My First Batch Of Long-Finned Bristlenose Plec Babies!

[Rynofasho]

So I had another thread in the Freshwater Tank section because the start of my fry adventure was with fear - I have a nice sized root in my tank, and my male BN disappeared into it for days. Previously I thought I clipped him with the gravel vac so I was scared he was going in there to die. Well, long story short, one day while looking I saw something swimming in there with him, and pretty soon with the help of a nice bright headlamp, I was able to see that he was guarding eggs in there and I'd see a baby from time to time. They eventually started pouring out and I'd see 5-6 a day. Well, as of today, even during the daytime, I just counted 36 of the wee lads, some regular, and some albino. Anyhow, here are some pictures that I've been able to get of them:

One on the glass, one on the plant:

Four albinos, plus momma:

More albinos. The one is almost transparent:

The father, up close (plus a Honey Gourami looking for scraps):

Getting awfully close to the bloodworms! PS I picked about 40 more MTS out of the tank yesterday (ugh)

Barely visible:

One more of Ike and a Honey:

Anyone else have Honey Gouramis that seem to eat everything BUT flake food? I swear, the eat it and spit it out and then go gnaw on plants, shrimp pellets, algae wafers, and bloodworms. Picky little fellas.

This is their first spawn, and also my first spawn. I'm still very much a novice at fishkeeping, however with the help of this site, I feel really comfortable and I'm having good luck. I've only had one die thus far (that I've seen) and that was due to an unfortunate meeting with the filter impeller. There were 7 other babies in the bottom of the filter and all were munching away at the gunk in there. I had some panty hose over it, but it gets mucked up so fast with lots of live plants and fish that it was killing my filter flow and the tank was noticeably nasty, so I've opted to just leave it off now. I check it daily for fry and put them back in the tank as needed (only found one more in there so far and it too was alive and well).

The albino are around 1.2cm, most the regulars are around 1.5cm, and I've even seen some that are probably pushing 2cm. None of the other tank inhabitants really rough them up - I've seen a few curious investigations of them though and no one ever gets the worst of it. Anyhow, just thought I'd start a thread here and post every once in awhile to document my progress as I go. Like I said, I counted 36 today, and there are a ton of hiding places in my tank, so I'm sure there are plenty more. Thanks for looking!

 

[SchottayB]

Congrats mate! How big do BN Plecs get?

 

[raptorrex]

So I had another thread in the Freshwater Tank section because the start of my fry adventure was with fear - I have a nice sized root in my tank, and my male BN disappeared into it for days. Previously I thought I clipped him with the gravel vac so I was scared he was going in there to die. Well, long story short, one day while looking I saw something swimming in there with him, and pretty soon with the help of a nice bright headlamp, I was able to see that he was guarding eggs in there and I'd see a baby from time to time. They eventually started pouring out and I'd see 5-6 a day. Well, as of today, even during the daytime, I just counted 36 of the wee lads, some regular, and some albino. Anyhow, here are some pictures that I've been able to get of them:

One on the glass, one on the plant:

Four albinos, plus momma:

More albinos. The one is almost transparent:

The father, up close (plus a Honey Gourami looking for scraps):

Getting awfully close to the bloodworms! PS I picked about 40 more MTS out of the tank yesterday (ugh)

Barely visible:

One more of Ike and a Honey:

Anyone else have Honey Gouramis that seem to eat everything BUT flake food? I swear, the eat it and spit it out and then go gnaw on plants, shrimp pellets, algae wafers, and bloodworms. Picky little fellas.

This is their first spawn, and also my first spawn. I'm still very much a novice at fishkeeping, however with the help of this site, I feel really comfortable and I'm having good luck. I've only had one die thus far (that I've seen) and that was due to an unfortunate meeting with the filter impeller. There were 7 other babies in the bottom of the filter and all were munching away at the gunk in there. I had some panty hose over it, but it gets mucked up so fast with lots of live plants and fish that it was killing my filter flow and the tank was noticeably nasty, so I've opted to just leave it off now. I check it daily for fry and put them back in the tank as needed (only found one more in there so far and it too was alive and well).

The albino are around 1.2cm, most the regulars are around 1.5cm, and I've even seen some that are probably pushing 2cm. None of the other tank inhabitants really rough them up - I've seen a few curious investigations of them though and no one ever gets the worst of it. Anyhow, just thought I'd start a thread here and post every once in awhile to document my progress as I go. Like I said, I counted 36 today, and there are a ton of hiding places in my tank, so I'm sure there are plenty more. Thanks for looking!

what are you going to do with the fry?

 

[Duz]

36 fry, thats impressive. Well done

 

[Rynofasho]

Typically they don't get much bigger than 5". As for the fry, I plan on raising them until they are a decent size and then trying to offload them on Craigslist and also my LFS. I called the LFS and they would be interested in them for store credit. I may keep one or two, not sure just yet though.

 

[Rynofasho]

The babies are coming along quite nicely. Some of the bigger ones are just under 1" or 2.2cm with most of the albinos still being a bit smaller, although I have spotted the occasional big one.

How quickly do the fry grow? And how big do they need to be to actually start off-loading some of them to others? I mean I know I could obviously do it right now, but typically, at what size are they 'saleable' so to speak?

 

[Duz]

They are normally sellable when they are around 2", thats what I often see fish shops selling at. They normally sell when they are young so the customer can see them grow a bit. Saying that you don't want to sell them too young that they need extra feeding and the customer doesn't know that. Once you start feeding them only once a day then I reckon it would be a good time to start selling them. How much are you feeding them?

 

[Rynofasho]

They typically have some type of veggie in there most of the time. Longest I'll go without something in there is usually a day, two tops, but I'll still feed two wafers and they rasp all over the wood and algae on the plants.

In other developments. . .the two adults are back in the root already. Nothing good can come of that. . .

 

[Duz]

I would say wait until they about 1.5-2" then start selling them, you could always ask your lfs what size they would like them at. That might give you a bit of an idea and they can always help you. As for your adult plecs; looks like you might be getting another batch of fry. At least you know the male isn't ill this time.

 

[Rynofasho]

Gosh, I know he isn't ill, but I dont want to be perpetually taking care of baby fish! I suppose the only thing I could do is remove one of the adults or remove the root. . .

 

[Duz]

Or remove the eggs afterwards, only problem to that is if the male guards them. By the sounds of it he guards his eggs quite well. If you don't want any fry it might be an idea to move 1 of the adults into a new tank (if you have 1). If you remove the root they might just find another hiding spot. But at the fry will give you losts of store credit to use up

 

[Rynofasho]

The problem with removing the eggs is that they are WAY inside this root and there is no way on Earth I could get to them. I think I'm just going to deal with this next batch and after that, rehome one of the adults to my 10 gallon until I pick up something bigger (had my eyes on a 75). I just didn't think they would already be breeding again when the fry are still all less than an inch.

 

[Duz]

You will be surprised, they say rabbits breed fast but I think fish are worse. Rehoming them would be a good idea, at least that way if you would like fry you can always put them back together and hope to get some. But you also get to keep both of them

 

[Rynofasho]

Guess I better get a move on buying that 75 gallon. . .

 

[Duz]

Did you ask your lfs how much they would buy them for? I've always wanted to know how much they buy/sell them for (see if they make much profit off them).