Bristlenose Spawning

[rust81]

I currently have 2 adult female bns and 1 adult male bn in my 130 litre tank. I bought the bigger of the females from my LFS about 6 months ago and she is as big as the male bn. The other female is approx 1.5 years old. In the past 6 months my bns have spawned half a dozen times or so, with the biggest surviving batch approx 50 in size.

Over the past 2-3 months I have noticed that the male isnt chasing the females into the caves anymore. On two occassions one or both the females have spawned, but a couple of days later the male has kicked the eggs out of the caves and they are white.

So I am puzzled as to what is happening. Has the adult male lost interest as there are 50 baby bns in the tank, or could it be that the oldest female is simply too old now. I have another adult male bn in my second tank - should i swap males around and see if that does the trick.

Any ideas?

 

[kribensis12]

My Bristlenoses breed like 3- 4 months ago. They haven't bred since. A guy that I know who breeds them told me that they do that. They will breed for a bit, and then stop for months at a time.

 

[indigoj]

It is too warm for them I'd guess - do a couple of cooler water changes and see what happens - also if the babies are still there there could be overcrowding issues - see if you can move the youngsters out (or move the adults into a different tank).

Highly unlikely the females are too old - BN's have a fairly long lifespan (10+ years at least) it sounds like the eggs are not being fertilised.

Maybe also change the tank decor around - leave the favourite cave where it is and change things around it.

 

[rust81]

I'm taking the batch of baby bns to my LFS this weekend. The cold water change that I did yesterday hasnt seem to have done anything. I am tempted to swap my adult males over (I have another the same size in my spare tank). Do you think that could work?

 

[rust81]

So after taking my batch of bns to my LFS, my adult male has been in the cave for the past few days frantically fanning away, so I assume one of my females has spawned again! today he doesn't seem so interested in the cave and isnt paying much attention to it. I'm thinking this could be that he has kicked the eggs out again as there doesnt seem to be any newly hatched bns kicking about.

Should I try swapping my male bns over to see if that helps? I dont know why no more fry are being hatched!

 

[indigoj]

I'd keep trying - they are getting to the spawning stage so give them time.

 

[rust81]

So my largest female spawned again in the week and my male bristlenose was in the cave frantically fanning away. He must have been in there for only 2 days and now he is hiding out in his usual spot rather than looking after the cave. I can't see any wrigglers yet nor any eggs, so I'm guessing he must have kicked them out again. This must be the 3rd or 4th time he has done that now. Any ideas why? He has successfully reared 3 batches of fry, but nothing in the past 4-6 months now?

 

[rust81]

Any one got any ideas? Could it be due to the snails in my tank - could they be eating the eggs?

 

[Tolak]

I have snails in a bristlenose breeding tank, they don't bother a thing. Make sure you have some driftwood, they seem to like the tannins. Adding peat moss to the filtration helps as well. Plenty of cooler water changes, but leave some debris in the bottom, they seem to like this for some odd reason.

On the subject of debris, if some of the peat leaks out of the filter this seems to be a good thing, I toss in a little intentionally, as well as a couple of dried oak or other hardwood leaves. Dried leaves are tough to find once my fall harvest runs out, I have to break into my stash of indian almond leaves towards the end of summer.