A pleasant surprise.

[gardenman]

About six months ago I moved some of my older Super Red Bristlenose pleco fry around to other tanks. They were about two inches long when I moved them and unsexable at that size. The two I'd put into my 30 high I'd thought were both males as they chased each other nonstop. A few weeks ago I added seven of the fry from the December spawn into the 30 high to grow out. I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the two supposed males already in there. They'd largely become background fish who were just there.  Yesterday I noticed that one of the two older plecos was getting kind of chubby. A closer look showed that this "male" pleco was in fact a female. The other one is definitely a male, so I've got a young adult pair of Super Reds in that tank now and the female looks pretty ripe. The only real problem is my male in that tank is now largely ignoring her and the caves and just hanging out on the back of the filter tube. I suspect if he showed some interest in her there'd be a new spawn of Super Reds in that tank. She looks primed to spawn, but he's not showing a lot of interest just yet. They're still a bit young, but I suspect I'll see some action there before too long. Neat! I may have to see if I can find some fishy Viagra for the male to speed things up. He's checked out the caves on occasion and was hanging around them for a bit, but now has taken over the filter tube as his hangout. If he continues to appear uninterested I may sneak in a male competitor to fire up the old hormones a bit. A bit of competition tends to stir things up and I've got a lot of males in my fifty who would be only too happy to have a female of their own.

[gardenman]

For anyone wondering, this is what a ripe female Super Red Bristlenose pleco looks like. You'll notice she's quite roundish in the body compared to a "normal" pleco. She is quite likely rather full of eggs and just waiting for the male to notice. Sadly, he's not really noticing so far. He has checked out one of the caves a few times today and given it a cursory cleaning, but his heart isn't into it just yet. Hopefully in a day or two he'll get a bit more motivated.

[Will Billy]

Awe look at that round tummy. I almost want to rub on it lol. That is one cute lil momma you got there. 

[gardenman]

Yeah, she's a beauty. My females tend to drop a hundred-plus eggs at a time so they get pretty round. The male is getting slightly more interested and has done some minimal cave cleaning, but his heart just isn't into it. He's not wildly enthusiastic about spending the next month or so guarding the eggs and fry.