Breeding/Raising Bristlenose Plecos

[NickAu]

Give dad some food, algae wafer or zucchini.

You may find dad pushes some food into the cave for the babies.

 

[Demeter32]

I tried doing as you suggested Nick and he wouldn't eat. That was a few days ago but now I came home to see lots of fry on the glass and some still in the cave. Just put a slice of jello food in so we'll see how they do. I've got some frozen green beans and spinach to try tomorrow.

 

[Demeter32]

Haven't actually seen the fry or male eating any of the food I put in but all the fry have round bellies and there's plenty of poo getting sucked up during water changes. I'll be shooting for daily 25% water changes while their small then shoot for 50+% when they're bigger.

Found one fry with a familiar defect I had in my African cichlids. The top part of the tail fin is folded over in this one. Might end up keeping it once it grows up, I don't have any desire to cull otherwise healthy pleco fry.

 

[NickAu]

Cool baby photos.

 

[Demeter32]

Proud father and his many children.

 

[NickAu]

He is a nice looking boy.

 

[Demeter32]

Well over due update. I've traded in most of the first batch of fry ~2 weeks ago, they were right around 2in. There's still a few runts and a couple I couldn't catch without tearing the 36gal apart. Roughly 30-35 fry made it to a good size. Not bad, not great I suppose.

Now I've got another batch that's probably around a month old. Dad of this batch was my long finned albino male, same mother. I moved the cave and dad into a 20gal tote after the eggs hatched but before they were free swimming. When I moved dad after the fry left the cave he had a bit of fin damage but he healed up just fine and is back in the 36gal.

Lots of babies and it appears that some are long finned.

I've been having a few deaths every now and then, not sure why. I change around 4gals every day when cleaning out all the poo. The sponge filter is cycled and the temp is around 78F. This is also the tote that has my male betta juveniles floating around in jars. I think the smallest ones are just starving to death. I've upped the amount they're getting fed and feeding twice a day. They don't show too much interest in the veggies I drop in but they like the shrimp pellets and algae wafers. The leaves I added in as a "first food" are just about gone, may add more later.

It looks like I have 2 male red BN, I really wanted a female but oh well. I have tentative plans to get the albino female breeding with the one of them. In theory I'd think the fry would be calico but can't say for sure.