considering a hubby for my female bn pleco

BettaFishMommy

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
5,354
2
62
Deadmonton, lol, Canada
Real Name
Sherry N.
hey all, i'm considering trying my hand at breeding bn plecos and wanted the advice of my AC family first.

i currently have a mature (approx 1.5 to 2 yr old) female and am on the hunt for a hubby for her, approximately the same size (3.5 inches-ish). do you think i'm going to run into aggression issues by adding a mature male to the tank?

i would ideally like to find a longfin male. what are the odds of getting long fin fry out of a regular female and a longfin male? or if i were to get an albino longfin male, what are the odds of fry that look like their dad?

tank is 55 gallon, well planted, with a large blocky chunk of driftwood. it is a community tank with the tankmates being 9 cories, 4 barbs (longfin rosies and a black ruby), 3 lampeye killies, a number of perugiae livebearers, one platy, red cherry shrimp, ramshorn snails, and one larger albino rainbow shark. the perugiaes breed often with a fairly good fry survival rate. does anyone think i'll have issues with pleco fry not surviving with this mix of fish?

i plan on putting sponges on my hob intakes, and will be getting or making some sort of pleco cave for them to spawn and tend eggs in. any recommendations on a particular shape/type of cave?

there is very little algae in the tank, so i would be putting zucchini near the cave for the baby bn's to nibble on once their egg sacs are depleted. anything other foods that would be best for them?

any other advice, tips, etc for me? thanks all!
 
I would expect maybe a little aggression at the begining but not much. They would pair up rather quickly. Your chances on getting albino and reg's depends on the females genes. An albino long finned male will obviously carry the long fin and albino gene but the female would depend where you got it from. Most common BN's carry the albino gene though so its worth a shot.

Zuchini is best for the babies as long as you blanch it really good since they cant eat stiff foods as good as there parents. My L144 actually survived on nothing but what was in the tank till I found them. I hadnt even known they bred.

From what I read if Rabbits are the breeding masters in the mammal world and guppies in the live barrer world then BN's are the ones from the Pleco world. There easy to breed which explains there low cost.
 
you should get a mix of albino, normal and longfins and any combination of the 3. Blanched zuch should be the best, when big enough I would move them to a smaller tank for observation.
 
a 20 long would be good if i were to move babies to their own tank in the future? have an empty in the closet with all the necessary accessories.

i usually follow 'survival of the fittest' in my tank, so i would most likely keep the babies in the 55, but if i notice any problems or have a high disappearance rate i will definitely give them their own tank.
 
Yeah a 20 long would be fine as a grow out for any survivers fit enough to live. Did you want to have just the single pair or a breeding colony???
 
would be just the single pair breeding, i think. i don't have the room for a whole colony of 'bn rabbits', hahaha!

i was planning on keeping maybe one or two of the babies and trading the rest on my local forum for plants or other fish i want. can't say i will want them to breed long term, but a few batches of babies would be good. and i would probably keep just females for myself after, since i prefer my plecos to have smooth snouts, lol!
 
I doubt you will have any aggression issues between the plecos past some initial posturing. As far as fry survival you never can tell I lost an entire spawn to my endlers when the eggs hatched while I was away for 3 days and the endlers were hungry, I have had other spawns ignored in the same setup.

As for what you would get in a breeding situation it will depend on your pairs genetics. I don't know the specifics on long fin but albino is recessive so in general breeding a homozygous brown to an albino gives all heterozygous browns. breeding an albino to a heterozygous brown gives ~ 50% heterozygous brown and 50% albino. breeding albino to albino gives all albino. and breeding heterozygous brown to heterozygous brown gives ~ 25% homozygous brown 25% albino 50% heterozygous brown.

My plecos favorite is french cut green beans straight out of the can. zucchini and cucumber also do well for me. romaine lettuce is also often recommended but is not a big hit in my tank.

Slate/wood/clay caves and pvc tend to be breeders favorites for spawning. In my tank the pvc is ignored in favor of my driftwood and slate piles with caves. Also had a few spawns on the glass behind my internal filter.
 
LOL I use to be the same way prefered the look of females over males but I can honeslty say that those bristles no longer bother me ever since I got my baby male L144 from Debbi and watched him grow and finally start growing his own bristles. I think my males looks nice.

You problem would be later on when you no longer wanna breed you would need to remove the male. Its like having convicts you keep a male and female together no matter if u want them to breed or not there gonna breed.
 
BettaFishMommy said:
a 20 long would be good if i were to move babies to their own tank in the future? have an empty in the closet with all the necessary accessories.

i usually follow 'survival of the fittest' in my tank, so i would most likely keep the babies in the 55, but if i notice any problems or have a high disappearance rate i will definitely give them their own tank.
Click to expand...

Mine are in my 60 and I have about 30 babies ranging from less than 1/2 inch to 2 inches. They are soooo cute! I believe is survival of the fittest too. They eat everything from catfish pellets, snello, invert pellets, zuchinni, lettuce, you name it, they eat it. They really like daphnia and bloodworms. It is a feeding frenzy! Now if I could only figure out how to catch them I would be very happy. Ha! Mine spawn in a piece of fake driftwood. But if I were to do it over I would have 2 males and one female as my poor male is continuously guarding the eggs all by himself. Maybe with 2 it would give him a break.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom