Starting a breeding rack for plecos

[Brucifer]

So after a year of getting back into the hobbie. I going to start up a breeding rack. My Buddy Aaron that has his own aquarium store just gave me a metal rack that needs a little tlc. I have a few questions. Filtration, I'll be running 6 tanks, 15 gallons each. What would you guy(and gals) use. Also I'm taking baby steps with the fish. I currently with German strain super reds, long fin bn, blue eye bn. I really enjoy the ancistrus sp, would like to get find others in this species, Rio Tonacins, Rio uyragii( I know missed spelled) Claro . You get the idea.
Thank you again , love this site
Bruce

[Brucifer]

Sorry I was think rio Paraguay

[MarinFlorin]

Interesting topic you started here!
I'm planing also to have a rack with about 6-8 tanks but the size will be diferent. I'm taking into acount some grow out tanks which will be bigger than the others.
So the plan will be to have 6 tanks about 80 liters each and 2 rearing tanks for the fry of about 150-200 liters.
About filtration was thinking at some diy filters, some kind of a small sump inside the tank.
As filtration I would use siporax (very porous ceramic rings) and the inlet maybe will use some filter foam so the fries will not go in the pump which will use for the outlet.
I'm very curious what kind of filtration system you will recomend.
I like bristlenose too! At the moment I have rio claro, albino short and long finned ones and a few calicos.
Cheers!

[Shane]

Bruce,
My own .02$.

Filtration: Air driven sponge filters. They work well, do not require you to buy new media or cartridges, and one good pump will run all 6 tanks saving you the use of 5 electric outlets. I am using these, http://www.amazon.com/Jardin-Aquarium-B ... nge+filter

Heaters: 6 reliable submersible heaters.

Lights: 2 three foot shop lights from Home Depot. Each will cover three tanks if your rack is two shelves of 3 tanks. Technically you do not need the lights, but it makes it much easier to monitor the fish.

Substrate: None with bottom of the tanks spray painted black or a thin layer of pool filter sand if you prefer.

Covers: Tight fitting lids of glass or Plexiglas. I make mine out of plexiglass sheets available at Home Depot. Got tired of breaking the glass ones.

As Marin Florin stated as many large grow out tanks as you can squeeze in.

Lastly, have markets set up so you can move the fry. Just a couple of spawning pairs will quickly fill the local market's needs and you can easily cause the price to drop so low that you can not break even and may even start losing a lot of money. Nothing like watching your bags of fry sell for $1.00 each because you saturated your own market.

Back in the 90s, when not many people were breeding these, I managed to crash the entire Virginia, D.C., Maryland market in a year with just three breeding groups.

-Shane

[TwoTankAmin]

Most of my pleco tanks are bare bottom, but none of them has any paint. A nymber of them are on frame type statnds, that is they only support the perimeter of the tank. I have never painted the bottom as my set-up offers me the opportunity to be able to observe the tank from below. I have found this offers several advantages. It lets me see where gunk accumulates, it lets me see how fry are doing as well as many of the older fish.

Shane- I am wondering what the need and/or benefit of painting the bottom might be. Since the fish have upward facing eyes, it should not bother them from this point of view.

As for breeding racks, everybody has their own point of view. For me the overriding consideration is not to maximize the number of tanks but to insure ease of access. I find catching plecos usually requires that I remove almost the entire contents of the tank to do so. And for this, access beats tight working spaces, imo. As a rule where other people will have 3 tanks stacked, I have only two. But then I am no spring chicken any more and am much less flexible than I used to be, so ease of access is important to me.

Sponge filtration is for sure easy and inexpensive. Two thoughts here- consider using Poret foam and consider having a couple of other hang on type filters available, The one drawback to sponge filters is they are useless for chemical media- i.e, thing like carbon or Purigen, if you need to add peat or alder cones, or if you have a need to run filter floss for a short period.

[Shane]

My own observation has been that fish appear more at ease in tanks with a substrate (yes, I realize that is subjective). Having at least one solid panel also seems to help them orient. Many breeders prefer to cover the bottom and three sides. In breeding tanks where I want to "look up" at the fish I just tape aquarium background material to the bottom panel. Remove, look, stick back in place.

Your comments on access are spot on. It is arguably the most important factor in setting up any rack.

Yes sponge filters do not allow for chemical media, but breeding/rearing tanks should be getting frequent large volume water changes and never need chemical filtration (mine get 50% changes every third day). I actually stopped using chemical filtration many years ago. All of my biowheels are stuffed with filter bags containing ceramic media and have large sponge pre-filters. Alder cones, Indian almond leaves, peat, etc I just toss in the tank and let sink.

-Shane

[apistomaster]

I always liked having a thin layer of substrate in my pleco breeding tanks. I used less than 1/4 inch of CoralLife PlantGro.
Here is a photo of my old 40 gal breeder setup. The stand is all steel purchased from Home Depot for $125 back in 2006. No bolts needed. It just snaps together.
I had to build small inlaid platforms for each shelf because the stand was 18 inches wide and the tanks are about 18-3/8 inch wide.
There was only barely enough room inside the stand shelves to hold 2 40 gal breeders end to end and they are about 36-1/4 inches long.
Each tank has a custom made plastic hinged glass cover. I used 3/8 inch glass so the lids would hold up to abuse.
Each tank has a 36 inch standard output T-5 fluorescent lamp and 2 sponge filters. One sponge filter is run by a MaxiJet 600 powerhead and the other was run via supplied airline. I spray painted the ends and back with slate blue. I didn't paint the bottom because the wood used to widen the shelves a little are painted black.