Super red male not maturing

Hi,

This is my first post, I have looked but cannot find a similar question that has been asked, apologies if it has.

I have has a trio of super reds for about 18 months, the females are definitely ready to breed.
However, the male does not seem to mature. He has the three rows of tentacles but these are only around half size, never seeming to change. He is around the 3 inch mark.

I have several years experience with brown, albino and lemon breeding and I have observed that my albino's grow and develop fastest followed by brown then lemons. Super reds are easily the slowest to grow and to mature.
Is this what others have experienced?

Thank you for your time.

fatGuppy wrote:

Hi,

This is my first post, I have looked but cannot find a similar question that has been asked, apologies if it has.

I have has a trio of super reds for about 18 months, the females are definitely ready to breed.
However, the male does not seem to mature. He has the three rows of tentacles but these are only around half size, never seeming to change. He is around the 3 inch mark.

I have several years experience with brown, albino and lemon breeding and I have observed that my albino's grow and develop fastest followed by brown then lemons. Super reds are easily the slowest to grow and to mature.
Is this what others have experienced?

Thank you for your time.

Firstly make your second post here
http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/f1-new-members

To be honest 18 months is a very long time to wait, i would replace your super red male with another if you are serious about breeding them as if it hasnt happened in 18 months then i fear it could well be a while before it ever happens..  

the first thing that jumps to mind is if there are other male plecos in the tank?

If there are then he might feel inferior and therefore not mature until the other males are removed.

Really appreciated.  

To be clear, when I purchased my trio they were only around 4-5cm and I grew them on, the info I have read it does appear Reds take longer to mature than other types - I was just checking what others experience was on this front.

I have a Male & Female pair together in their own species tank.

(For additional info:
1 pair Brown breeding in own species tank. (Have had 6 spawns from these - fry grown on and sold to LFS)
1 pair Calico breeding in own species tank. (Purchased small, grown on - just had first spawn, seems like 70ish fry)
Growing on Albino longfin (x2) and a Lemon longfin in own species tank.
1 Female Albino & 1 Lemon Female in own species tank (Awaiting finances to allow Male purchases, or, awaiting maturity of longfins to see if I already have a Male).
)

I do wonder whether to remove the Red Male and place him in the large community tank to try to mature him that way - my finances do not allow me to purchase a mature Male at the moment (whole reason why I got them small and grew them on).

Many thanks,
Ricky