Angela_96

Now I am super curious about the plecos, I don't think I want to breed them, but I am wondering the info about the breeding habits of the albino bristlenose plecos,
How often do they breed, how many eggs, etc?
I read somewhere the dad takes care of the eggs? which I think is so cool!

mathas

I'm sure someone who's actually bred them will be along soon, but in meantime, PlanetCatfish has a great two-part article on the species that focuses heavily on reproduction.

Ancistrus 101, Part 1
Ancistrus 101, Part 2

Chief_waterchanger

They can breed as often as every 6 weeks or so.

Dad scouts for a location and cleans it, usually. He 'allows' mom to come in and lay eggs and then quickly hurries her out of there. He tends the eggs. He fans them and guards them and some males will even rarely come out to eat during this time. He keeps the freeswimmers in the cave for a few days, and often times, in our experience, they have to begin successfully escaping before he stops guarding them.

There is rarely any real aggression between males and females.

Male will, usually, gently "nudge/ram" her side at a perpendicular angle to stimulate egg production before the cleaning of a spot takes place.

Sometimes the steps get jumbled, but they are ultimately good fish for breeding, and are good money makers. They go for so high in the shops that you can actually make a profit on them even selling to a shop, as long as you make sure to haggle for a good deal.

10-40 I believe is the common number of eggs for most Bristlenose Plecostomus species.

Butterfly

Males and females will kind of chase each other around the tank then...Dad will lay in a cave, crack in driftwood, as I understand it anyplace with only one entrance. This entices mom to come lay eggs. Mom lays eggs, leaves and never comes back to parent them. Dad will guard his eggs, cleans them, fights away intruders. He does this without eating most of the time. I usually separated mine from their fry after they were free swimming because he still wouldn't eat because he was so busy guarding the fry.
They are marvelous fry to watch grow.
Carol