Will I be swamped with pleco fry if I put a male and a female bristlenose pleco in the same community tank?

[Lavender]

So, I don’t want a million pleco fry, but I want three different morphs of bristlenose pleco in the same 75 gallon. From what I have found, they don’t sell them at a sexable age. I want one of them (a Super Red) to be male, and the other two (A Lemon blue-eyed and starlight) to be female. Just a preference in what my plecos look like. However, it seems they spawn like crazy, protect their eggs like cichlids, and have fry that’s weirdly shaped and thus won’t be eaten by other fish. I seriously do not want to deal with setting up a extra breeding tank for plecos I don’t want: if they breed, in this community tank, will the fry survive to adulthood?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

My first Pleco spawn was ~50 fry. Since then, I’ve learned to just check the cave with weekly water changes, or if I notice the male heavily guarding his cave. When they spawn again, I just pull the eggs out of the cave and dispose of them. 
 

A community setting might be more difficult to pull eggs as there could be more places for them to spawn, but I would be surprised if whole spawns could survive. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen, just means it’s more difficult than my setup where they only really have 2 places to spawn 

[Lavender]

Mine’s going to be extremely heavily planted…I guess I could just pull the eggs out, but I am slightly worried since my plecos are planned to have a lot of caves in their driftwood. I am planning the rest of it to be a tetra tank, so maybe it would be ok, but I wouldn’t count on it. I’ll look into all-females.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

All the same sex would be the way to go then, in my opinion. With lots of caves and lots of driftwood you’re creating lots of places for them to spawn. 
 

Before purchasing any fish I’d ask the store about returning whatever sex you don’t want after you’ve grown them out and can sex them. If they’re cool about it, maybe you could get some store credit for growing them out to put towards other things, or trade them back at a bigger size (that they should be able to sell for more) for more juveniles to grow out again and sex. 
 

Lots more work, for sure, but would meet your needs. 

[anewbie]

I was swamped; i should have pulled eggs but didn't have the heart - after 18 months of constant spawns (my cichild couldn't eat all the frys); I gave up and put the female in another aquarium without a male - never again.

 

Also be aware that while male have the bushy snozzle; females are more 'out going' and you will see them more often; so i tend to get more female plecos.

Edited June 17, 2023 by anewbie

[Odd Duck]

Fairly good chance you would end up with lots and lots of brown fry since you won’t get lemons or super reds from that crossing.  Far better off to get all females if the color of the fish is your priority.  You could do all males, but you need a pretty large tank or there would be squabbles, your 75 G would be big enough if you wanted all males..

Edited June 17, 2023 by Odd Duck
Clarify

[Lavender]

I think I’ll just do all females. I like the idea of all males, but I don’t really want to push the boundaries of my 75 gallon like that. My store is a local fish store that special orders fish for me sometimes, so I could ask them about getting 3-4 of each pleco, growing them out, and returning the extras. They’d probably say yes.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Lavender

[Lennie]

On 6/17/2023 at 6:56 PM, Lavender said:

I think I’ll just do all females. I like the idea of all males, but I don’t really want to push the boundaries of my 75 gallon like that. My store is a local fish store that special orders fish for me sometimes, so I could ask them about getting 3-4 of each pleco, growing them out, and returning the extras. They’d probably say yes.

People usually like to get them young, so they help with algae eating, and owners witness the growth of their little friend. When they are big, bristlenose catflish start eating less algae around the tank, tho they still mainly consume a herbivore diet, from what I know. So people who get them as a part of an algae eating crew, would not benefit from getting adults as much. Also usually, adult fish = more expensive fish.

 

Some people do rehome their adults, or people may choose to get adults from breeders as a breeding project maybe, but I'm not sure if stores would be willing to buy adults as they would be harder to sell. If I were you, first, I would make sure that in case you wanna return any, adults will be accepted.

