Ancistrus are my favourite fish EVER! I love these little guys, especially when there babys (so cute!) When I was 18, I bred them, and had quite a good little buisness going on. I had to stop when I went to university, though. Right now I had two babys in my 20 gallon, with Platy's, Tetras, and Electric Blue rams, and they are so awsome- my girl, Trudy, loves to clean my tank- she patcges it up in a few minutes, then sits on my rocks. My boy, Kodiak, is so funny- he loves sitting on this leaf, that sways in the water because of the filter flow. Its like he's surfing! Here's a bristlenose tip: They do so much better with wood in the tank- once I had a paire of BN's in a breeding tank with ONLY plants, and they were never as healthy and happy as my others. Another tip= This is what I do to prepare my veggies.
-Cut up many different types of veggies into small peices(I like to do Zuchini,Cucumber,Carrot,and Brocholie Stems)
-Boil them intil they are soft.
-Put them in the freezer in a tupper-wear container
When you need a veggie, take one out, and thaw it. This I find seems to be the safest, most affective way to thaw.
-Take your veggie and put it in room temp water intil the veggie is soft (roughly 15 min.)
-Take the now soft veggie, and using tongs, rinse for 50 seconds in boiling hot water.
-Let veggie cool for about 50 seconds, until it is slightly warm\
-rinse in COLD water for 1 minute.
-Tie onto rock, or screw onto screwcumber (A great little thing, that looks like a coil of metal- you just screw the veggies on, and drop 'em in!)
-Place in tank
I like this method, because the quick variations from hot to cold quickly kill bacteria, and rinse of residue.
What are some of your BN tips?
Zophie