Bristle nose plec fish eggs

[Lois]

I seem to have found some fish eggs, now i think they may be the bristlenose plec eggs as he has been hiding in a house for a while, my other catfish managed to turn the tank upside down, so i was just rearranging the tank back to the way it was and there were eggs on the bottom of the tank near where the house is.
Help! Im not 100% sure what to do with eggs. Ive put them in a baby box in the tank. What should i do now? How do i know they are fertilised? Etc...

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Normally the male bristlenose catfish will fan the eggs to keep oxygen rich water flowing around them, and he will guard them to stop other fish eating them. If you have put them in a breeding net or some sort of container, make sure there is some water movement around them. It doesn't have to be too much and you don't want the eggs bouncing around everywhere. You just need a gentle current.

After a week or so you should start to see baby fish developing inside the eggs.

Bristlenose catfish eggs are usually fertile so wait and watch

After the eggs hatch the fry will need rotting plant matter and driftwood to feed on. If you have a few healthy aquarium plants you can break a few leaves off and let them sit on the bottom of the tank until the eggs hatch and the fry start swimming around. Then put the dead plant leaves in with the fry. They also eat the biofilm on driftwood and this helps them get the beneficial bacteria they need to digest plant matter. They get the biofilm off plant leaves too but they should have access to driftwood and plants.