Pleco Fry

[Plecc]

Hi all,

my BN plecos are having babies like theres no tomorrow,
so i decided to get a small 50L nursery tank setup, the tanks been going now for about three weeks and is home to about 40 fry at the moment.

But unfortunately every couple of days i keep finding the odd dead one, is this normal for a three week old batch?

The tanks not perfect at the moment, ammonia and nitrite are both constantly at 0, but for some reason nitrates are climbing between water changes really fast. (5-10ppm after a water change then within 3-4 days up around 50-100ppm, what could be causing such a quick raise in levels?
My heater is also a bit under powered for the tank so the temperature is fluctuating between day and nigh, 21-23 degrees, is this a problem?
And the Ph is slowly rising up around 8, i need to add some bog wood to the tank anyway, would this help bring the Ph back down?

At the moment the tank is bare with just a filter light and heater no ornaments or substrate.

Any advice on food for BN fry would be great, at the moment they get a bit of algae wafer and a few jmc pellets every day, is this OK?

Sry so much,
Plecc.

 

[scobie140]

Don't know much on breeding these but the breeder i got my fry from said he used to loose fyr every few days untill he put some sand in. He said it was somthing to do with bad bacteria forming on the base of the tank. so stick some sand in and yeh the bog wood should bring the ph down a tad. the teperature fluctuation should be ok as its not dramatic.

 

[Harlequins]

Congrats on your bn fry

I don't know much about bn so i wont try,why dont you post on the plec page http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/81-plecos-otos-and-other-loricariids/ ,i'm sure you'll get some help over there

 

[Plecc]

Thanks for the feedback,

scobie140, I have some smooth 2mm gravel that i can use, do you think this would be suitable?

Harlequins, your probably right, how do i move this topic to another section? or do i just create a new one in the pleco section?

 

[Harlequins]

I think only mods can move them,probably easier starting a new thread over there

 

[tom130691]

any substrate will be better than none mate i think my gravel is 2mm and i have a baby bn plec
but get some wood as soon as posible will bring down ph and give them some cover aswell as more food

 

[scobie140]

scobie140, I have some smooth 2mm gravel that i can use, do you think this would be suitable?

Yeh that would be fine

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Plecc

I'll move your thread over there for you.

 

[MOW4T]

Mine do fine in a bare bottom tank, i hardly ever lose any nowadays, temp 25 - 27, never test my water but i have from time to time lost some fry and its usually when i skip a water change or let too much stuff mess up the bottom