cave too small ?

So after reading the sticky about breeding BN I am thinking my cave is too small. The cave is just bigger than the male but not big enough for both male and female at the same time. too small? Also, does it matter about the shape of cave? I have bigger round tube caves.

Thanks
L183 plecos, BTW

Do you have any pics of the caves? That would probably help.

If you are certain the male and female can't fit in there together, then yes, I'd say it's too small.

I don't have experience with L-183s in particular so I'll let someone else answer for cave shape.

yeah, a pic would help.

I have tried so many different things as caves and found almost anything works but some things were just too small

No pictures but after looking at others breeding set-ups I think I am good regarding cave. I put a couple cave choices in the tank. Hopefully some day I will be posting on the "successful breeders page...... Of course THEN I'll need to get some pictures going. 

 

Well, I guess I didn't have to wait long. They have spawned. But they must be going through the learning curve or the new cave was just too new. In any case they have kicked out the eggs. The eggs are very near to an air diffuser so I am going to just let them stay there for a couple days. I have raised many fish but this is the first pleco attempt. I just can't decide if the eggs are viable or not. My guess is they are not.

trying to get a picture uploaded. attempt 1

https://i.servimg.com/u/f58/18/78/28/87/photo_13.jpg



attempt 2

help ! The last picture was from yesterday. Now today the eggs look like they might have hatched, but I can't find babies anywhere. The male is in his cave fanning like crazy but I can't see anything in there. I don't want to shine a light in the cave. Can someone look at the picture and tell me if these look like hatched eggs? also, would the male move the fry back into cave if they hatched outside of the cave??

Thanks all

the look like they have hatched. Give the male a few days, I reckon that is where they are.

Update: It looks like there are no baby plecos this time around. But I view this as a success since I did actually have them spawn. Looking forward to the next spawning and hope for better results. I have made a cave using Bamboo that was an instant favorite for the male. He took over the bamboo cave while it was still floating at the top. The bamboo took a few days to sink.

cheers

It's been right at one month since I saw the first eggs. Those turned out to be not viable.

Now I've noticed the female in the last week has looked to be getting heavier. Today I noticed that the female has gotten a bit thinner (maybe laid eggs). Seems there was less zucchini eaten last night as well. I can't see into the cave far enough to tell if there are eggs there but hoping for another spawn. It's probably my imagination but I think the female also has a very small breeding tube kind of like I have seen with spawning angelfish. I haven't read about anyone describing this as an indicator of spawn so maybe I am just wishful thinking??

Keep fingers crossed for me that my L-183's have spawned..

fingers crossed for ya mate