Sunshine/Goldie Breeding project..

[zerojquan85]

Even though the Sunshine/Goldie pleco is heavily imported.. they are still only clusters of people having this pleco... most are people only showing them off and say.. "Oh look at this", or "Ball pleco for sale".... But not much of the attempt to breed these fine plecos.. so.. I've decided to take up this very task and started this project of mine...

At the moment my tank is a 150 gallon 72 x 22 x 24 tank.. I dont know how successful i will be in doing this.. but i'm sure as hell gonna try..

So far i've found two goldie adult/semi adults.. One is a positive male.. the other is still unconfirmed.. (possible female)
I will continue to update this post on the progress of the plecos... if anyone has other ideas or input.. i'll be greatly appreciated!


Pics 1,2,3 is the confirmed male.. Pic 4,5 is the unconfirmed female...

Enjoy the photos!

 

[vaine111]

Sweet looking plecos Jon! Good luck!
Lets see if we can track you down another female. I'm going out on a limb here by looking at pic 5 and going to say that she is a female.
The more I look at my big one I am thinking it is female too but I still don't want to put my money on it due to size.
Are you going to get rid of any of the tank mates you have in the 150?

 

[zerojquan85]

Sweet looking plecos Jon! Good luck!
Lets see if we can track you down another female. I'm going out on a limb here by looking at pic 5 and going to say that she is a female.
The more I look at my big one I am thinking it is female too but I still don't want to put my money on it due to size.
Are you going to get rid of any of the tank mates you have in the 150?

hmm.. probably not.. although i think it would be better if i did... My tank right now doesnt have too much tankmates... other than 2 silver arows, 3 Medium size FH.. 1 fei feng.... Bottom wise i have the two goldie and 2 albino sailfin...

So the tank is still very roomy.... but eventually i want to find a tank that i can put the a couple in.. we'll see as time goes on...

 

[marvinbaker]

best of luck with this. trying to breed gold nuggets at the moment, (have 5 at 11-13" in another thread on here) and was planning to try L14's but lost my big male (you can find pics from the poty poll 2009) so just my female left. possibly a new male coming soon.

 

[zerojquan85]

best of luck with this. trying to breed gold nuggets at the moment, (have 5 at 11-13" in another thread on here) and was planning to try L14's but lost my big male (you can find pics from the poty poll 2009) so just my female left. possibly a new male coming soon.

any chance u got pictures of your female? Love to see them...

and thanks!

 

[zerojquan85]

So its been two weeks since both plecos were introduced..

I went to take a look at my tank and notice something very out of the ordinary.. Both Goldie pleco were hiding under the same log.... so some good news.. These two might turn out to be male and female...

You'll have to excuse the image.. they were taken with my camera phone when i was doing a fast snap.

Here's another picture of my male goldie..

Also.. when i was doing a water change.. i notice a few piece of bone like things while cleaning.. Turns out they were PLECO TEETH! Goldie pleco teeth to be exact... Seems that as goldie get bigger.. they will change their set of teeth? Or not no idea.. but it was a very cool find...

Anyone know why pleco teeth fall off?? Could it be like humans where as it matures new sets of teeth come off?? I hope nothing is wrong with my Goldies..


More updates to come.. I'm in the process of trying to find the correct size cave for these pair.. its been difficult trying to find terra cotta jug/ pots the that is at least 1ft tall..

 

[vaine111]

Beauties for sure!!
I wonder if the teeth falling off are from excessive cleaning of some sort for egg preparation. Always good to hope so.
Where at in the tank did you find them?

I was looking on-line for clay pots and found a link for some but it seemed they went missing and then... I found this.. http://www.plecocaves.com/Caves.htm They sell a few of these at my LFS that I frequent. and I am not sure what the XXL ones look like cause it says pics coming soon but the XL one looks like it is almost big enough but not quite.
And BTW they seem cheap.
Either way it's not a bad Idea to email him and tell him your intentions.

 

[zerojquan85]

Beauties for sure!!
I wonder if the teeth falling off are from excessive cleaning of some sort for egg preparation. Always good to hope so.
Where at in the tank did you find them?

I was looking on-line for clay pots and found a link for some but it seemed they went missing and then... I found this.. http://www.plecocaves.com/Caves.htm They sell a few of these at my LFS that I frequent. and I am not sure what the XXL ones look like cause it says pics coming soon but the XL one looks like it is almost big enough but not quite.
And BTW they seem cheap.
Either way it's not a bad Idea to email him and tell him your intentions.

lol

Funny thing.. i actually bought from this guy.. I order 5 of them.. but sadly.. even the big ones that i got were not big enough for goldie..

i might just try to find clay jars first. as those work as well and seem much better than caves.. But thanks for the link..

I hope as time goes on i can get a better shot of them.. its so hard trying to get decent pics of them without it freaked out..

 

[vaine111]

lol

Funny thing.. i actually bought from this guy.. I order 5 of them.. but sadly.. even the big ones that i got were not big enough for goldie..

i might just try to find clay jars first. as those work as well and seem much better than caves.. But thanks for the link..

I hope as time goes on i can get a better shot of them.. its so hard trying to get decent pics of them without it freaked out..

It says he does custom ones too. I was thinking maybe he can work with you on finding a decent sized one custom made for your goldie. I was thinking something along the lines of 14-16" long with a 6" wide opening and 5-6" tall would work well.

 

[zerojquan85]

It says he does custom ones too. I was thinking maybe he can work with you on finding a decent sized one custom made for your goldie. I was thinking something along the lines of 14-16" long with a 6" wide opening and 5-6" tall would work well.

How u know that that's the size i was looking for? in fact.. i was told The cave should be at least 14" long min and 6" wide.. something that looks like a JUG is perfect for the pleco..