Height requirements for Pleco breeding tanks: Looking for your Experiences

[Jobro]

Hey Folks,

I am planning some updates to my equipment and I wonder if there is a lower limit for the height of breeding tanks for plecos.

I would guess 30cm should be plenty of height. But maybe 20cm would be enough as well?

The shallower the easier to maintain and the more you could stack up.

Did anybody have bad experience with shallow tanks and plecos like Hypans, Peckoltia and Panaqolus?

I would appreciate any inputs. I don't want to buy tanks that are not tall enough. But I would also like to save some height if possible.

I think many of you know this kind of decisions and I would like to hear your oppinions and experiences.

Thank you,
Johannes

[MarcW]

My tanks for my larger fish, which are

L128

so only mid size really! Are 18 inches high, which is about 16 inches of water, so about twice the water depth as the fish length full grown.

My

L260

are in a tank with about 10 inches of water depth.

Both of these groups have bred in these tanks.

Based on this I would say a rule of thumb may be a water depth twice that of the fishes maximum length as a suggested minimum for plecos. Although enough length and width would be needed to ensure a good amount of water volume to create a stable environment.

That's just my experience with those two species, others may be more active and need more vertical space, if you have any other species don't forget to take their behaviour into account too.

[Jools]

30cm with 4 cm lost to air and about 5 cm lost to gravel is about the lowest height tank I've bred smaller plecos in.

Jools

[Bas Pels]

Based on this I would say a rule of thumb may be a water depth twice that of the fishes maximum length as a suggested minimum for plecos. Although enough length and width would be needed to ensure a good amount of water volume to create a stable environment.

While they do not breed, I got 2 Pterogoblichthys gibbiceps of around 50 cm (tl, that is including the tailfin) in a 400 *100 * 70 cm tank. 8 cm for substrate, 5 cm for air leaves 57 cm of water. It does seem to be enough

[MarcW]

I was thinking, after I wrote that, it seems to work for mid sized fish, but then when you get to small 1-3 inch fish and then fish larger than about 10 inches it does seem to suggest some very shallow or very deep tanks!

[Jobro]

Thank you guys.

I was planing to go for some bare bottom tanks here. So if I use substrate, I would only go for 1cm of sand.
My plecos keep burrying their own caves in the sand when I use higher substrate levels. It's annoying

So I guess 25cm height should be enough for hypans and smaller peckoltia, panaqolus an bristlenoses.

I will be going for big bottom areas. Like 150x50 cm. With a minimum of 20cm of water this would result in 150l which should be plenty for 6-8 smaller plecos.

anybody ever heard anything of plecos not spawning in a shallow tank?

Thanks.

[TwoTankAmin]

To prevent cave burial in sand I use a piece of slate under the cave or at least the front end. I do a lot bare bottom. When using sand I keep it shallow.

I have a dozen tanks devoted to breeding and growing out Hypancistrus. These tend to get changed around in usage based on current stock. Of the 12, the sizes are as follows:

1 x 30 breeder- 13 inch tall
2 x 20 long- 13 inch tall
7 x 33 long- 13 inch tall
1 x 45 long- 24 inch tall (this tank holds a ton of L450 fry and about 8 or so breeders)
1 x 40 breeder- 17 inch tall (this tank is used for holding overflow fish, right now it holds L236)

None of my plecos gets over 6 inches TL. Just one observation here. A 3ft x 1.5 ft tanks has an bottom area of 4.5 sq. ft. A 4 foot x 1 foot tank has a 4 sq. ft. area. With plecos area can be as important as volume. But the bigger the fish or the greater the number of fish, more volume always helps.

[Jobro]

So going with 30cm I should be pretty much safe on the smaller species and with luck it will work on some bigger ones like L204 as well.

[MarcW]

I would say that would be fine for

L204

.

The more I watch my

L128

, which are around 6 inches long TL, I have noticed that they very rarely move more than 4 inches off of the sand, even though I have rocks in one corner reaching the surface of my 18 inch high tank, they just seem to stay between the rocks at the bottom, occasionally on the lower rocks 3-4 inches from the floor of the tank.

[Jobro]

I would say that would be fine for

L204

.

The more I watch my

L128

, which are around 6 inches long TL, I have noticed that they very rarely move more than 4 inches off of the sand, even though I have rocks in one corner reaching the surface of my 18 inch high tank, they just seem to stay between the rocks at the bottom, occasionally on the lower rocks 3-4 inches from the floor of the tank.

Nice to hear, would love to get a L200 group going some day, as well

[cat_allergy]

Stumbled on this post by chance. I too was considering setting up tanks no higher than 10", mainly for Hypancistrus / Peckoltia / Dekeyseria type plecos and cories. Like MarcW said, the L340s & L201s I currently have rarely travel farther than the 2nd tier of caves they have available. If I had to choose the dimensions for a 20 or 30 gallon I would rather have more floor space for cave placement and easier bottom vacuuming than unused vertical height.

