common pleco breeding

[vetra70]

I am interested in breeding common plecos. I have heard that several types of algea eaters are hard or impossible to breed in a home aquarium. any info?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Do you know how to care for common plecs other than breeding? You'd need a lot of room to breed them as they can get to 18", because of their large size I imagine that they take a while to become sexually mature.

Also, common plecs are not simple algae eaters. They may eat algae for a while when they are younger but don't usually do this for their whole lives.

 

[Fawke]

In the banks of most Brazilian rivers, of the amazon area (or wherever the species of catfish came from) holes are made by birds in the dry season.

These holes are exposed during the dry season and birds use them as nesting grounds in the soft banks.
When the rainy season fills up the rivers, certain species of pleco and other hypostomus catfish use it in which to spawn and guard their eggs.

I read this in some book, cant remember where or when.... or even if its correct info.
However, as CS pointed out, thes types of plec grow pretty damn big and you will need a pretty dedicated tank to "try" and breed these in....
Guppys are alot easier

HTH

 

[Silly me]

Fawke is right, common plecos are bred in mud dams where they can lay eggs in holes in the side of the banks.

They are not hard to breed and dont need hormones like most other of the catfish from the same area and spesies, its just you cant easly duplicate the breeding conditions in a aquarium.

There is some other catfish that is much easier to breed.