Shrimp lady Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Does anyone keep Pleco's or have any success breeding them? I'm new to these but are VERY fastinated by them! Please share your experiences here... Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgm53 Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Bought 2 common bristle noses about 2 years ago. Had them with some African Shellie's. Water was not good for plecos (PH 8.2 GH about 16 KH about 14). Male disappeared under driftwood for 2 weeks and about 20 babies appeared. This continued every 5-6 weeks till now. They're still in the same type of water. They eat pellets that fish miss. With the Shellie's, most were picked off. They're now with cyprichromis which don't eat anything larger than .5 mm. One tank has about 50 plecos. The other has over 65. Most of these are VEry small. Can't give enough away. Beware of what you ask for. Remember, if you're old enough, Uharu thought tribbles were cute. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dluxeshrimps Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 a year ago I got myself 2 Leopard Frog Plecos L-134. I must have got the pair during mating season cause they went at it quickly. I had about 12 baby pleco's. I got rid of all of them except for one. Plecos are not as easy to deal with like shrimplets. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 I have some green dragon lf now. The male and female bred almost immediately, but the fem died as I was learning how to keep them. Now I have to wait until the fry get older to sex them and keep a fem. They're roughly an inch now. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimp Life Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 I have had alot of bristlenose and they are hardy, easy to keep and you just need to keep up with cleaning waste they produce on the bottom of tank. (the do produce more waste then shrimp or other fish, thats for sure) Breeding is simple. All you need is a mature female and male , a cave and they should do the rest! They also like to eat veggies like zucchini, french cut canned green beans (salt free and rinsed) , sweet potato... Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louie Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 I have had alot of bristlenose and they are hardy, easy to keep and you just need to keep up with cleaning waste they produce on the bottom of tank. (the do produce more waste then shrimp or other fish, thats for sure) Breeding is simple. All you need is a mature female and male , a cave and they should do the rest! They also like to eat veggies like zucchini, french cut canned green beans (salt free and rinsed) , sweet potato... Do you males get along ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimp Life Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Do you males get along ? No they don't. When the males are full grown at about 1+ years old they have a face of bristles. Those males you should really keep only one per tank. If not, you will have some fighting and dominance going on. Best to keep one male. You can keep several females with one male. They are very cool looking and definately fun to watch! Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louie Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 No they don't. When the males are full grown at about 1+ years old they have a face of bristles. Those males you should really keep only one per tank. If not, you will have some fighting and dominance going on. Best to keep one male. You can keep several females with one male. They are very cool looking and definately fun to watch! I never had bristlenose but they are certainly interesting looking . I don't know much about plecos but suspected that males would not get along because in area canals it seems like they are territorial . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crackhead Johny Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 I got one for my first tank when I was 9, it died in 24 hours, so did the replacement. a few years later I tried again figuring I was more experienced, nope dead by dawn. My last attempt was a Striped Raphael Catfish, I may as well have dumped into into a deep fryer. Something about out well water killed bony fished dead. It was fantastic for malawian cichlids though (7-8PH and insanely hard. I know there was also copper from the blue crystals that formed on the tank). Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louie Posted February 10, 2016 Report Share Posted February 10, 2016 I got one for my first tank when I was 9, it died in 24 hours, so did the replacement. a few years later I tried again figuring I was more experienced, nope dead by dawn. My last attempt was a Striped Raphael Catfish, I may as well have dumped into into a deep fryer. Something about out well water killed bony fished dead. It was fantastic for malawian cichlids though (7-8PH and insanely hard. I know there was also copper from the blue crystals that formed on the tank). Could it be something in the well water such as the copper ? Some types of plecos are bred here in Fish farms and the PH here is high Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
