence in breeding plecos in general?

Is so what type, and can I ask why you breed them?

Just out of curiosity!

Thanks

Mells

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If you want to breed common plecs, to give you an idea of how much money you need, they need a 200-300gallon tank with huge mud bank and the exact ph and temp- common plec lay and fertilise their eggs in the mud bank very deep down in it which then incubate in the mud and hatch- i have heard they produce huge quantitys of offspring too and the adults need to be full grown to breed. There are realy too many common plecs around and its a big inevstment to breed them, simply putting a male and female together won't make them breed if you don't have a deep muc bank and huge tank.
I have a male and female common plec but it is unlikely they will ever breed successfully due to no mud bank in their tanks.
Bristlenose plecs are much easier to breed you still need to be prepared to actually acomodate the offspring and adults adequetely, how many gallons does the tank they are living in hold or that they are going to live in?

 

[mells]

Im not interested in breeding Common Plecos, I was just curious.
Thanks for the info though.

I have a question to ask about the Zebra Pleco though, are they just getting more exstint, do you reckon the price of them will go up?

Thanks

Mells

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Zebra plecs are extinct in the wild apart from a very few living in reserves and it is illegal to buy wild ones now, the only zebra plecs available to the general public are ones that are captivity bred but due to them being incredibly hard to breed there is high demand but short supply and so they are very expensive.
The average price for a zebra plec between £100 to £130's, and thats if you are luckier enough to find them- most captivity bred zebra plecs sold are also old and pass they breeding prime years.
If you are new to plec breeding, i suggest you stay well away from trying to breed zebra plecs unless you are willing to invest a heck of a lot of research, time, money and energy into breeding them- just getting the right breeding enviroment for them is difficult enough and a big challenge.

 

[smithrc]

Zebra plecs are extinct in the wild apart from a very few living in reserves and it is illegal to buy wild ones now, the only zebra plecs available to the general public are ones that are captivity bred but due to them being incredibly hard to breed there is high demand but short supply and so they are very expensive.
The average price for a zebra plec between £100 to £130's, and thats if you are luckier enough to find them- most captivity bred zebra plecs sold are also old and pass they breeding prime years.
If you are new to plec breeding, i suggest you stay well away from trying to breed zebra plecs unless you are willing to invest a heck of a lot of research, time, money and energy into breeding them- just getting the right breeding enviroment for them is difficult enough and a big challenge.

Hypancistrus zebra are not extinct, they are not illegal to export.

They are now on the CITES list which restricts their export from Brasil.
Unfortunaly most of the exports are going to markets that are willing to pay a lot higher price for their fish (namely the asian market).

Once to breeding age (2-3 years old) thay can be conditioned and breed 'quite' easily. they do however only have small clutches of egs with 10 or so per spawn . Its not uncommon for well fed well kept breeding pairs to spawn every 4-6 weeks.

We are currently working on breeding one of their relatives, the Columbian Zebras L129 Hypancistrus sp. If all goes well we will move onto genuine Zebras once we've saved up