Bulldog Pleco Eggs Hatching

Back in December 2003 were very surprised to find one of our Rubbernose Plecos guarding a clutch of eggs glued to a rock in our 90 gallon bedroom aquarium. As there were some good sized semi-aggressive fish in that tank, we decided to move the rock with the eggs to a 2-1/2 gallon incubation tank. When we later found that one of the eggs had hatched, we decided to set up the video camera so we could record the hatchings and monitor things, greatly magnified on our living room TV. We scootched the love-seat right up in front of the TV and spent most of the next two days watching our precious Pleco Eggs like expectant parents! In retrospect it might seem a little like watching paint dry or grass growing, but it was pretty exciting for us at the time. We hadn't heard of too many home aquarists who had been able to breed L187b (we believe) Plecos. More aquarium videos to come, many with fry. More info on the tank is at http://aquarium.bluemoon.net/tammy/90G.html

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Pleco
• pleco eggs
• pleco hatching
• pleco fry
• Plecostomus
• Plecostamus
• rubbernose pleco
• bulldog pleco
• hatch
• hatching
• fry
• L187
• free swimming

[QuarterKnight01]

That's so cool. You didn't try to breed them? I've tried so hard to breed my fish, but I'm still a novice at it. Thanks for uploading! +1

[cp256]

@QuarterKnight01 Breeding aquarium fish requires either blind luck or replicating a specific set of conditions that are conducive to breeding for a particular species. There are numerous web sites that offer tips for breeding almost anything these days, google is your friend. Before we happened across the clutch of Bulldog Pleco eggs, we hadn't even thought about trying with them because we had read that it was all but impossible. We just got lucky.

[cp256]

@QuarterKnight01 We did intentionally breed a lot of aquarium fish. For someone just starting out I would recommend trying with easier breeds. Livebearers like guppies, platys and mollies are probably some of the easiest fish to breed. If the water conditions are half decent they'll usually just do their thing. With egg layers, mouth-brooding cichlids are pretty easy. We have had Electric Yellow Labs for 12 years that have been breeding on their own with no encouragement.

[cp256]

@QuarterKnight01 A little harder, but still not too difficult are Tiger Barbs. We did those when we were just starting out, both regular and albinos. You generally need to have a separate plain jane breeding tank with nothing but water and a sponge filter in it to do them right. When a female appears gravid (full of eggs) put her and a randy male alone into the breeding tank. He'll chase her around and when they spawn you remove the adults.

[1mienguy]

i was wondering if you could tell me how your tank was set up so that they bred. because i have read that there is no record of them breeding a aquarium. i would like to try breeding mine one day once they get a bit bigger

[cp256]

@1mienguy They were in a 90 gallon All Glass aquarium with a medium gravel substrate over sand. Ph would range from the high 6's just before a water change to about 7.5 right after. Temp was kept around 74F/23C. Lots of rocks and plastic plants. They particularly like to have flat rocks arranged to give them "cave" spaces for security. You can view a photo of the tank and more info at the URL in the full caption.

[hexisan]

What an outstanding vid!

Thank you for sharing this. Grreat work.

[speakeraddict]

can i have one.

[MuffinBustin]

@1mienguy they are extremely hard to bread in captivity but if you get a clay pot and all the ph and temp is right and you have a female and male you might be in luck