Interbreeding Plecos

phil blencoe · Post by **phil blencoe** » 02 Jan 2004, 21:43

I have 5 plecos in a 46 gallon tank with community fish.

These plecos are L200, L030, L260, L046 and L270.

I have noticed now whilst cleaning the tank that 2 are breeding, unfortunately I have lost the babies. These babies looked very similar to the L 270.

I am very interested to know which out of my fish above could or would breed and also the best ways of trying to continue breeding.

Is this common?

any feedback, suggestions and ideas would be much appreciated.

thanks

pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » 02 Jan 2004, 21:52

Hello,

I have never crossed fish, and advise strongly against it. My best guess would be that it would be a pair from the L260, L270, or L46. All three are Hypancistrus, and that at least puts them in a position that it would be feasible.

Larry Vires

phil blencoe · Post by **phil blencoe** » 02 Jan 2004, 22:02

thanks for replying. I will probably swap some fish around in my other tanks and allow these to try and breed again. This has happened twice now so looks like they are wanting to breed.

Do you have any reasons for advising against cross breeding?

pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » 02 Jan 2004, 22:37

Hello,

The status of plecos is confusing enough. It could be possible that there are several Hypancistrus, or other genera, which we are simply getting color morphs or geographical variations of. By adding hybrids to the market, this would become even more confusing. If you are truly interested in breeding, why not just get a larger group of one, or each, of these species in order to keep the genetics pure? We still know very little about these fish, but they are rather easy to spawn when given the proper conditions.

Larry Vires

phil blencoe · Post by **phil blencoe** » 03 Jan 2004, 11:15

Hello,

I have taken on board what you have said and am not going to split them up. If they breed again I will purely keep these for myself. I am not interested in breeding to make money, just enjoy it as a hobby.

cheers

aurea23 · Post by **aurea23** » 23 Jan 2004, 12:48

Hi Phil

I think you missed the point..... The point being we should be breeding genetically pure species from same localities and learning about the "wild" form of the species.

While it may seem harmless to allow them to interbreed eventually you will release fry as you cant keep them all. Its what the people after you will do.... They will sell em as what ?

WE loose what we liked in nature and gail an aquarium strain mytant far removed from what nature had created....

dont take it as an attack but see larrys points. Be wise...

Regards
Michael

Interbreeding Plecos

Interbreeding Plecos

interbreeding plecos

breeding plecos

Cross breeding