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Hello people of planet Catfish!

I recently got a small spawn from my l-134, however I pulled the spawn to early and was left with four, two/three day old eggs. I have no previous experience in artificially hatching pleco eggs and would appriciate some advice on general care and housing.

//Alfred

Different breeders have different approaches to dealing with pleco spawns. My preference has always been to work with them in groups and to allow the dad to care for the offspring from egg to free swimming. This is why I chose to work with plecos rather than other species. I also prefer to leave the fry to grow in the breeder tank. However, when I am lucky enough to be overrun with fry I will use grow tanks.

That said, many breeders prefer to pull eggs/wigglers and hatch them and then return them to the breeder tank. I believe that the babies need to consume some poop from older fish to acquire some of the micro-organisms they are born without. When I have to pull eggs/wigglers/fry which are or will be free swimming away from a tank with no older fish, I will move some poop from the main tank. I am not sure how many other people agree with this.

That said if you want to pull eggs, I would suggest you do so to their own small tank. You need heat and good air but not much in the way of a cycled filter right away. This can come into play later. I would use an anti-fungal to prevent that problem. Some use Methylene blue, but this can stain so I use Maroxy by Mardel. If you spot infertile eggs you should remove them. If you use the Methylene Blue, I would remove it via a large water change and adding carbon to insure it is all removed when you start to see wigglers. I have not done this when using Maroxy. I just wait until i am doing a regular water change.

You do not have to worry about feeding until the fish have completely absorbed their yolk sac. I feed tiny foods like cyclops plus any food that gets soft. I like Repashy foods for this reason. I like to insure new plecos which normally have a fondness for meat despite being omnivores get some veggies so I make a Repashy mix which includes 15-20% Soylent Green. Both adults and small fry can eat this.

I hope others more experienced with pulling eggs will chime in here. In this hobby there are usually multiple ways to do anything all of which are acceptable.