Breeding Bristlenose

[lozzyfluff]

Dear Anyone,

So I move my 3 Tetras, 2 striped, 2 bristlenose catfish, Brian the golden apple snail, and Puffy, the Colomesis Puffer into their new home froma 30 ltr tank into a lovely new 126ltr tank! Brand new.

They love it. So much so that within 3 days of moving them and a lott of mysterious digging activity from the Bristlier of the two bristlenoses (Bob), we find a cluster of 30 or so orange eggs perched on a rock. We guessed it had to be the bristles as the other pairs of fish are too small to produce that much stuff!

After a little investigation on this magnificent website I find the owners of these little squirmy eggs. Because of Puffy's tendancy to eat anything and everything small and wiggly I move the eggs into a nursery net before they have a chance to hatch. 4 days later I have lots of small transparent wiggly things! (all named Bob Jnr).

What do I do now? They still have the eggs attached to them, I presume as a form of nutrition until they are a bit bigger (currently 2-3mm long, transparent, with only eyes being obvious). I have some baby food for platies but are they better off with a small cube of algae tabs and the occasional bloodworm?

Any and all advice gratefully recieved...

Cheers
Lozzy.

 

[andyj]

Congrats

You now have what are commonly know as 'wrigglers' !!!!

They live off the egg sack for the next few days, then they will be entirely dependant on you feeding them !!

Try algae tablets, and also a small peice of cucumber/zuchini, they'll love it.

Also, ensure that you've got very good water flow in the net, as the wrigglers need very good quality water !

Hope that helps a little.

Andy

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

As AndyJ said, just remember that they need feeding often for the firdt few weeks.
(A decent slice of cucumber every few hours)

 

[lozzyfluff]

Ta All,

Will put in some cucumber. They have good flow through the net but not too strong and I'm still cycling the water change every week to keep it in good shape!
Wrigglers is right - little buggers are now about 2 thirds of a cm long and very wiggly!

Out of interest, anyone know who often they breed?

Ta,
Lozzy

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

When mine first started they didnt stop, as soon as the fry were free swimming they were at it again, after a while I put the female somewhere else as she was getting a bit tired. You know what us men are like

 

[smithrc]

Ta All,

Will put in some cucumber. They have good flow through the net but not too strong and I'm still cycling the water change every week to keep it in good shape!
Wrigglers is right - little buggers are now about 2 thirds of a cm long and very wiggly!

Out of interest, anyone know who often they breed?

Ta,
Lozzy

every 4-5 weeks - if the conditions are right.

We've found that, If there isnt as much food for them they will be less likely to breed. The same goes for population, the more fish there are they less likely they are to breed.

 

[Rybka]

Congrats


B/N's are very easy and inexpensive fry to bring up they are lots of fun. I hope you enjoy this experience

 

[lozzyfluff]

Loving the experience so far - but only have a limited number of aquarium related friends who can take on youngsters! I guess its all to do with the bigger tank and that since i introduced the puffer fish, they've been getting more bloodworm than usual.

At least I appear to be doing something right!! - Will the aquarium shops take them off me if i end up with thousands?!?!? The tank could probably allow me to keep 2 or 3 of this clutch but no more!

Thanks for all the help as usual!

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

The LFS will probably buy the fry from you, you need to get them to a good size first, even if they give you dry goods instead of cash its a bonus