can plecos breed with corys in the tank?

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

Can plecos breed with corydoras in the tank? its a 40g breeder. (not trying to breed the corys just the plecos)

[nabokovfan87]

@Odd Duck

Yes they can.  A lot of plecos are cave spawners and will use caves to spawn.  While I have seen corydoras lay claim to a few pleco caves and use it to protect fry, they do tend to get out of the way when the plecos come home to roost.  The plecos will also eat eggs off the glass when they get to a certain size, so that's a win-win for you 🙂

Which species are you trying to breed?

[Odd Duck]

Yes, they can, but your cories may not breed as well if you’re concerned about that.  The baby plecos don’t typically come out of the cave until they are large enough to be extremely unlikely for a cory to consider eating.  But many species of pleco will certainly eat cory eggs.  If you have bronze cories (Corydoras aeneus) that may not matter since they lay enough eggs some will surely survive.  Other species of cory may lay more on plants or in moss so some eggs will likely survive despite the plecos. I’ve got a clown pleco somewhere in my 100 G nanofish tank, a gold nugget pleco (who eats cory eggs with relish), and at least 6-ish bristlenose plecos in there and I have bronze and trilineatus babies randomly appear.  I suspect I would be overrun if I didn’t have so many plecos in there, but as long as the cories are at least in a self-sustaining to very slowly growing population, I’m happy.  I do know that angelfish will absolutely eat your pleco babies, though.  😢 

[cavdad45]

Absolutely, I have a shoal of panda corys in with my pair of albino bristlenose. have successfully bred twice this year and havent had any noticeable predadation.

In the egg stage, the male does a great job protecting the clutch until they are free roaming

[lefty o]

my plecos wont stop, in community tank with cory's and everything else, and i move/remove anything that can work as a breeding cave, yet new tiny pleco's keep showing up.

[rockfisher]

What type of plecos do you have? For Mr L046, L134, L333 don’t breed well with many fish at all. My best luck is species tanks for those.

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 4/20/2023 at 9:55 AM, rockfisher said:

What type of plecos do you have? For Mr L046, L134, L333 don’t breed well with many fish at all. My best luck is species tanks for those.

I was wanting to do bristlenose plecos, I don’t have them yet 

[rockfisher]

On 4/21/2023 at 12:04 AM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

I was wanting to do bristlenose plecos, I don’t have them yet 

I think you will be ok. Add a couple of extra caves if you have room. Once the pleco is in that cave a Cory is not likely getting in. The corys can sometimes bother them but bristlenose are pretty laid back.

[JettsPapa]

I completely misunderstood the question.  I was asking myself "Does someone think plecos can mate with corys and produce offspring?"

[Randall H]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:59 AM, JettsPapa said:

I completely misunderstood the question.  I was asking myself "Does someone think plecos can mate with corys and produce offspring?"

I first read it that way too. 

[Guppysnail]

My experience is NOTHING will stop pleco if they are ready to breed. I have Pygmy and melini Cory with a breeding pair of bristlenose. Both Cory lay eggs. If they are in the glass they are fair game. Nice moss balls keep the eggs a bit safer from the plecos and all my Cory types love laying in moss. Unless the fry accidentally sucked up by a pleco mine do not actively seek out cory fry. 
I just put the Cory with the pleco a few months ago. I see a few Cory fry that are still alive in the tank. 

[lefty o]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:59 AM, JettsPapa said:

I completely misunderstood the question.  I was asking myself "Does someone think plecos can mate with corys and produce offspring?"

im a bit dyslexic, and thats what i saw the first time i read it.😜