Regards

Karl

[bekateen]

A big bottom and not too tall... The perfect combination.

[MarcW]

I'm just about to order tanks for my new fish room, and was thinking about this the other night, ideally I'd like to build racks so I can get three tanks high, I will be doing this for the 3ft tanks and having them just over 12 inches tall. However, I want some 4ft tanks for some slightly larger catfish maybe for a pair or trio of Scobinancistrus or similar, what do people think about keeping them in only 12 inches of water? If I can get away with this I'll be able to have 3 4ft tanks on one rack, but if I need to make them taller I'll only have room for 2 either 16 or 18 inch tall 4ft tanks.

[stuby]

A big bottom and not too tall... The perfect combination.

Are we still talking about fish tanks or something else!

[bekateen]

Are we still talking about fish tanks or something else!

Ummmm, fish tanks?

[TwoTankAmin]

I like area but volume does matter. What size tank depends on the number of fish and then if you plan to leave fry in that tank to grow. That said I have used a lot of sizes for Hypans, P compta and assorted tank strains of bristlenose (LxWxH (gallons - size in inches, Br=sold as breeder tank):

10 20.5x10.5x12.50 (none now in use)
15 24.25x12.5x12.75 (none now in use)
20 long 30.25x12.5x12.75 (4 now in use)
30 Br 36.25x18.25x13.00 (1 now in use)
33 long 48.25x12.75x13.38 (6 now in use)
40 long 48.25x12.75x16.88 (2 now in use)
40 Br 36.25 x 18.25x17.00 (2 now in use)
50 36.7xx18.37x19.00 (1 now in use)
75 48.5x18.25x21.13 (1 now in use)

Area matters for territory while volume matters in terms of water quality. The way to balance them, imo, is a matter of stocking.

[bekateen]

I like area but volume does matter. What size tank depends on the number of fish and then if you plan to leave fry in that tank to grow. That said I have used a lot of sizes for Hypans, P compta and assorted tank strains of bristlenose (LxWxH (gallons - size in inches, Br=sold as breeder tank):

10 20.5x10.5x12.50 (none now in use)
15 24.25x12.5x12.75 (none now in use)
20 long 30.25x12.5x12.75 (4 now in use)
30 Br 36.25x18.25x13.00 (1 now in use)
33 long 48.25x12.75x13.38 (6 now in use)
40 long 48.25x12.75x16.88 (2 now in use)
40 Br 36.25 x 18.25x17.00 (2 now in use)
50 36.7xx18.37x19.00 (1 now in use)
75 48.5x18.25x21.13 (1 now in use)

Area matters for territory while volume matters in terms of water quality. The way to balance them, imo, is a matter of stocking.

Good point, I suppose I too put a lot of priority on volume in addition to floor space. I agree with you on the idea that volume is important for water quality. When I had a choice between a 55 and a 75 for the same footprint, I chose the 75 for water quality. When I had a choice between a 20 Long and and 29, I chose the 29 gallon tank for water quality.

What I generally don't want (for catfishes) is a tall tank when I can get a wide tank for the same volume.

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

Thanks TwoTank, and Eric, I think I'll try squeezing three 4ft tanks in on top of each other and see how it goes. They will be roughly 48 inches long x 18 inches wide and 12.6 inches tall. That should give me a volume of about 47.5 USG or 180 litres.

I'll keep the stocking light to start with, 2-3, 6-8 inch catfish and some small dithers maybe and see how things go.

[bekateen]

To prevent cave burial in sand I use a piece of slate under the cave or at least the front end. I do a lot bare bottom. When using sand I keep it shallow.

Likewise, I use a 5-6" length of 1.5"-diameter bamboo split down the length to create long U-shaped trough. Two or three caves can sit with their open ends on this trough, elevating the front of the caves, keeping sand out, and helping to keep eggs from falling out on accident.

Cheers, Eric

[TwoTankAmin]

Its all about the math. (All dimensions are outside and in inches)

30B at 36x18, area = 648 sq.in (tank is 12.94 deep).
33L at 48x12, area = 576 sq.in (tank is 13.38 deep).

easy peasy lemon squeezy

30B has 1.125 times the area of the 33L which has 1.10 times the volume of the 30B. The 30B is 96.7% as deep as the 33L.) Which one do you choose?

Figuring this stuff out can result in dimensia

[stuby]

Its all about the math. (All dimensions are outside and in inches)

30B at 36x18, area = 648 sq.in (tank is 12.94 deep).
33L at 48x12, area = 576 sq.in (tank is 13.38 deep).

easy peasy lemon squeezy

30B has 1.125 times the area of the 33L which has 1.10 times the volume of the 30B. The 30B is 96.7% as deep as the 33L.) Which one do you choose?

Figuring this stuff out can result in dimensia

This is giving me a headache...….