Biz's Bn Pleco Breeding Journal!

I'd love to be able to do what your doing. I just know it's irresponsible until I have homes for any potential babies

 

I don't think you will know for sure till they all come swimming out minus their egg sacks, fingers crossed, Alison

 

Okay guys I don't want to get too excited but I'm looking at the babies right now and seeing two right next to each other where one is brown and one is not. So unless they're coloring at different paces things might be looking up!

 

ok well now they are officially torturing me! The babies that I used to be able to see from the opening having made their way away from the opening and I can't see them anymore. Now I just have to wait with no "updates" UGGGGGGGG lol

 

Please give me your opinion!!
I have been doing a lot of reading bn pleco breeding. Even though I have done it twice before, I am just trying to see exactly when I should expect them to start venturing out of the cave (since I didn't know about my previous batches until they left the cave) Its amazing how many different sites have different answers to that question. (about exactly when they hatch and when they are free swimming)

ANYWAY, this is what I want an opinion on...I just read a person's blog who said that as soon as the babies hatch, they move the cave and the dad to a new tank. Because it is much easier to move them all before they start to leave the cave. Which I think might be a really good idea!

They have already hatched for a few days, they have absorbed a lot of their yolk sacks and will likely be ready to swim in the next few days. So I am thinking about moving the ship with dad and the wigglers into a different tank tonight!!

What do you guys think? Should I go ahead and get them moved now? Or might that be risky?

 

With zero experience or knowledge in the matter, I would be concerned the dad would thrash during the move and damage the babies.

 

With zero experience or knowledge in the matter, I would be concerned the dad would thrash during the move and damage the babies.

I suppose that is possible. But When I removed the babies the previous two times, there were a lot of them still tucked underneath dad. And they weren't damaged. But they were a little further along than these guys.

This was an interesting read...
http://www.selectaquatics.com/article_breed_plecos.pdf

Most specifically this part:
The best time to “harvest” the young is within 2 days of when they hatch. If you do manage to retrieve eggs – an orange
colored ball of large eggs attached to one another- this is OK, they can be hatched in the same way the fry are raised.

Followed by this part:
"Removing the fry / eggs from the cave- This doesn’t make for the best day for the pleco, and I would rather it were
a less disruptive process. Take the tub to be floated in the breeding tank, and put about 2-3 inches of water from
the tank into it. To startle the pleco as little as possibly (causing him to possibly scatter the eggs or fry from
the cave), I gently but quickly move the cave with the eggs and male pleco in it into the tub. The pleco will
generally spread out and refuse to be dislodged from the cave. So with a rocking motion, fill the cave with water
and rinse it out- hopefully pulling eggs or fry with it. Keep doing this until you have the amount of fry you want
to raise up. I will often leave some of the spawn for the male to care for, or to come back and retrieve later. The
cave and male are put back in the same spot in the tank, and the tub is lowered into the tank to float and raise the
young in until they are ready for a tank of their own."

So with this being said...I should move them NOW! The one thing I will do differently though, is they will be going from the "tub" and into a 10 gallon rather than having a tub floating in the main tank.

 

If you did move them you would be less likely to have any problems with other fish wanting a snack, and mom doesn't help care for them from what I understand. You could maybe slide the ship into a plastic bag for the move providing that it has a bottom with no holes? Just a thought, and no personal experience to back it up. Alison

 

I've got yellow babies!!!!


Yahoooooooo!!!

 

Now to see the blue eyes

 

They're precious! Perfect baby plecos.

 

They're precious! Perfect baby plecos.

I know! I am soooo excited!
I am ELATED! When I came up with this plan over a year ago, it was sort of just a dream. It was more like "wouldn't it be cool if blah blah blah"

But I did it!! I didn't keep a ton of his first babies. So I feel lucky that the one I grew out with him turned out to be a female. And not only that, she's a Long fin female. I will definitely have long finned babies in this batch. Everything just sort of fell into place perfectly!

Gosh I am so excited to see how many there are in there with dad.

My plan is to try and sell the yellow ones at maybe $10-$15 each (maybe even more for the long finned ones) and then give away a free brown one with the purchase of each yellow one LOL Just a little extra incentive! What do you think?

 

I think I am so happy for you. WOW, keep those pictures coming. Alison

 

I know! I am soooo excited!
I am ELATED! When I came up with this plan over a year ago, it was sort of just a dream. It was more like "wouldn't it be cool if blah blah blah"

But I did it!! I didn't keep a ton of his first babies. So I feel lucky that the one I grew out with him turned out to be a female. And not only that, she's a Long fin female. I will definitely have long finned babies in this batch. Everything just sort of fell into place perfectly!

Gosh I am so excited to see how many there are in there with dad.

My plan is to try and sell the yellow ones at maybe $10-$15 each (maybe even more for the long finned ones) and then give away a free brown one with the purchase of each yellow one LOL Just a little extra incentive! What do you think?

See, everything panned out pretty well!

You could easily sell the yellow ones for $15 I think. My LFS had TEENY TINY little babies going for $20 and they still sold out fairly quickly!

P.S. If you ever decide to ship, I would LOVE a yellow long fin baby in the future

 

P.S. If you ever decide to ship, I would LOVE a yellow long fin baby in the future

I would love to do that for you. I could send you an angel and a yellow pleco in one package

I am so glad I didn't blow $30 on a long fin yellow blue eyed baby from the store!! I know I will have some of my very own in this batch!! I want a long finned yellow blue eyed one for myself too!! I wish I hadn't bought the standard finned yellow guys. I still think it is so funny that RIGHT after I buy them, I get my own! After waiting 14 months!! LOL

 

I would love to do that for you. I could send you an angel and a yellow pleco in one package

I am so glad I didn't blow $30 on a long fin yellow blue eyed baby from the store!! I know I will have some of my very own in this batch!! I want a long finned yellow blue eyed one for myself too!! I wish I hadn't bought the standard finned yellow guys. I still think it is so funny that RIGHT after I buy them, I get my own! After waiting 14 months!! LOL

WOOHOO!

