After never finding any here in San Francisco I bought some from a guy on ebay. They were listed as being 1" but when they came they're more like 1/2" to 3/4". I have 3 DOA's and 7 still alive.

I have a fry tank with no algae in it I'd like to put them in -- their tankmates would be Acei, Yellow Labs and Lab. Hongi that are similar sizes.

Since there's no algae there yet, what can I feed them that the little ones will find and eat?

I also have a 6G with quite a bit of algae, but I have an Acei holding that I want to put in there.

Thanks!

Don

Hello Happy Dad Hi!

I am not experienced with Plecos but here is a link until the guys fill in.....

http://mikesaquatics.co.nz/shopcontent.asp...FoodsandFeeding

I have been breeding BN for only a short time.... like a 5 months or so.
That being said, I have found that if they are under an inch most africans will kill them. I have had them in with Peacock and Mbuna fry and if the african fry are under and inch they seem to do fine. If the BN are under an inch and the africans are over an inch, they do not survive.
I have lost about 15 or 20 so far that way.

As far as feeding.....

I use sinking alge wafers at times and some of the name brand bottom feeder foods.
I also use Tetra Crisps. Hold a pinch of them in and let the soak so they fall to the bottom. They will go nuts over it.
I also use cucumbers. I slice them in 3rds so they can get to the meat of the cucumber and put something to sink them to the bottom.
One tank has like 40 1 inch fry and they will destroy a 6 inch long piece of cucumber in 2 days.

I have bred literally hundreds of them. Toughest part is feeding their voracious appetite. Algae wafers work, but if you want to really see them grow quickly and eat like they are starving- feed them canned french cut string beans. Once they get a taste of them, you will be completely amazed but dont take my word for it, just try it

The adult pair as well as the fry chow these things down like there is no tomorrow, and you will see very little waste left behind

Les, is that salt and pepper you're using for substrate? Giggly

(I'm sorry, that sounded like Derek...)

Another good thing to try is blanching a slice of zuchinni and anchoring it to a rock for them...They seem to really love that.

And I feel compelled to warn you about what happened to me once. I had little plecos all over the place growing out. I put one here and there in my fry tanks and nursery tanks, and added a female Cobalt who was holding to one of the tanks. I forgot the pleco was in there, and when I happened to look at the tank, the holding mom was no longer holding, but furiously trying to dig the pleco out from under the fake log that was in the tank. She swallowed her eggs trying to get to him.

I agree that it can be hard to introduce them to established cichlid tanks, Don. Let them grow to a couple of inches before you try, and add more than one to tank when you do it.

With that being said, I accidently transferred a 1/2 inch pleco with my net into my main tank full of adults. She survived and is still in that tank and close to 3 inches, but she was picked on ALOT as a smaller gal.

Kim

Kim, I like that look, it hides a lot of fecal stuff. I wanted something different

Don, if you have the room toss a pair in a 6 gal with a shell. Feed them good. Kims source is good as well, but I was just lazy, canned beans was so easy to toss in to them every day. If you start with 1" and feed the pair well you can count on them being large enough by middle to end of the summer to breed. Just give them a shell or clay pot-and once they spawn, you will have multiple generations in the tank with no problems. They spawn as frequently as every three weeks. You can have hundreds of them in no time.

I have to admit, I love africans and only africans these days, but Pleco's were one of my favorite fish to breed and watch eat

Les, a question about the canned green beans -- are they just the regular kind or no-salt added? Does it matter?

Hey Les,,,remember when you first did that with the sliced green beans??? You got so much CRAP from the "OTHER" forum. But until you posted pics and they saw it was for real..Well what do ya know,,all of a sudden everybody else has done it before?????? idunno

Be warned,,,with this zucchini slice,,,if they dont like it or pick at it to slow,,,yuo'll notice the water turning slightly greenish. You may not want to keep it in there to long just to see if they get hungry enough to eat. And it can be very messy when they start picking it apart, depending how long you "blanch" it.

Aura,,I think they were the regular sliced beans, Les will tell ya.
But dont cook them. Tres Bien!

unsalted

I use algea wafers for mine but Eric(Fishtrix) likes to use Romaine lettuce and/or Zucchini.The Zucchini makes a mess thou.I also would NOT put them in with larger africans because you could lose both fish one from being eaten and the African dead because the Ancistrus tried to defend itself and stuck his spikes into his throat


Derek

I don't have any BN pelcos, but have to say this discussion is fascinating.

the BN are a fun fish to breed

Another positive to having bn pleco's- they dont get large like common plecos, they are normally better cleaners, and they dont leave 2 foot strands of fecal matter wrapped around your rocks and plants like tinsle on a Christmas tree.
I have read that they can get caught in the mouth of larger fish, though I have them in all my tanks for a few years now and my burundi and mpimbwe fronts are big boys- over 10". Never had one ingested yet.

