male and female bristlenose pleco?

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ashleynicole

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Does it appear I have a male and female bristlenose pleco? Attached a picture of each of them.

Also are their any special requirements for them to spawn? Anything special I could provide to increase chances? They are in a 60 gallon planted with sand substrate, a few stones, a few pieces of wood (mopani and Malaysian).
 
Looks like it to me, how big are they now? They won't start to spawn until about 12-18 months of age. Provide a cave that just big enough for the male to get into and they should spawn on their own with out much help.
 
Looks like it to me, how big are they now? They won't start to spawn until about 12-18 months. Just provide a cave that just big enough for the male to get into and they should spawn on their own with out much help.

One I have had for about two years, the one that i believe is a male. , the other one I've had for about a year and that's the one I think is female. She is almost as big as the other one now, I kept waiting to see if she would get bigger bristles and I was hoping she would remain female.

I Have a half terracotta pot but the khuli loaches love to hang there. Also a pile of rocks that makes a sort of cave and both pieces of wood are on top of rocks and make sort of caves as well. The plecos usually hang out on the wood unless they are eating zucchini.
 
The first one is the male and the 2nd one is a female, females do get small bristles sometimes. They should both be about breeding age from the sounds of it. I think the caves you have would be to large, I recommend getting a specialized pleco spawning cave, with bristlenose you'll want a 1.5-2" cave depending on the size of your male.

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http://www.plecocaves.com/Caves.htm
 
Does it appear I have a male and female bristlenose pleco? Attached a picture of each of them.

Also are their any special requirements for them to spawn? Anything special I could provide to increase chances? They are in a 60 gallon planted with sand substrate, a few stones, a few pieces of wood (mopani and Malaysian).

My dad bought two. They were about 4 inches long. Nothing special in his tank except a fake plastic grass about 3 inches tall that was layed out over a square foot with javamoss growing in it. He also has a few rocks and a pretty open cave.

I dont know anything about his water conditions. He does water changes ever few week and his tap water is 100% pure (his household water filter is rediculously good) so I can imagine its pretty good.

Within a week there were about 50 baby plecos. Then a few weeks later there were about 100 baby plecos then he hit P* and a month after there were 75 growing plecos an inch or two long.

He finally found the biggest two and gave one away assuming it was the one breeding pair and the population isnt growing anymore. The rest are going to the lfs at $4 a piece. Now that's a return on investment lol
 
Well there are a lot of tankmates so I would be surprised if any fry survived. I have some Corycats, khuli loaches, a rainbow shark, a large angelfish, 3 turqoiuse and 2 boesemani rainbowfish.... but still would be neat if they spawned from time to time.
 
Well there are a lot of tankmates so I would be surprised if any fry survived. I have some Corycats, khuli loaches, a rainbow shark, a large angelfish, 3 turqoiuse and 2 boesemani rainbowfish.... but still would be neat if they spawned from time to time.

Spawns can be quite large and if there is plenty of hiding spots some may survive. The male also protects the fry in the cave for a week or so.
 
Any suggestions of what could be used from around the house as a breeding tube? Can't really order or buy anything at the moment.
 
Any suggestions of what could be used from around the house as a breeding tube? Can't really order or buy anything at the moment.

I donno if it was in this post or not but someone suggested half a flower pot or a half buried flowerpot would be a good choice.

I'm also thinking maybe even a big coffee mug?
 
I donno if it was in this post or not but someone suggested half a flower pot or a half buried flowerpot would be a good choice.

I'm also thinking maybe even a big coffee mug?

That's to large, the cave has to be just big enough for both of them to fit into otherwise the female wont go in to lay the eggs. The male goes in head first and uses his fins to lodge himself in there to protect the eggs.
 
That's to large, the cave has to be just big enough for both of them to fit into otherwise the female wont go in to lay the eggs. The male goes in head first and uses his fins to lodge himself in there to protect the eggs.

So that would be too wide of an opening you're saying? Like he wouldn't be able to wedge himself in there?
 
I used a NOW foods pill bottle. I think this one might be a little small, though I'm eyeing the bottle of calcium citrate but think it may be too big.
 
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Thoughts? Too small? I put an algae wafer in it and shut the lights out... the light on my camera seemed to irritate him a little though...you can see him hanging out that's his favorite piece of driftwood

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