Well, you don't have to keep the standard fin guys forever..if you grow them out and sell them locally when you're done with them, you could make a substantial profit! People will pay a lot more for mature plecos since 1.) They are more hardy than the babies tend to be and 2.) They don't have to grow them out themselves which is work in itself.

I almost paid $40 for a young adult BN before I ended up getting Falkor!

 

I wish I was closer! I've never seen a blue-eyed pleco here anywhere and longfins are difficult to find!

 

Oh I can't wait to see if any have blue eyes!!

And I can't help but think "oh, look at those tadpoles, adorable"

 

great news.

 

I want to give a shout out to chromedome52
You said in my below thread from Oct 2015:
"I look forward to hearing how these fish develop, and any subsequent breeding results. There is little solid information about the genetics of these fish, despite the fact that there are several supposed color varieties available."



Well here are the results! 14 months later.....Breeding the yellow blue eyed dad back to his brown daughter HAS resulted in yellow babies! I assume the eyes will also be blue. At the very least they should stay black because they are not albino. But I am confident the blue eyed trait will come right along with the yellow. I can't quite tell the color of the eyes yet. They just look black at the moment.

Edit: it's too bad the above thread was closed due to old age or inactivity. It would be nice to have an update at the end of THAT thread so anyone stumbling across that thread will know what the results were!

 

Old threads can be reopened, maybe ask the mods?

 

Old threads can be reopened, maybe ask the mods?

Ok!! I think it is worth it.
jdhef can you please re-open this thread so that I can post an update on the results?

 

And I can't help but think "oh, look at those tadpoles, adorable"

They look at little less like tadpoles already...they're getting their fins. Here's a yellow one!

 

So it is clearly a recessive gene, since the brown daughter was obviously carrying the gene. Nice.

 

So it is clearly a recessive gene, since the brown daughter was obviously carrying the gene. Nice.

That's what I was hoping for! I'm relieved, because I was afraid after 14 months I was going to be let down!!

I expect long fins on some of them too!!! His daughter is long finned.

 

It would be nice to know about the blue eyed gene

 

It would be nice to know about the blue eyed gene

I am confident that the blue eyed gene comes along with the yellow gene. Or at the very least, I believe it is another recessive gene that my babies will have since mom has it recessively. If it isn't tied to the yellow gene...you would think potentially some of the brown babies in this batch could have blue eyes too. But I think the traits are linked and I don't expect blue eyed brown babies

But time will tell!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you think about that chromedome52 ?

 

Well, I thought I posted an idea on this, but I think that was the one I accidentally jumped out of, and couldn't find the thread.

My opinion is that the Blue Eyed Gold is an oligomelanic, or "reduced black" strain, like pink Convicts or Gold Severums. That's why crossing one of these with a red-eyed true albino would produce all brown. The two genes are completely separate.

It is also possible that it is an albino, but the blue eyes are there when the black is removed, much as occurs with Albino Lions, Tigers, and some people. In the second case, the genes don't connect because there are two different species involved and they don't match up. But I prefer the first possibility, that they are simply two different varieties.

 

They look at little less like tadpoles already...they're getting their fins. Here's a yellow one!

Oh, they're absolutely adorable-

 

So two albino red eye BN pleco with make all albino?

 

How exciting! Definitely following the progress!

 

I finally found a fish that loves BBA.....baby plecos!! LOL
Look at them go MAD for the BBA on those leaves!!
Here's my first attempt at posting a video on the new format...I hope it works since I can't edit! LOL

 

Soooooo cute!

I would really love a long-fin yellow blue eyed pleco for my 120g!!

 

Just cleaning the nerite's shell lol

 

Yay! Yesterday's photo I posted has been approved by a moderator! I was sad no one could see it because it's one of my new favorite pictures!! Lol I wonder if this post will need approval....

 

What a great photo! It seems all posts need to be approved first.

 

So since most of the babies were still in the cave/ship when I moved them, I didn't get the opportunity to count them. Usually I get a picture of my babies in a bucket when they're being transferred allowing me to count them.

The best I can do is count how many I can see, as fast as I can, at any given time. I've gotta be quick because they move fast!! I've done it many times and what I've come up with is roughly 30 of each. So it's a litter of approximately 60 with a perfectly even 50/50 mix of yellow and brown babies.

And I can clearly tell that there are long fin ones in there yay!!

 

So since most of the babies were still in the cave/ship when I moved them, I didn't get the opportunity to count them. Usually I get a picture of my babies in a bucket when they're being transferred allowing me to count them.

The best I can do is count how many I can see, as fast as I can, at any given time. I've gotta be quick because they move fast!! I've done it many times and what I've come up with is roughly 30 of each. So it's a litter of approximately 60 with a perfectly even 50/50 mix of yellow and brown babies.

And I can clearly tell that there are long fin ones in there yay!!

Yay!! I hope it's enough yellow blue eyed long fins that you get to me on the list of everyone that wants one.

 

A Christmas zucchinI feast for the babies

 

Yay!! I hope it's enough yellow blue eyed long fins that you get to me on the list of everyone that wants one.

I don't really have a list at this point. So if I start one now, you're at the top of it lol

If I get the guts to ship!