New pleco

All posts regarding the care and breeding of these catfishes from South America.
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laurab5
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New pleco

Post by laurab5 »

As soon as I get some more store credit from my LFS, I am going to get another 20 long and breed some more plecos. What is your favorite small pleco that has been bred but is not easy. I am thing Peckoltia or another Hypancistrus. I am leaning towards L015. What are some of your experiences breeding this pleco?
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bunjiweb
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Post by bunjiweb »

I would like to see someone breed L200s or L128s, they max out at about 6 -7" as far as i have seen.

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

Those are nice, but are hard to come by. If I wanted to do something of that color pattern, I would do snowball plecos.
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Post by blackbeards »

I would like to see someone breed
Peckoltia L-008 L-134 L-205
Hypancistrus L-070 L-174 L-270
Good luck with whatever you go with!

I am breeding L-005 L-260 LDA-08 and also I am going to try to breed L-007 in a few month`s.
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Post by Barbie »

I bought L128 to try just such a project with. I ended up with 2 that are easily 8" TL, and I have 4 more that range from 6-7". Right now I'm just conditioning them back up again. They actually seem to be quite a bit more active and need fed more than Hypancistrus do. Here's a picture of the first L128 I received. It's still in the bag and inside the tank, but you can sort of get the idea on size.

Image

I would definitely recommend looking into another type of Hypancistrus, or even better, a type of Ancistrus to work with. I started with Ancistrus and graduated up to Hypancistrus, working my way through 3 species so far. I have quite a few fish in the house that are on the list to be projects in the near future, but the reef tank sort of sidetracked my plans for a bit ;).

Barbie
laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

I think I am going to try Peckoltia Vittata. Are these hard to breed, because I want a challenge. And it doesn't seem like it's a fish alot of people breed. Plus I like there coloration.
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Post by Shane »

laurab5,
What spp. have you spawned to date? That would help us point you in the right direction.
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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

I have spawned L260 and Bristlenose. I know a ton about pleco's, the only reason I haven't bred more is because I'm 15 and don't have enough money. I breed African Cichlids and my LFS takes each for $3. They take my L260 babies for $8 each. When I collect a couple hundred, I plan on getting more 20 longs and the next 3 pleco's I will breed will be L015, L333 or L066, and L134. I know a ton about pleco's but I don't have the money. Oh, and I really want to breed one that has a black body with white spots that stays below 7 inches. So if you can give me some suggestions I would appreciate. Possibly Snowball or Opal Dot but I don't know how big Opal Dots get.
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

Sooo... if you've already spawned L260, why are you asking me how in so many threads? I'm confused?

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

Sorry Barbie,

thanks for your help so much. They spawned Saturday. I haven't counted how many, but I hope they live as I am leaving Wednesday for vacation and will be gone 10 days. Thanks for all of your help.
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Post by MatsP »

I just got two L15's, and they are very nice looking, and quite active [only the 1.5" bristlenose babies that are in the same tank are more "out and about"]. Unfortunately, I believe both are the same sex, so I might have to get another one to spawn them.

I've also got 2 each of and . I'm pretty sure the two P. Maccus are the same sex too (females, I believe), so again I need more of them... :-( Not sure about the L177's, they are too small to breed anyways...

Before I could breed the L15's, they'd need to have their own tank, rather than the big community tank they are in now...

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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

Is there ever a bad excuse to buy more fish and tanks? ;)

Congrats Laura :) Hopefully they'll be out of the cave about the time you get home from you vacation!

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

I hope so. Is it common for the male to eat the eggs. I counted about 10 to 14 eggs. My LFS won't take them until 2 inches. So that is at least 6 to 8 months.
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

laurab5 wrote:I hope so. Is it common for the male to eat the eggs. I counted about 10 to 14 eggs. My LFS won't take them until 2 inches. So that is at least 6 to 8 months.
The male _SHOULD_ only eat the eggs if they are "no good", i.e. infertile or fungused, etc.

Of course, a common problem with first spawns is that no (or very few) eggs are fertile. That's said to be caused by the female holding eggs for a long period. A second spawn is usually more successfull, and once the fish has started spawning, they may do another spawn 4 or so weeks later without another trigger.

Best of luck with this and subsequent spawns.

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

Are L015 very active? I mainly want an active pleco. Here is what I want,
1) A pleco that is under 5.5" that isn't black or brown.
2) A pleco that will come out of it's cave during the day.
3) I mainly want something more active than L260's. I have a good resource here were I can get alot of pleco's.
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

I can of course only speak of my ones, which is a sample of two. But they are definitely very active, and they are only partly brown in places when they are in that mood. Mine are cream-coloured, with almost black lines on them. In the shop they looked almost white, but now that they have settled in, their base colour is a bit darker than cream, sort of like a cup of milk with tea in it.

My bristlenose juveniles are also very day-active. Compared to the Gold nuggets and the clown plecos, the Candy-stripes are definitely more active.

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

I have some good and bad news. The bad is that the eggs weren't there when I got home. The good news is I have an extremely gravid female. The male has his tail out of the cave and is fanning. Started doing 25% water changes with rain water. Will do that for 6 days. Then I don't do any for 3 days. Then I do a little change to take waste out. Then go another 3 days and do the same thing. Then for 2 weeks I do every other days 20% water changes.
laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

I have decided between 3 pleco's. L015, L134, and Snowball pleco's. I haven't heard that many people breed Snowball's, so some information would help.

Thanks
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

There's this article in shane's world about L102 (Snowball pleco).

As to L15/L134 they should be fairly similar to each other, and not dramatically different from the L260 that you've been keeping.

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laurab5
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Post by laurab5 »

Barbie, I just read your post a year back of when you bred your L260. I think mine was luck that they spawned. If I am interpreting it right, you had yours for 1.5 years until they spawned. Mine are about 3 inches. Color is great. The main thing is patience. My dominant male isn't really showing huge odontodes now. Oh well, the time will come. But when it happens, I will start a topic on my experiences.
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