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Raising bristlenose pleco fries - Log

Hey guys,
I gotta know this. (soz 4 spamming up ur string a bit :))
I JUST got a new tank, about 1 metre (3 feet) wide along the front, sorry cant remember capacity. It has two bristle-nose catfish in it but they are very yound. only about 1.5 cm and without any bristles (made it hard to classify them, believe me)
There are 3 rocks with plenty of nesting spots, and the only other fish in the tank are 8 neons and 4 Platies. oh, and another cat fish that has a long body, kinda like a shark (love that one!) We feed only flakes, and there are two (artificail) plants in there.
I'm wondering if there is any possibility of my two brustle nosed cuties breeding, assuming they are 1 female 1 male, and if so how long to wait roughly.
 
Fishy Fishy Man said:
Hey guys,
I gotta know this. (soz 4 spamming up ur string a bit :))
I JUST got a new tank, about 1 metre (3 feet) wide along the front, sorry cant remember capacity. It has two bristle-nose catfish in it but they are very yound. only about 1.5 cm and without any bristles (made it hard to classify them, believe me)
There are 3 rocks with plenty of nesting spots, and the only other fish in the tank are 8 neons and 4 Platies. oh, and another cat fish that has a long body, kinda like a shark (love that one!) We feed only flakes, and there are two (artificail) plants in there.
I'm wondering if there is any possibility of my two brustle nosed cuties breeding, assuming they are 1 female 1 male, and if so how long to wait roughly.
Click to expand...
Lets raise them to 2 inch first... ;)

If it is indeed 1.5cm, from my past experience, they die easily. Looking back, I am now pretty sure it is because of lack of food - algae seems to be insufficient in those ages... Try putting some sliced zuchinis and see if they find them.

If they do indeed turn out to be a male and a female, and if you provide the right type of "cave", I'm sure they will spawn for you... eventually. ;)
 
Day 17
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Looks like they like cucumber as much as zuchini. From this point on, I will be providing both vegetables to make sure they get more variety. I currently feed to adults, jacket beans - perhaps that might be worth while to try as well. I caught several 1cm fries in the main tank sucking on the beans that came out of the jackets!

I caught alot more fries out of the main tank. Now the lowly little 5.5g tank holds in total, 43 fries!!! (I see 4 more in the main tank!)

I learned something new yesterday - apparently the skin contains 90% of the vitamins in zuchini! A breeder highly recomends you to keep zuchini until they are fully consumed as they tend to eat inside first. Of course, this is assuming you have species that are capable of eating completely within 2 days or so...

Now, here comes another question - since there are too many fries in this tiny tank, I suspect I will need to re-distribute them on another tank in the near future. Which distribution makes sense?

Option 1: Older fries in tank 1, younger fries in tank 2.
Option 2: Equal mix of young fries in both tank 1 and tank 2.

Both tanks are, unfortunately, 5.5g for now.

Which option do you think makes more sense???
 
Yhbae i think you should just do a mixture. that makes more sence to me. BUT if you do intend to sell them, you would probly want them all the same size. So maybe you should put the bigs and smalls apart. But i dunno, I would go with the mixture
 
I dont know, but are there any issues of feeding or cleaning or treating the smaller fry any differently to the larger ones? The larger ones may need more water changes/ different food due to their development and ability to process food to waste.

This might not be true at all, I'm really waiting for you to reveal all this info as the log develops :D If it is true then that might be a way to decide. :)

Having said that, with my platy fry I like to see the different sizes mixed as it makes me realise just how small they really are when born and how quick they grow.
 
I'd say you should segregate them by size. It makes more sense, to me, anyway. That way, there's less unfair competition for food, and you'd probably get a higher survival rate.
 
Personally, I'm not as concerned about them fighting for food since there's always enough for every one of them to eat... ;)

But I do think separating them by size makes sense - they do have somewhat different requirements for water changes and frequency of feeding. I will probably go with that...

Thanks for the feedback! ;)
 
Day 20
--------

Not alot to report - they are growing nicely. Couple of them have now hit 1 inch in length. Now they consume 8 slices (zuchini/cucumber mix) per two days. At the end of two days, almost no residue remains.

Still keeping up with 50% water change every two days.

Still no casulties!!! :D

(I observed 10 more fries in the main tank! That last spawn must have been HUGE compare to the earlier ones...)
 
Final Dynazty said:
Wow. Good luck with that, what are you goin to do with all that fry.
Click to expand...
I found a local cichlid breeder who is interested in buying these fries from me (he sells them to his clients with cichlids). I am waiting for them to hit to 1.5 inches which is what he wants.

Hopefully, I can sell enough to get all the cichlids I want along with some equipments from him to setup my next tank, which will be a 80g Lake Tang setup.
 
smithrc said:
we've got more eggs :)

and this time he's not eaten them. - 3 days down...
Click to expand...
Congrats! (again) ;)

Seems that these guys will breed forever once they begin to spawn! I'm not going to complain about that... :lol:
 
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