[Odd Duck]

If it helps any, both super red and blue eyed lemon males will start to show a pink patch behind their head pretty reliably before the bristles start to show.  The pink patch is more easily seen in lemons, but also shows in super reds.  I don’t think I have a pic of super reds showing the patch but I should have one of a lemon showing the spot.  It’s a somewhat diamond-shaped spot that is wider than it is long.  You can somewhat see it from the side in this pic of an obviously mature blue-eyed lemon.  I have a couple pics of a less mature male but he’s still obviously bristled up enough to tell by the bristles in this pic.  The last pic shows the patch very clearly and he was just starting to bristle up definitively.  If lemons are showing decent color in the store and not washed out, I can usually tell a couple months sooner via the pink patch before they bristle up.  Right around 2” or so is where it’s reliable for me.  Before that it’s a bit iffy - some will be definite, others might not be.  A couple of the shots it looks like it could just be shadow.  Compare the more obvious shots with the shadowed looking ones and you’ll be just able to make it out.

Super reds have to be older before I can say for sure on the pink patch - almost on the verge of bristles.  I don’t have any pics but I have seen it.

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Odd Duck
Clarify

[Lavender]

Aww, you have beautiful plecos. Thanks for the tip, by the way: the store sells lemon-blue eyes at about one to two inches, so I can probably tell by the patch. Likely screwed on the reds and starlights, though: they don’t sell those anywhere near me, so I have to just ask them to order three or four with those and hope I get lucky.
 

I will check with them on the returns. They probably would allow a return, but still will check.

[Lavender]

Also, how many plecos can go in a 75? Am I pushing the limit or can I safely add one or two more small-sized plecos? I also want a Gold Nugget and Green Dragon pleco…but I can live without them.

[Odd Duck]

I have about 7 in my 100 G - the gold nugget you can see in one pic, a clown pleco that I rarely ever see, and at least 5 blue-eyed lemons including some long fins.  They are difficult to count since they don’t all show up at the same time for meals.  Somebody pops out to eat, somebody else pops out, somebody else pops out, somebody zips out of sight, etc.  I can’t tell each of the long fins apart but there are at least 3 females, plus a male and at least one female short fin.  They are surprisingly hard to get a firm count in this heavily planted 100 G tank.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[anewbie]

You have to be a little careful; sometime the males will fight over caves.... sometime fatal if the cave only has one entrance the larger male can trap the smaller one in the cave and then - well it isn't so pleasant. 

[Lavender]

I plan to drill holes in my driftwood for caves, so they probably can’t get trapped. Probably all-female BN plecos, although I am researching on males.

[Root]

On 6/17/2023 at 2:12 PM, Odd Duck said:

both super red and blue eyed lemon males will start to show a pink patch behind their head pretty reliably before the bristles start to show.

This is very insightful. Does this also apply for regular albino BNP? I have two in my tank that I have been waiting to show bristles. 

[Tazalanche]

For many years, I bred ancistrus, discus & many others for a handful of LFS in my area.

I stopped in 2020, but still have about a dozen of the ancistrus, both male & female, with no worries about fry, & all in the same tank.

The way to do that is remove anything resembling a cave. The females will start to become egg laden, but with nowhere to breed her body will reabsorb the eggs.

[Lavender]

I don’t think I can do that: the scape for this tank is a lot of rocks and driftwood. They’d likely just find a hole in the driftwood and breed there. 

[Tazalanche]

On 6/17/2023 at 10:09 PM, Lavender said:

I don’t think I can do that: the scape for this tank is a lot of rocks and driftwood. They’d likely just find a hole in the driftwood and breed there. 

With lots of driftwood, or lots of rocks, it's all about placement. It isn't common for them to find a spot on driftwood where they're comfortable breeding. They really prefer a completely enclosed area. However, nature occasionally finds a way. If they do, just remove those eggs & sand the overlapping wood so it becomes just a dent. I've kept ancistrus since 1994 & had to do that once on some cypress roots. I never had an issue of that with mopani or spiderwood.

Here's the tank with a dozen non-breeding ancistrus. You might notice that some of the driftwood intentionally has 1" holes drilled in it for plants.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Tazalanche

[Lavender]

In that case, I’ll look into it!

[Odd Duck]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:40 PM, Root said:

This is very insightful. Does this also apply for regular albino BNP? I have two in my tank that I have been waiting to show bristles. 

Yes, shows very well on albinos and on snow whites.  Not on browns or green dragons - I’m sure it’s there under the skin but the pigment covers it too much to be visible by humans.  I don’t know if it would be visible to anyone else.  😆 

I can’t remember where I first read it - maybe a @Guppysnail post?