I have eggs!!!!!!!

[TwoTankAmin]

Mainly vegetarian. It will make gravel roll between its lips to remove organic matters. It accepts vegetables, or commercially prepared food such as Spirulina tabs. It will eat, once in a while, animal protein such as bloodworm but this should not be the bulk of the main diet.

Parotocinclus jumbo Common Names LDA025, Pitbull Pleco

https://www.shop.repashy.com/products/repashy-soilent-green
https://www.shop.repashy.com/products/repashy-super-green

 

[EmmaS]

So far so good. Im in the process of breaking down a 70l tank to make room for the fry when they reach a size that m my Apistos don't eat them.

 

[MattW]

Wow! those are little guys

 

[EmmaS]

Wow! those are little guys

Getting these babies has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the hobby.

 

[EmmaS]

I have just put in some boiled dandelion leaves but so far not being touched. I've also added some oak leaves I collected last year. This will get a bio film before breaking down,
I might try spinach

Shrimp now going mad for it. Otto's and plecos having an occasional munch.

 

[EmmaS]

I can be of some help here as I have a bit of experience with breeding plecos. Normally, in captivity they are cave spawners. It is easy to buy or even make caves for them. In the wild they find places that will work but in out tanks providing caves is the most effective option. Male claim caves but females will use sometimes use them to shelter in but do not tend to claim one. They like tight spaces for spawning.

One there are fertilized eggs the female is done and she leaves the cave. The dad then takes over. He tends the eggs which hatch out into wigglers. Dad then keeps the water circulating in the cave, and protects the wigglers. At the start there is a huge yolk sac with what looks like a pair of eyes and tiny tail which flaps attached to it. As the yolk is absorbed into the wiggler the yolk shrinks and the wiggler grows. The end point of it all is there comes a time, about 4 weeks after spawning that the yolk is all absorbed and there is a tiny free swimming pleco who has reached the time it should leave the cave and strike out on its own. If there are ovnious threats outside, the dad may try and to hold them in a bit longer.

But until they hit free swimming, they did not need to eat or be fed. But now they do. Sometime a few are reluctant to leave and dad will boot them.

Based on where the eggs were in your pics I am guessing you have no caves, So they made do with the best they could find, Small plecos have small spawns. But they can spawn regularly for extended periods once they start. For those with which I have worked, the females need about two weeks to produce new eggs. However, from spawn to free swimming is about 4 weeks. This makes the ideal spawning ratio as 2m/1fm. My preference was to work with them in groups in species tanks. But they will spawn in community type tanks. However, the fry on the glass can be very tempting food for many fish who can eat them.

It is also important that pleco fry can have foods they can handle. This means that they can rasp off or swallow easily which means tiny size compare ti what they eat when the put on size/bulk.

Clearly you have what it takes to get wigglers, (what is on the glass). At that size they will eat biofilm and anything else that is soft and small enough for them to eat.

My suggestion is to get a few caves and space them in such a way they are spread out. Ideally, place the mouth of the cave facing the front glass so you can see into the cave using a not-too-powerful flashlight. Since they are a small species, a small size pleco cave works.

Look here: https://plecocaves.com/shop/
Any of the 1 or 1.5 inch opening caves would work. You can buy a few (3-4) of different shapes and they will figure it out. The back end must be closed. When you put them onto the tank it helps if you can do so such that the cave tilts slightly toward the back end, This minimizes the chances that a careless dad lets one or more roll out. When this happens to me I have a dedicated baster to suck them up and gently shoot them back into the cave.

edited for a ton of typos

These plecos don't need caves to spawn. No parental care for eggs or fry. I presume this is unusual for plecos ? The information I read was correct regarding spawning.
Still the information you provided is good for future reference.

In other news I'm collecting new fish on Friday. Will post a picture either at the shop or in my tank. Could be difficult as these fish are quick.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The plecos use the caves we provide. But if we fail to offer them the fish will try to find a place to spawn. As for the care of the eggs the dads most certainly do this. There is no question about this either. But, when plecos spawn they attempt to do so where they can tend and protect the eggs. If you have never watched this in a cave in a tank, you would have little idea of how it goes.

I have had between close to 2,000 plecos born in my tanks over the years. I can tell with over 90% accuracey if a dad is tending a spawn by how it behaves. There are two ways it will hang its rear out of the cave mouth, One is you will see the tail waving but the fish doesn't move much. This is advertising for a female interested in spawning. If that fails he will actively try to get a gal to follow him to the cave and go into it.

On the other hand when dad is on eggs/wigglers he will do what I have come to call the "bump, bounce boogie (a song title by Asleep At the Wheel). You will see the tail moving and the fish bouncing up and down and even moving from the moth to the back of the cave and back to front. He is fanning the eggs, circulating oxygen rich water and he will remove non-viable eggs as well.

One technique the fish collectors in Brazil use to find the smaller plecos is the collectors hed to the bottom, there they will reak into creveaces or use a stick to get the plecos to emerge and they they are caught. Another technique is they will tunr over a ricks and feel aroung for the pleco to grab. I learned this from Hans-Georg Evers when he made a presentation about collecting zebra plecos in the Big Bend of the Xingu. Hans was using an aqualung. He also said when he dove he used one ram to hand onto the boulders to avaiod being washed downstream by the stron current, The divers would decend by holding a big rock to get them down and then they would release it to go back up. The caught the fish by feel.

A cave is an ideal structure which is why we tend to fill a breeding tank with them for the plecos who do use them.

The pic belowe us of the #2 zebra male in his cave on wogglers. To the left bahinf the clamshell cavce a few females gathered. Their hop was to get into the cave to eat the spawn. These are subordinant females and this would be the only way they can get to spawn with one of the top males. Females need 2 weeks to produce more eggs but the males need about a month between spawning and releaseing the fully free simming kids. I watch this gent chase of all of thes females multiple times to protect his brood. He is that far out of the cave toi be able to see them coming a bit easier than if he was deeper in the cave.

edited to change wogglers to wigglers

 

[EmmaS]

Woke up last night to another cluster of eggs on the same rock. I thought my plecos were being a bit mad around the tank yesterday. Definitely a bigger clutch this time.