Breeding bristlenose

[Scubee]

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Not sure what happened but the babies are out now. Maybe dad finally kicked them out of the cave? Think there's at least half a dozen I can see at any one time. They're on average maybe 1.5cm long.

congratulations!!

Mine just had babies too-  I've seen about 8, but there may be more. My LFS has said he'll take some, but not until they are a bit bigger.

[TropicalFishForums]

[jaytaff]

The reason they come out, is that they are now looking for food.  Need to have food for them around the clock for them to survive or they won't I'm afraid.

Feed them stuff like courgette if you want them to live, or move to another tank solely for them to feed, otherwise they will either starve or be food for the other fish

They tend to have around the 30-40 mark most of the time, once the yolk sac has been depleted, out they will come whether the father likes it or not.

I've pretty much always got them in a tank here, either eggs or fry, but once they come out looking they just get eaten, sad, but the story of fish.  Within a few weeks time, you WILL have more eggs lol

[GlassWalker]

There's tons of hair algae for them. I assume they eat it as the parents certainly do. Also there are some algae wafer fragments and a slice of courgette in there now.

Think they're about big enough not to fit in the mouth of other fish now. Minor concern they could get sucked up by the filter.

[jaytaff]

I'm not sure if the hair algae is enough for them to eat, but the courgette certainly will, they be all bolted to it in no time.

If its an external filter, they can and do get sucked up by them.  I know I have found enough fry in canister filters over the years.  Can get a stocking or an old fish net and cable tie it around the inflow, slow the flow down a bit but works fine.

[GlassWalker]

I put in some algae wafer fragments twice a day too.

I did think about covering the intakes, but the only thing I have is a jbl filter bag which is rather too massive. Hang on a moment... some old doll socks might be about the right size. Might attack my box of bits later.

[jaytaff]

Yes, that should be fine.  Only thing with covering intakes, as you can imagine what they are covered with needs a swill in water to get the muck off, apart from that all good.  Might be a good idea to whatever you use to make sure there is no dye coming from it also.

[GlassWalker]

This morning I counted 16 babies visible at any time. They're mostly on the top of the back wall of the tank, which has a fair bit of hair algae trying to grow. None of them were anywhere near some courgette I put in overnight. The algae flakes were gone, but that's more likely the adults attacking it.

[jaytaff]

Weird how they all stay on the back walls of tanks, or around intakes/heaters, etc as mine do too.

What I usually have done, is get one of those suckers that hold heaters etc to tanks, cut the courgette to the same thickness and wedge it in the clip on the sucker, then stick it to the back wall, they seem to find it then.

Even then I sometimes get the adults "bolted" to the courgette on the side of the tank lol

[GlassWalker]

Just cleaned out both filters in the tank. Found 5 babies in one, and one in the other. Of these I returned 1 to the tank, and put the other 5 into tank 1. I chose tank 1 as its occupants aren't likely to eat them, plus it still has a bit of an algae problem so that's another potential source of food for them.

How to prevent more babies going in the filters? I covered the intakes with a cutting of a filter bag. It's somewhat coarse so hopefully will still let gunk through. Holding the bag in place proved a challenge until I found dental floss.

[jaytaff]

Good idea, if it works use it.  Personally I put a cable tie around it, and just leave it on there in case any more fry decide to come from any other fish.

[GlassWalker]

A quick update on some things...

Firstly, my filter covers were ok up to a point. They are trapping dirt and after just over a week had blocked enough the water flow from the filters was practically nothing. A quick rinse and they're good again.

The babies seem to be generally doing well. They're a bit bigger already, perhaps averaging half inch or more. They are hiding less at the top now and finding more places lower down to hide, so I still don't know how many there are. I did fine one dead one today. It looked quite a bit smaller than the others, so could be a runt or otherwise couldn't find enough food. I assume with such quantity, a 100% survival rate is not necessarily expected?

[plankton]

100% is never expected even in perfect conditions.

[treeboa]

try using bell peppers as food, my young uns wont leave the stuff alone

[GlassWalker]

Just popped into my LFS while getting another tank from a pet shop. Not fish, gerbils, before anyone asks.

Anyway, back to the LFS, I asked if they might be interested in the excess bristlenoses. Short answer is they can't pay for anything unless it's a fully legit business. They can take them for free though, but they suggested I use the aquatic small ads as apparently bristlenoses are always in demand and prices are a bit high for them to stock at the moment.

[Scubee]

Try a different LFS!

My LFS, a branch of MA, has taken a load of my assassin snails, and whilst not paying cash, he gave me credit. He's also said he'll do the same for my baby BNs.