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hi,

i have been breeding shrimps for a few years now and I want to try something else.

I have choosen to breed pleco's , especially some L134 and I bave questions before i start.

Tank size: what is a good tank size for breeding L134 with a trio

Sex: is it better to have 2 males + 1 female ?

Any comments or tips are welcome.

L134 would not be my beginners tip. As they seem to be rather random in their spawning behaviors. Meaning, it is pretty tough to induce a spawn on these. They just may do it or not and it might take a year or more for them to start breeding after you got them and it might turn out rather disappointing for a while. Hypancistrus or Ancistrus are easier and more rewarding for starters.

Jobro wrote: ↑16 Aug 2018, 12:01 L134 would not be my beginners tip. As they seem to be rather random in their spawning behaviors. Meaning, it is pretty tough to induce a spawn on these. They just may do it or not and it might take a year or more for them to start breeding after you got them and it might turn out rather disappointing for a while. Hypancistrus or Ancistrus are easier and more rewarding for starters.

Not trying to say, that it won't work right off the batch. But it's pretty random and you might find yourself pretty clueless as to what to do, if they just won't spawn.

I have to agree with Jobro. I have spawned bristlenose and Hypancistrus (including the pricier ones) with little difficulty. L134 drove me crazy. I finally sold them off rather than deal with the frustration.

As for sexes, you need to consider how things work. The dad needs to do very little to be prepared to spawn. The female needs to produce eggs. This takes time in terms of making the eggs. Things change after they spawn. Now the dad has a few weeks of work to do. The result is the female with whom he spawned is likely to be ready to spawn again before the dad is ready.

The are pros and cons to any of the methods one can use relative to spawning. Some folks like to work with pairs, some prefer reverse trios and then some (Of which I am one) like to work with colonies. While I will not say which method is "best," I will say that most folks swear by whichever one works for them. The one thing I can say is that more fish is better than fewer no matter how you set them up in tank(s). For example, in the case of a reverse trio, if the male dies or becomes infertile, spawning stops. In a pair the same applies to either fish. So I would suggest starting with more than 3 fish would be a good idea even if its done in multiple tanks.

I have used the following guidelines. The minimum number of fish I want for a spawning setup is 7. I prefer to have 10-12 and I will go as high as 15 to start. The harder it is to find a species, the more I will try to get at the outset as replacements may be hard to find. If one is breeding for profit (to make their living), then larger groups are normally involved. Since I am usually starting with smaller unsexed fish, I have to grow them out. The numbers I get are meant to help insure I get both sexes.

One last observation. One never knows what will work best. So you start out doing what you think is the best way and if it fails, you try something else. Some folks will say that with P. compta pairs often work better than groups.

Also many breeders go with thr idea more females the better. I find with L134 an equal ratio works well for me. My original wc group turned out to be 1 male, 5 females and females can be very persistant when gravid. The male was clueless and just swatted them away. I whittled down to 2 females and got another male, had four batches in the last 3 months but one of the boys needs to learn to stop munching eggs.

thanks for the answers. i appreciate it.

regarding tank size, would a 20 gallon long be sufficient for 3 to 5 100mm ish pleco ?

also when you get a group, do you buy all from same source, meaning they will be from same clutch, brother/sister, do we care about genetics malformation ?

Ideally you would buy from multiple sources. My original group came from 5 different people/stores. I kept 10 in a 55g which is a 4 square foot footprint. 20g long is 2.5 sq foot footprint so I would think you should be okay as long as you provide plenty of caves and the usual.
I spent 3 years of trying different things before giving up and ignoring them. By that point I was doing minimal water/filter changes, basically just feeding the tank. The tank was in bad shape when they finally decided to breed. Just goes to show something different works for everyone.