Breeding Bristlenose Pleco

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TigerOscar11

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Hi everyone,
 
I have 3 bristlenose pleco's at the moment and i want to breed them. 2x females and 1x male. One of the females is 4.5-5 inches and the male is about 3.5-4 inches, i have made them a pvc cave as the one the originally had could barely even fit him in it and she couldnt fit at all, not that she really tried. the new cave fits them both perfectly and i have placed the opposite end of the pipe against the glass and covered that part of the glass with 5 sheets of paper so it is still dark, but i can lift it to see if they have made any progress.
 
Yesterday after installing it, the male made himself at home. The female would come and sit next to the entrance of the cave but never enter, the male would then come out of the cave and start rubbing up against her which i am guessing is the courting phase. The only issue is that the female runs away from him and hides. From all of the vids i have seen, the female doesnt usually run.
 
Is the issue that she is too big for him? or is she just genuinely not interested?
 
The 3rd pleco i have is about 2-2.5 inches, am i better to wait for her to get abit bigger?If so, how long until she should show interest, if any?
 
The attached photo is of my male pleco infront of his cave (the hole to the left)
The cave was made with 65mm pvc pipe with a 45 degree elbow at the end so i can have it against the glass to view, also because i thought it would look odd having a dead straight pipe in the tank)
I also had a spare half pipe style log that i slipped over the end to hide the pipe, then covered the whole thing with the rocks in the cave to look more natural.
 

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  • Male Pleco 2.JPG
    Male Pleco 2.JPG
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Mine just 'did it' haha.
 
Lifted up some bogwood while cleaning them out and low and behold he was sat on top of a pile of eggs.
 
Needless to say the Clown Loaches didn't take long to find them and have a good dinner :>
 
Thats a shame :( sorry to hear
 
I really hope mine do sometime soon! I dont have any loaches for that reason.
All i have is a dwarf flame gourami, 3 guppies, a male betta, an albino corydora and a rainbow shark in with the plecos, and the other fish never venture far into the pleco cave, which i think is good.
 
TigerOscar11 said:
Thats a shame
sad.png
sorry to hear
 
I really hope mine do sometime soon! I dont have any loaches for that reason.
All i have is a dwarf flame gourami, 3 guppies, a male betta, an albino corydora and a rainbow shark in with the plecos, and the other fish never venture far into the pleco cave, which i think is good.
 
Yeah I never intended for mine to mate hence why I let nature take its course - although I did see one tiny orange baby so one or two made it to hatching. Dad is very protective which is a good thing - he never ate the entire time either, just stayed on top of the eggs. Certainly better than my pair of Angels who got bored after a day and ate their own eggs /facepalm
 
Sophie1992 said:
 
Certainly better than my pair of Angels who got bored after a day and ate their own eggs /facepalm
 
 
I could be wrong, but someone told me that they sometimes need to be separated as either the male or female will eat the eggs?
 
like i said could be wrong, just what i have heard
 
TigerOscar11 said:
 
 
Certainly better than my pair of Angels who got bored after a day and ate their own eggs /facepalm
 
 
I could be wrong, but someone told me that they sometimes need to be separated as either the male or female will eat the eggs?
 
like i said could be wrong, just what i have heard
 
 
Well again, I didn't intend to raise them and let nature take its course. It was their first batch and they were extremely protective over them. Being Cichlids I've read they don't need to be separated as they're quite good parents once they get the hang of things. These things can just happen.
 
Sophie1992 said:
 
 


 
Certainly better than my pair of Angels who got bored after a day and ate their own eggs /facepalm
 
 
I could be wrong, but someone told me that they sometimes need to be separated as either the male or female will eat the eggs?
 
like i said could be wrong, just what i have heard
 
 
Well again, I didn't intend to raise them and let nature take its course. It was their first batch and they were extremely protective over them. Being Cichlids I've read they don't need to be separated as they're quite good parents once they get the hang of things. These things can just happen.
 


 
Thats fair enough, i only want mine to breed as i have family that want some, but dont want to buy them, even thouugh they are only like $5 at the pet shop *cough* stingy *cough* lol
 
Can anyone help me out with the size issue?
is the female to big for the male?
Do i need to wait for the other female to get bigger?
 

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