californiashrimp Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 I've kept the common plecos from Petsmart as well as Bristlenose. They were easy to keep and feed but multiple in a tank started to fight after a while. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tefsom85 Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 I am no expert, but I have several bristlenose in a 120. I don't see any real aggression other than one pushing another off of food. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dluxeshrimps Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 I noticed that if there is lots of barriers among the tank and lots of hiding places for the plecos hey can live in peace. Feed them in different spots of you have to. Louie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishface Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 I've had bristlenoses for almost 2 years now; also Blue-fin panaques and Medusas. So far only the BNs have bred for me and I've finally had to separate the males and females Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Fishface, what are you feeding? Yours looks so much plumper than mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wygglz Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Now Soothing, speaking as a female, perhaps "curvier" would be more considerate? Soothing Shrimp and jem_xxiii 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishface Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 They're definitely *curvy* Not that they'd care what you call them as long as they can eat all day. They get Repashy and fresh veggies. And that picture was quite a few spawns ago. Since then several hundred more, including long-fins and albinos (produced by brown parents). Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josu2 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 I've had a common bristlenose, which is apparently female, for about 6 months now. It was about 1 inch SL when I bought it and is a tick above 3 inches SL now. She eats algae pretty eagerly, but lives for the various veggies I put in the tank...mainly zucchini, broccoli stems, and the occasional carrot. She will eat algae wafers too, but gets pretty irked by the Corydoras habrosus and Blue Rams that want to munch on those as well. Plecs are one of the animals that I feel are best kept one at a time (per tank), much like my prized dwarf puffer. Compatibility issues are far less likely when only one of a kind is kept. I'm sure in large tanks like the >100g mentioned earlier in this post, it's far less of a legitimate worry with so much space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crackhead Johny Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 LFS for in some L134s and now I'm thinking that I will run plecos in the new tank (betta sorority tank/female betta dumping ground). These only get to 3-4" so I'd think they would be happy in a 60. Dluxeshrimps, did yours get territorial? On the bad financial decisions side there is someone local selling zebras. So good looking. So cute. so AAAHhhhhh look at that price!!! That is salt/discus money!* Hopefully these are all sold by the time the tank is broken in. I wonder how easy they are to breed? Nothing to brighten your day like trying to save an endangered species from extinction... I should stop having these thoughts. *Looking at this forum title it could also be considered top end shrimp money too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. F Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 LFS for in some L134s and now I'm thinking that I will run plecos in the new tank (betta sorority tank/female betta dumping ground). These only get to 3-4" so I'd think they would be happy in a 60. Dluxeshrimps, did yours get territorial? On the bad financial decisions side there is someone local selling zebras. So good looking. So cute. so AAAHhhhhh look at that price!!! That is salt/discus money!* Hopefully these are all sold by the time the tank is broken in. I wonder how easy they are to breed? Nothing to brighten your day like trying to save an endangered species from extinction... I should stop having these thoughts. *Looking at this forum title it could also be considered top end shrimp money too. BNs can be territorial. Not sure with other BNs because I've only had one. But she would chase off my hillstream loaches and otocinclus if they crossed paths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShrimpP Posted April 1, 2016 Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Anyone keep plecos with their shrimps? None of the plecos, even carnivorous plecs actively hunt/eat livingshrimp right? I can imagine plecos bulldozing into things and potentially crushing some shrimps in the process, does that indeed happen in anyone's experience? I used to keep quite a few species of plecos, but that was before I got into planted tanks and shrimp tanks. Regarding aggression/territorial disputes, they happen more when kept in small groups. Large breeding colony set ups, fighting doesn't happen as often. So yeah, for the average size tank, to avoid having pleco disputes (no matter the species), I would recommend just a single pleco, or possibly a breeding pair. Sure, a tank full of offspring with the parents are fine, at least until the young mature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crackhead Johny Posted April 1, 2016 Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Some of the big plecos will gladly eat your small fish so I suspect shrimp would be a tasty treat for them. Anyone build their own caves? I'm thinking of fired earthenware or porcelain. A nice curved pile of tubes in each back corner of the tank and then grow moss on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShrimpP Posted April 1, 2016 Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 I've built pleco caves out of slate and granite. Be sure that the porcelain or ceramic you use does not have any glazing. You could use large PVC pipes if you wanted, but not the most appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.