I just cut zucchini & attach to rocks with an elastic. I don't blanch or anything. I have 3 ABNP that are about an inch or less & 2 clown plecos 2.5" in this tank & this piece will be gone in a couple of days!! Need to gravel vac every other day though!! LOL.


Pierre

Gump, it looks like you took that picture in my tank! I also use cucumber, lettuce, fresh green beans, and even sweet potato. You can tell what they have eaten by the color of their poop.

I agree with Yodahorn;

Very interesting discussion gang!

Hey Les, amazing frontosa's as well!

Guess what I just bought? 5 BN Plecos - 3 brown and 2 albino long fins! With my new light on my planted tank my algae is growning better also, so they ought to keep the tank clean.

Congrats Yodahorn...i also started thinking of buying some after this post lol...and i have the same problem starting with algae on my plants and gravel.

Can someone tell me if its all good to keep Plecos with my Malawi fish while breeding and later with their fry?

Hey Yodahorn, where did you get the BN plecos? Hmmmm

Pardon me for stealing the thread for a moment! worry wart!

geelite, do you mean is it okay to have the BN breed in the tank with the mbuna? Or the other way around?

Either way, it's not a problem, unless you want to salvage the BN fry.

My BN plecos don't even bother my Bolivian ram spawns...If they come too close, the little rams head butt them right out of the picture.

But, mbuna will eat the eggs of the BN plecos, and the male will try to guard them, but he really can't do it against larger more aggressive fish.

All you need is a 10G tank to devote to breeding them. Pete and I just picked up one of those hollowed out reptile rocks (has a little door) and they love to spawn in that. The male will fan the eggs, you can remove the female right after she lays them and put her in the main tank for clean up.

Oh, and if you see a blob of eggs out floating around the tank, don't suck them up and throw them away like I did the first time...Those are fry! (I thought they were unfertilized eggs...)

Another thing we learned while raising them is that you don't need to mess with the water in their tank alot. They seem to be very sensitive to water changes for some reason and do a bit better in what you would normally consider a "dirty" tank.

Anyone ever bred an albino to a regular??? I've got a male in with two females right now, one girl is albino and one is regular...He seems to be showing alot more interest in the brown one...

Kim

"Yodahorn", be careful,,very careful with those longfin plecos. They (longfins) will get nipped apart by other fish. Those are interesting plecos, but thats the very reason I never got them.

When the AP's breed, you will know it as you will see the male protecting the spot where the eggs are dropped. It's interesting to see,,,the male protects and the female you can never find?????? I think there are a couple pic of the male protecting the fry somewhere on here?

"Mrs.",,,yes the reg and AP will breed. The reg, BN carries the gene of the AP if I am not mistaken. the Clap


Found this old pic. enjoy.

pb, I got them on aquabid. ap, the most agressive fish that they will be in with is a large male angel, so hope the fins will be okay.

Congrats on getting the plecos, they are a lot of fun to breed.

Kim, if the brown breeds with the albino- you should have a split with the fry- but be careful- the brown ones are so difficult to spot on your siphon tubes or even the silicone seams of your tank

If only I could get in San Francisco what you got in Louisville! (And PB, no worries on dual-tracking the thread, my friend!)

I have a lettuce leaf in their little holding tank tonight and they were all over it in a hurry. Tomorrow they go into their 6G to grow out some before I mis them with the other 1/2" to 1.25" Mbuna fry.

Your LFS Comedy Quote of the Day:

I called an LFS yesterday that said they had 2 BN Plecos. I got there and the main guy had left. One worker gave me two plecos he said were BN, but after he handed me the bag and walked out I saw no bristles!

I asked the guy who took over about it and he pointed out the barbels on the 3.5" fish and called then bristles.

Then he told me the other common pleco was a BN "who hadn't started to grow his yet!"

He also told me there was only one species of regular pleco that had coloration like the BN's, so he wasn't worried about a mis-ID. Wasn't I lucky to find someone who knows Loricariidae and especially Ancistrus so well?

That's just irritating and ridiculous! Grrrr

Why do people go into a business venture without knowing
the product they are selling? dumb dumb

Don, it sounds like their brains are working about like mine...

But just to clarify, females have minimal bristles and I've got one adult female who has none at all! Males don't develop longer bristles until they are sexually mature.

Les, you know me and that siphon...I'm no longer allowed near tanks with small babies.

Kim

Well, maybe he was better informed than I thought.

These guys were 3.5", and sure looked like common pleco's though!

Kim, I meant your filter syphon tube- they hide on the back side, you dont even see them- they blend in well

Thank you for the info Kim.

So Plecos do ok then in high pH water with Cichlids right? I have found many different Plecos, they are also too beautiful, anybody bred any other types?