# Albino Plecos breeding like mad...



## EvilDes

Hi guys, just a bit of help if you could be so kind!

We have a very basic tropical set up, neon tetra's, tiger barbs, scissor tails and a couple of albino plecos. All have been happily getting along no problems, but recently, the pleco's have produced some offspring. Unfortunately, before we got to them, the tiger barbs managed to eat alot of them. We do not currently have another tank to seperate the plecos, so we ran up to the local petshop to get a nursery, and rescued what we could and put them in there. : victory:

There was about 17 on last count, and they're now starting to get a fair bit bigger. I'm on the lookout for another aquarium so we can seperate the babies and give them a free run without the danger of being attacked, but in the meantime, is there anything we should be doing for them whilst they are in this nusery? It's basically a square meshed area that overhangs the side of the tank. We've put some stones in there and feed them regularly, but I feel we should be doing more to help them. :blush:

Also, just yesterday we noticed more babies have been produced, so once again we caught what we could and added them to the nursery before any damage was done (hopefully), so the new tank is an even more impoprtant venture. Unfortunately, with it being Christms, money is tight, so a brand new setup isn't really possible, so I'm scouring Ebay for a local cheap setup.

Just any advice would be greatly received, as I'm not too clued up on the fish side of things in all honesty.

Many thanks! : victory:


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## _jake_

I havent personally bred pleco's so cant really help you. Im not sure, but i expect there very small atm?.. you could really use a small faunarium type thing - usually a couple quid at lfs - untill they get bigger!. PM mike515, im pretty sure he's got plecos!!.


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## EvilDes

Cheers for the reply. But yeah, they're very small, however, the water would need heating still so a small faunarium would still work out a bit more a few quid due to having to buy all the extra's to go in and heat it, filter it etc. I'll go and price things up on Friday, payday then and see what I can get away with.

They must be randy little buggers though! :lol2:


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## _jake_

Just taking a big guess here, but i suppose you have a spare heat mat? - maybe if you put one attached to the underneath of the tank and set it to the temp, it would be ok for a few weeks?


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## mike515

Ideally you should leave them in the main tank.

I know it's nice to have as many babies as possible and the thought of them being eaten isn't particuarly pleasant. But it's survival of the fittest. The strongest babies will survive and the weaker ones will be picked off. That way you end up with an overall stronger stock than if you kept all the babies.


Plus there's the fact you end up getting overun if you keep all the babies. Most shops won't take them until the fish are a sellable size (around 1/1.5 inch). Plus there's the fact that most won't give you anything for them. You won't get much for them if anything at all. If you have loads you might be able to get some food.

I'm assuming these are ancistris? Relatively easy to breed so they aren't in massive demand. This means shops can get them dirt cheap from wholesalers. No matter what the quality, most shops will buy in the cheaper ones because they will be good enough. Not always the best but alright.

Unless you are breeding in big numbers (thousands a year) you will never make big money breeding the majority of fish. Not saying that this was your goal. Just making a point to anyone looking at breeding for profit.

I breed a fair few cichlids and catfish. I make enough to half my food bill for my fish. I'm producing around 8000 babies every quarter but I have a lot of tanks dedicated for breeding my fish. I also favour breeding the harder to find/ rarer species that I keep.

Your best bet is to take them to the shop as soon as you can. Once they are healthy and eating proper foods (not fry food) then you should be looking to rehome them. It's not like dogs etc, they don't develop any problems if taken from their parents. You just need to ensure they are healthy and have been for a while then off they go.

As long as the water in the breeding net is getting filtered (which it will be if there is water flow going through it) then there's no problem keeping them in there till you get them new homes. just provide something to hide in. Something like pvc pipe is cheap and affective. they just need somewhere sheltered and dark.


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## EvilDes

Afraid not chap, all our heatmats are in use! I'm watching a couple of excellent priced aquariums on ebay at the mo, so I'll see what they're like come ending time... :2thumb:


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## EvilDes

Mike: Thanks very much for all that info mate, much appreciated! To be honest, I had no plans on them breeding, I just happened to get a male and female. :lol2:

I also don't plan on making any money off them either, I just don't like the thought of them being eaten by the other fish when I can do something about it and save them.

As for their nursery, yeah, it's all filtered still. I thought about the PVC pipe idea just the other day so I'm going to pick some up and cut it to size and put some holes in it. Nice one! :2thumb:

And these are what they are, I have no idea on the latin names, but according to this image title, then you are indeed correct:










Once again, many thanks for the help! : victory:


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## mike515

EvilDes said:


> Mike: Thanks very much for all that info mate, much appreciated! To be honest, I had no plans on them breeding, I just happened to get a male and female. :lol2:
> 
> I also don't plan on making any money off them either, I just don't like the thought of them being eaten by the other fish when I can do something about it and save them.
> 
> As for their nursery, yeah, it's all filtered still. I thought about the PVC pipe idea just the other day so I'm going to pick some up and cut it to size and put some holes in it. Nice one! :2thumb:
> 
> And these are what they are, I have no idea on the latin names, but according to this image title, then you are indeed correct:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Once again, many thanks for the help! : victory:


Yup, they are ancitris. There's a few species of ancistris so can't really say for certain which one. Could be a hybrid.


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## EvilDes

No worries mate, thanks for all the help and advice anyway! More than helpful! :2thumb:


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