Nice surprise last night

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#1
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#1
Twas feeding time for the BN pond when I noticed one of my guys stuck in a piece of driftwood. I started to wonder if he was alive. Then I noticed it looked like he was fanning. A little closer inspection this is what I found. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/xyshannen/Catfish - Plecos/JubsMaleEggs.jpg

How in the heck they managed to do it in such confined quarters I will never figure out. LOL This is the 4the spawn this guy has had in 2 months. At this rate I'm going to have these guys coming out of my ears.*BOUNCINGS
 

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Shaunna

Shaunna

Large Fish
#3
Oct 6, 2005
845
0
0
42
Ohio
#3
Congratulations, Pure! Really nice pics you got there. Do all of the plecos mopuths look like smiley faces like the one in picture #5? If so it must be nice having all those cute faces stuck to your glass all the time!! :)
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#5
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#5
LOL Shaunna good observation, I hadn't noticed that. It does look like a smiley face. Normally they don't sit still long enough for me to see that.

Thanks for the compliments!!
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#9
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#9
That is a very complicated question for the majority of the species. But for Bristle Noses it's simple. Have a male and a female and plenty of caves to choose from. Lots of people have to break the male and female up because of them spawning to much.

The other plecs require work with PH and GH as well as temp, current, live foods, and massive cool water changes.

Basically you have to simulate the rainy season in the amazon. Cool the water with LARGE 50% water changes and turning the temp down on the heater a couple of degrees, sometimes you have to go through doing that then raising the temp back up then droping it again over and over, the whole time providing large amounts of good food (during the rainy season food in the river is increased) and also using RO water to drop the PH and GH. Add a power head to increase circulation in the tank. When the water rises in the river so does the amount of current. It can be tricky figuring out how much current for what species you are trying to breed.

Then there is the matter of them being picky about what kind of cave and how big it is for them to spawn in.

This isn't meant to be a "rule" for spawning all plecs, but is a decent enough guideline.
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#10
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
3
0
#10
First of all you have to work out if they're open or cave/pipe spawners. Most of the commoner small plecs (Nuggets, bristle, Hypancistrus like zebras, arabesque) are cave/pipe, whips, loricaria sp are open.
Then you have to assemble a male and female, and make sure they get along. It can also take a few years to reach sexual maturity.

After that you need to work out the enviromental triggers - I know someone who has bred gold nuggets and snoballs, and the amount of flow required is massive. Usually water changes and very high oxygen levels are required. ph, kH is rarely important, cleanliness always is.

Nutrition for the fish is also important, and then you're left with raising the fry which can be challenging. But overall they are quite nice to work with, as the smaller species are ususally challenging but not technically impossible
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#12
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#12
Well it finally happened, last night we found little wigglers. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y120/xyshannen/Catfish - Plecos/abnwrigglerfry.jpg

We let them grow in this tank (pond) until the yolk sack is gone, then we suck them up with a turkey baster and move them to a grow out tank. No need to worry about predators in there, the only fish are other albino BNs. We also find that the fry have a better survival rate if we leave them in the same water and not move them until they are a little bigger.
 

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