Beginner at pleco breeding...

fishlvr · Post by **fishlvr** » 22 Sep 2007, 03:08

What do ya'll suggest? I'm already planning to get some Ancistrus sp(3). Any others that are easy to breed and have larger fry?

Also, I was wondering if pl*cos would breed in a pl*co community, with two or three species spawning in the same tank.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 23 Sep 2007, 21:11

Whilst I'm pretty sure you can combine fish of different species in the same tank, it can cause several problems:
1. You can't "manage" that particular fish without affecting the others - you may want to be feeding extra protein so that one fish is conditioned to spawn - so all fish gets extra protein! Same if you lower the temperature or make water chemistry changes to make one pair breed - all others will have to have the temperature/chemistry changes, whether they are "ready" or not.

2. Territorial disputes (e.g. all mature males want to have _the_ best cave, food disputes, etc, are more likely if you have several different species - of course, this is POSSIBLE to avoid by careful selection of species, but it makes life harder.

3. It very much restricts which species you can keep - they need to all have the same (or similar) requirements for water and furniture (temp, pH, hardness, circulation, plants/no plants, substrate type(s), not be too aggressive to other the species, etc, etc).

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Mats

fishlvr · Post by **fishlvr** » 24 Sep 2007, 01:26

Ok. Thanks.

Do you know some easy to get and breed species that don't get too big?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 24 Sep 2007, 20:57

Well, Ancistrus sp(3) is the obvious candidate. For the larger tank, you may want to try a .

Other genus that are RELATIVELY easy to breed are and .

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Mats