Too young to breed?

[nik_n]

Today I bought two bristlenose plecos, a male and a female. I was hoping to breed them and wanted to get the biggest ones they had. I got a relatively big male, however the female is significantly smaller then him. This one was the biggest one they had of the common black ones. I wanted to try and breed them first because other types are twice as expensive.

My hope was to start to breed them in about 2 months but I'm sceptical now that I saw the female. Here are a couple of pictures. When do you think she would be of breeding age?

P.S-Does the size of males bristles affect his breeding capability? Just a random question I wondered about, but I don't have the space of the resources to test it myself

 

[DoubleDutch]

Not an answer but an advice : First be sure you can get rid of the fry.

 

[nik_n]

I already talked it out with the store I got it from, they said they would be happy to take them. But thank you anyway

 

[Colin_T]

How big are the fish?
Bristlenose catfish can breed when 3 inches long (not including their tail).

The bristles on the males make no difference to whether he can breed.

 

[nik_n]

The male is about that size the female is about 2inches. Roughly estimated. Also how long would it take to raise up the fry? I have been told all fry can be raised in 2-3months but I have been raising my blue gourami fry for way longer then that

 

[Colin_T]

under good conditions baby bristlenose catfish can reach 1 inch body length (not including the tail) in 2-3 months. About 4-5 months to reach 2 inches.

 

[nik_n]

Alright that not too bad. I will talk to my LFS about the size requirements. Another quick question, how long until the female reaches desired size. The last two pictures shows the comparison between the two fish the best. I'm planning to feed them algae waffers, canned green beans and zucchini, is there any other type of food needed for their development and growth?

 

[Colin_T]

They need driftwood, algae and a little bit of insect/ meat based food like frozen daphnia, brineshrimp, bloodworms, prawn.

If they are fed well and given lots of water changes, it will be a couple of months before the female is bigger.

 

[nik_n]

I have driftwood in the tank as well as the algae. I do feed bloodworms to the whole tank but I'm not sure how many are left for plecos. I could try overfeeding the tank but I think the snails would get to it first.

I do water changes about one in 2-3 weeks. The tank is well established and heavily planted. I'm assuming the female won't be big enough the breed by 2-3 months?