Raising bristlenose pleco fries - Log

[Final Dynazty]

Thats awesome. I cant seem to fine bristlenose anywhere in any local fish stores. But hopefully next week I will start workin at my LFS and see if he can special order them.

 

[Fishy Fishy Man]

Has this log stopped now? Im really enjoying hearing about your fries

 

[smithrc]

we've got more eggs

and this time he's not eaten them. - 3 days down...

Congrats! (again)

Seems that these guys will breed forever once they begin to spawn! I'm not going to complain about that...

It looks like this time everything is going right. we have wigglers in the back of the cave!

so after th 4th attempt it looks like i wont have to rescue eggs or tiny fry!

The only fry we kept from our first spawn is now about 2" and getting stubble

 

[Final Dynazty]

I finally got a Female Bristlenose pleco now i need to find a male.

 

[yhbae]

Has this log stopped now? Im really enjoying hearing about your fries

Not stopped yet - I am still keeping up but will be updating every 3 days or so since it looks pretty much the same each day...

I'll continue to update the log...

 

[yhbae]

we've got more eggs

and this time he's not eaten them. - 3 days down...

Congrats! (again)

Seems that these guys will breed forever once they begin to spawn! I'm not going to complain about that...

It looks like this time everything is going right. we have wigglers in the back of the cave!

so after th 4th attempt it looks like i wont have to rescue eggs or tiny fry!

The only fry we kept from our first spawn is now about 2" and getting stubble

Nice to hear...

How old is that 2 inch fry now?

 

[smithrc]

they hatched on Jun 10 2004... so thats... so thats 14 weeks.

His brothers and sisters are a bit smaller. (My parents have 2 that are about 1.5")

 

[yhbae]

Day 23
--------

I finally lost one fry. I found her in the filter - somehow she managed to go into the inlet despite it was covered with a material. I suspect there were some gaps. I replaced the material with the same material that are used to cover windows to keep insects away. They seem to allow more water passing and less prone to get stuck with food mess.

Other than that, others are doing well...

I started feeding them hatched brine shrimps! Apparently, they are good for the little bristlenose fries (I guess they are good for any fish... Why am I not suprized? ). As usual, these shrimps sink straight down the tank to the bottom where most of the fries live. It is very hard to tell if they are eating - I guess I'll find out in an hour. I hatch them daily for other fries so this doesn't add any additional work on top of what I do already...

Also, I am really debating if I need to add wood again. Even though I am doing fine without any wood in the tank, some confirmed that they do eat wood if they are provided. Why would they eat them if it is not beneficial to them?

 

[yhbae]

Looks like they do eat BBS! Before adding them, most of the fries stay near where the vegetables are, but an hour after adding BBS, they were all over the tank! Also, I see less of BBS on the bare floor compare to when I added them, so they must have eaten some of them.

I'll be feeding BBS every two days from now on...

 

[samthefishman]

i would put some wood in there... bnose dont like being in the open. For their happyness i suggest you do it.

Btw one of my fries is 1" now its amazing how fast they grow!
All up i have 53 fries... thats only in one spawn! i cant believe how much are there

 

[Fishy Fishy Man]

holy cow that is alot of frys. How long did it take you to count em?

How do you plan to get rid of them. If you live near melbourne i might be inclined to take a few off your hands, once my tank is finished cycling that is. should be about 3 or 4 weeks from now.

geez though taht is a huge amount.

 

[yhbae]

I'm sure the size of the spawn will become larger and larger - I've hard some get over 100 in one spawn as your female matures more... It is raising them that will become the challenging tasks as it will require quite alot of growing space...

EDIT: I meant to say "heard" not "hard" which sounded like "had"...

 

[smithrc]

wow - we get 20 - 30 per spawn at the moment...

 

[Final Dynazty]

i have a bristle nose that is about 4 in. and has little stubs for bristles does that mean shes a female.

 

[yhbae]

i have a bristle nose that is about 4 in. and has little stubs for bristles does that mean shes a female.

Must be, as if that one was a male, he should be showing alot of bristles by now...