ATTENTION all BN experts

So as most of you know, I am trying to accumulate some Green Dragon BN long fin plecos.

I need some input. Will the older siblings kill and eat the smaller siblings? I have read that you can leave them all together. What started out as seeing 15 new plecos, now I can only find 3. Is it possible that the little ones go back into the cave with dad and hang out?

Some breeding tips from you BN experts would be appreciated.

Are the little ones escaping? Are they able to get into the filter portion of that little tank of yours?

DMD123 wrote:Are the little ones escaping? Are they able to get into the filter portion of that little tank of yours?

Yes, but all it does is put them where the sponge sits. So they have gotten in there and they just hang out on the top of the sponge.

Was just a thought. I know some of those types of filters will allow small fry to get through and then they end up growing in the filter system.

If you're that concerned that they are disappearing, take them out.

Did you leave the female in with them? I've watched my female suck a couple up, and never spit them back out. I removed my babies from the tank with my one and only batch, and I got about 30 survivors.

What's the tank size?

CrazedAce wrote:If you're that concerned that they are disappearing, take them out.

Did you leave the female in with them? I've watched my female suck a couple up, and never spit them back out. I removed my babies from the tank with my one and only batch, and I got about 30 survivors.

What's the tank size?

Its a small nano tank, 7 gallons. Im concerned because I dont know their typical behavior. I dont have another tank that I can devote to baby plecos. Hmmm, maybe my fry in the fry tank will leave them alone.

Anyone else with BN experience?

I'm no expert even though I've raised hundreds of regular finned -- all I do is feed and change the water -- they take care of the rest, but I've never seen them eat each other. This includes other adult males with newborn babies from a different male. I even see stray eggs from time to time that don't get eaten by the others.

It's possible that they go back in to the cave, but mine generally don't once he lets them out. They explore all over, probably looking for food.

Are there any other occupants? Snails?

Are you feeding them enough? My tank is so full of plecos that I have to overfeed and do large daily water changes to make certain they all get something to eat. If I don't feed heavily, I sometimes find a few of the new ones dead and I think it's because they starve quickly at that age. This might not be a problem if you don't have many, but make sure the parents aren't eating it all before the little ones have a chance. I usually feed some powdered baby food a few times a day along with NLS, or their veggies. Unsalted, canned French-style green beans are a big hit and I've also recently tried some of the Repashy food which they also liked. I also keep some driftwood in the tank -- the softer kind, not mopani and they really like to hang out on that.

I agree with the overfeeding, mainly due to the fact that the fry all have different eating habits. Half of my batch grew faster than the other. I can whole-heartedly say I disagree with the plecos not eating each other. My albino adults were always feasting on other dead fish within hours. I seen, up close and on person, the female eat her fry. Of course this could all be dependent on the attitude of your fish. But a seven gallon is barely room enough for the adults to be. How many places are there to hide in your tank? I've dropped baby plecos into my thirty gallons that have gourami adults along with other community fish, and never seen them get picked on. In fact, dropping shrimp pellets in with guppy females and baby plecos led to my overfeeding being less impacting on the tank, though I still did weekly water changes.

I feed them cucumber, sweet potato, algae wafers and shrimp pellets.

Yes the tank is full of snails, is this the reason?

personally id use one of those breeding boxes u reccomended to me awhile back. then just keep the babies on the main tank for a cpl weeks while they get some size. doesnt take my africans long until i can just mix all the fry together. this is my suggestion never bred plecos but ive found that fry will eat each other if theyre not close to the same size

Not a bad idea. Unfortunately because of the way this nano tank is designed, I couldnt do that on this tank. I suppose I could hang it on another tank.

I think that I may do that.

I'm certainly not an expert and can only speak about my own experience. I have been keeping them for years and I haven't witnessed any of mine eating each other. Not saying it can't or hasn't happened. Maybe it's because I keep mine well fed, but I've never seen it.

Just the other day I found two stray eggs when I was doing a water change and put them into a breeder box that already had bn fry in it. (I have about a dozen fry in there separated from the rest of the brood because I was doing a little experiment of sorts to see if those would grow faster with no competition for food.) Anyway, the eggs were fine and over the next few days I could see heads and tails develop and soon they were able to climb up the sides of the box. A couple of days ago I noticed they had disappeared. I thought it was odd that they would be eaten at that point and then I saw a big trumpet snail in the box! My assumption is that the snail got them. I can't be sure, but the other plecos never bothered those eggs/wigglers for several days.

The snails don't get the fry that are developed enough to leave the cave, so I don't know if that would be a problem for yours, but it's something to watch as a possibility.

The breeder box is a good idea to protect them if something might be eating them. Just make sure the snails can't get in there!

Various ages together.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thats awesome Betty, thanks. Ya, I have no idea where these damn snails came from. Everything in the tank was new, except for a piece of wood that had been sitting in a box of crap for about a year.

Maybe I just pull every one and bleach the crap out of that tank. I swear that I have lost several fry for some reason. The first clutch I counted 37 eggs with heads and tails poking out, and only 7 survived.

You said that you feed them a lot, hum much or how often is a lot?

Yeah, my snails and shrimp both got in with some plants I bought at a GSAS auction and wow did they multiply quickly with all the food I was feeding the plecos.

If you pull the fry, you won't have to worry about them competing for food with the older ones, so no need to overfeed the tank. I feed mine three times a day with powdered food and whatever I feed the adults and I try to keep something in the tank for them to graze on between feedings like zucchini or any vegetable really. Just keep an eye on it and remove if it starts to fall apart -- it'll make a terrible mess. I use raw and that doesn't deteriorate as quickly, but I know a lot of people prefer blanched. If you have any rocks from other tanks that have algae on them, you can rotate those in and they will clean those off. They aren't picky eaters.

Green beans...


Eating NLS 1 mm pellets...

Get assassin snails! Cory of the new aquarium co-op was selling some the last time I checked. Those will be the next type of snail I will be investing in for my smaller tanks.

I've been trying to get a new pair to breed myself, but I will probably need to spend more money to get a couple caves for them. I've just been using those small ones you get from WalMart, and burying them, but the male always does his best to uncover them... Lol

I bought a few assassins from Cory. They've been doing a great job!!

betty those videos are awsome