Breeding Plecos??

[travelinman1969]

I have 2 plecos, 17 inch and 14 inch, with an arowana, 2 oscars and a bala. The other night I left my smokes in the livingroom and when I turned on the light my plecos were swimming in a circle, like they were trying to catch the others tail. Is this a breeding thing?? They seem to only do it at night. They've been trashing the tank pretty good. Morning ritual is too fix the plants, and they say osacrs are bad with plants. Is there any way to tell the sex. They're big enough so identity should not be a problem. I should mention that the next morning there was a concave in the gravel where they hang out the most. What should I do? Babies won't live in that enviroment.

[OrionGirl]

Check PlanetCatfish--they may have breeding info for commons. I think most are pond bred, not that this helps much. :)

[clayt101]

It may be more of a territorial issue. How large is the aquarium? In the wild, plecos breed in caves that they dig in the river banks.

[travelinman1969]

It's a 150, kinda tall. Dimensions are 24D X 48W X 30H. The larger one shows some aggresion during the day, but that night, I never saw anything like that. And it wasn't like they were fighting, more playing.

[L046]

I always thought these big common plecos need huge mud ponds to breed?

[travelinman1969]

I went out of town for a few days and there is a big pit at the bottom of the tank now. Even if they were trying to breed, the oscars would eat up the eggs pretty quick. It's in their main hang out area so I think that's what's happening. They only do it in the dark so it's hard to tell. Could be the oscars diggin in, not sure. But the oscars are not acting like they are breeding.