Plecos breeding on second tier?

[Nat's Fish]

I had a good chat with someone the other day who said their plecos don't breed on any second tier of caves in their tanks.
None of mine seem to either although they prefer to hide higher up.
I guess the fish feel safer as low as possible when breeding maybe?
Do any of you have plecos who breed on the second or third tier of your setups?

I've set up some of my tanks from bottom to top with gravel, caves, flat slate, caves, flat slate and then driftwood piles.
I just want to see if I am wasting my time and effort as it would be easier to have one level of caves

Cheers
Nat

 

[leisure_man]

I have L46 breeding on the top tier of a 4-tier stack. If you look at the video of L46 female being trapped by a male that I posted on this forum under 'Pleco chat', they were in the 3rd tier stack. The 4-tier vertical stack was used for breaking the strong current in the tank, but since I use the 'correct' cave size for spawning, they like it too. I had as many as 3 out of 4 tiers occupied with L46.

Here the picture to prove it.

 

[Nat's Fish]

Great thanks a lot. That's really good to know! I'll stick with the tiers as my fish grow up and hopefully I have some luck!
I don't think I have enough flow in my tank though.
It's a small tank and I don't want it too strong

 

[leisure_man]

Flow is important, but the true gauge is dissolved oxygen. A tank can have plenty of flow/current and still low in dissolved oxygen due to excessive bio load. Keeping the tank clean is a good way to reduce the bio load. You can always get yourself a DO probe and monitor the tank. A typical DO meter is in the upward of $700 and the probe doesn't last forever. A cheaper method is to use ORP probe that help monitor the 'water quality' by measuring the Oxidation-Reduction potential in mV. You will want to aim for a reading of 150 to -200mV. Too high a reading is not good, too low is obviously bad. I will let you research on this subject.

Another way to tell if the tank is low in oxygen is by observing the fish. I don't like to use this method as this is the last resort and basically requires immediate action. You will notice the tip of the pectoral fins look reddish, this is a sign of not enough dissolved oxygen in the tank. Since plecos like to cave, this causes them to stay in a localized lower dissolved oxygen environment. I don't like to use this method as each fish reacts differently and to different degree.

 

[Nat's Fish]

Great thanks. I'm doing at least two 30% water changes per week.
There is the internal filter of the Aqua one 380 tank, an eheim air pump attached to a sponge filter and an internal eheim 2012 filter. They all contribute in breaking up the water surface and the internal filter drops water in constantly from a couple of inches
The water should be pretty clean and full of oxygen

 

[bigbird]

fish will breed if all conditions are met and all are fine and in a happy mood, irrespective what tier they are in, Some I have bred in the third tier and other on bottom, but you have the right conditions and all will be fine. cheers jk :thumbup:.

 

[Nat's Fish]

Good to know. Thanks a lot

 

[leisure_man]

The only problem I encounter with them breeding on the upper tiers is the water change. I either have to stop the water change or tip the cave down so it stays below the waterline.
With my water change setup automatically, I have to manually intervene to make sure it stays submerge.

I do at least 50% water change every other day on my L46 tanks and I still have to do thorough manual cleaning of the tanks every month to clean the sponge filters as well as change the power filter medium. I believe in quantifying water quality using ORP and/or DO meter rather than assuming the water change will take care of it. After all, I spent so much money on them and would hate to see them get sick or die because I didn't do my due diligence.

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

:goodpost: but i disagree with flow being important... get the nitrates out and DO level up and they keep doing their thing... larry vires set up identical tanks with 2 groups of 134's from memory and the only difference being one tank had lots and lots of flow from powerheads and the other tank did not... everything else was done exactly the same in each tank... fed the same foods and same water change routine to maintain reasonable water quality... then after a set period both tanks had water changes increased in each tank identically... both groups of 134's spawned within days of each other and continued to produce spawn after spawn for a some time afterwards....

not to say flow and current isnt important to certain L-species that are difficult to breed but a lot of them can be spawned without it...

 

[leisure_man]

I agree with Bigjohnofish. Flow is not absolute essential. I use 'surface' flow rather than deep current flow. The whole purpose of the current flow is to improve gas exchange at the water surface and not to have it 'blowing' everything around in the tank. Back to my point, it is the water quality, dissolved oxygen content that is important.

 

[Brengun]

On my 3 tiers yes, the ones on the lower level (where I have to get on knees with a torch to see) do breed more readily. It is extremely annoying lol.

Top tier they also seem to breed but that tank isn't in my main walk way so they don't see me much either.

Middle tanks do breed but they can get disturbed my easily with me looking at them.

 

[Nat's Fish]

Thank you all for the replies. I'm still yet to breed any plecs off the ground but hope I am proven wrong.

I don't get email notifications anymore, not in my junk mail or anything.
Is this happening to anyone else?

 

[Brengun]

I only have my settings on email notification for private messages.

 

[Nat's Fish]

I only have my settings on email notification for private messages.

I have just reset everything so I'll see how that goes
Thanks Brenda

 

[leisure_man]

I change mine to 'no email notification'.

 

[Nat's Fish]

I change mine to 'no email notification'.

I just like to be able to respond to orders also
I'm still not getting notifications so don't know what's up

 

[bigbird]

it is true, the less they are disturb, the better they have of breeding. Lower tanks in rack and I am talking 10-20cm off the floor and no foot traffic, so quiet, they tend to have more success than ones where you walk past everyday with movement and people looking with torches etc. these tend to be less productive. anyway you will see, good luck cheers jk :thumbup:
PS I finally got my L134s to breed when I transferred them into my 3 tier rack room downstairs where only I go in every 2 days to fee

 

[leisure_man]

Yup, less traffic and low or no light on the tank. I use flashlight on all my pleco tanks all the time, the trick is to do it quick, makes it looks like lightning strikes since I check on the health of them regularly. The ideal case would be a night vision goggle. As they become more cost effective, maybe is time to invest in one.

 

[Nat's Fish]

I've covered up some of my tanks with cardboard to give them a bit of privacy and I think they appreciate it. I can't wait to have a proper fish room built exactly how I want it!

 

[leisure_man]

I designed the fishroom into the house when I built it. I was getting so many questions from the builder and contractors. They were all curious what I would use the room for. One of the contractors said they built a similar room for another person but not to the extend my room was. I even had the state fire marshall asked for a private tour. One of the contractors called me a year after I moved in if he could tour the fishroom. People are fascinated that someone would incorporate a fishroom design with floor drain, recessed concrete floor, metal studded walls (like ones in commercial buildings), special water-resistant drywalls, HRV to circulate the room air, mini-split for temperature control for a fishroom into a residential home build.
Unfortunately, I have gone through four upgrades and I am getting to embark on the 5th one. I am planning on setting up automatic drains on each tank before the auto refilling them. So you can imagine solenoid valves couple with power relays (or triads) and lots of wiring running to every tank.