Acting Weird

[babyfish]

Bristlenoses will lay thier eggs in an upturned plant pot (with a nick in the rim }on a piece of slate. The rough surface of the slate helps the eggs to stick while the father fans and mouths them. The plant pot makes the father feel secure as nothing can get in without him knowing. If the pot has a hole in the bottom put a stone on it to block it.
Make sure you file the edges of the nick in the rim of the plantpot so that the fish don't hurt themselves.
It's best to leave the eggs with the father as he will take the best care of them.
When the fry leave the pot begin feeding them on algae wafers...blanched lettuce (pour boiling water over a leaf}.....courgette....cucumber....thin slices of raw potatoe....boiled brussels sprout.....tropical fish flake

 

[smithrc]

are the eggs orange or clear?

if they are clear they havent been fertilised.

If they are oranger they should hatch. they dont 'need' their dad although he helps in a natural enviroment, they dont have any preditors to be eaten by and will be fine on their own.

make sure the tank have a good flow untill they hatch (to avoid egg fungus)
once they are out of the eggs they will live of the egg sacks for about a week - after that they will eay algae if its there and also slices of cucumber - dont leave it in the tank for long though
(i dont leave it more than 24 hours after my rotting cucumber poisoning incident )

 

[samthefishman]

Well they r yellowish, getting darker, Doesnt the male fertilize them straight away? i have had to eggs for about 4 days now.

my question still remains!!! I took the eggs outa the water for not even a second, Will that kill them?

 

[yhbae]

Probably won't since they probably stayed wet. Try to hatch them - you will probably end up with some fries...

 

[samthefishman]

Why would the male be sitting on the eggs all the time if they werent fertilized?

 

[yhbae]

You did say they are orange, so they are fertilized. Male is only trying to make sure that they don't catch fungus...

Don't worry, wait and see if they hatch. If not, they will spawn again for you so there's always the next time!

I had two spawns so far, and I lost every single fries so far. The next batch (I think it is due soon as the male dissapeared on me again), I will try something completely different - lots of filtering and daily water change in a separate tank.

 

[samthefishman]

they r still yellowish, they were alot yellow b4 tho.
I think they were layed on wednesday, its been 4 days now, How long is it gonna take?

 

[yhbae]

They are supposed to take about a week, and takes another week or so for their egg sacs to get used up. My bristlenose eggs are never visible since he places them inside the trunk of the driftwood, which is pretty deep. He usually dissapears for about 10 days then all of a sudden, I see 1cm fries all over the tank... Most of them still has little of york sac still remaining at this stage.

 

[samthefishman]

do you have your bristlenose pair in their own tank? and once they have hatched do you have to catch them all?

 

[samthefishman]

well??