Raising bristlenose pleco fries - Log

[Cavafish]

This is a cool log. You guys (well, your fishes too ) are doing real well. i am taking notes.......... but will still be asking questions later no doubt.

my male has taken to trying to dig a cave out under a piece of slate that is lying flat on the tank bottom I have just pushed the pipe piece lower into the gravel so as only the top part is free - maybe it will be a snugger fit for him now.


Keep up the good work guys.

Cava

 

[samthefishman]

my eggs hatched. Bout 7 are swimming round with their eggs sacs and the rest are in the cave. Some fall out when they hatch, its annoying.

there is just to much of them! i need to get rid of some, my tanks are fully overstocked.
My plan was to breed these and sell them, but the selling part is harder then i thought...

 

[yhbae]

Day 35
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It's been a while since I posted the log...

I had two deaths since the last post. Both were very small and thin ones - perhaps they were never meant to survive...

I've managed to sell some of the larger fries. Looks like the bristlenose will be feeding the rest of my fishes...

Still keeping up with 50% WC every two days and adding vegetables every two days. They do completely finish them now - not much to syphon so I am going to increase the amount. I will use thicker slices as well.

I have been feeding hatched brine shrimps as well. It takes two days to hatch and lasts two days so they get to eat them for two days and none for the next two...

Some photos:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=59505&st=0&

 

[Final Dynazty]

wow there really small. Good Luck with em

 

[yhbae]

wow there really small. Good Luck with em

Thanks...

Despite the photo, large ones are around 1.25 inches (I purchased really fat cucumers and zuchinis... ) Small ones are still less than 1/2 inch from the 4th spawn.

Got a call earlier today, and my 3rd spawns are completely sold out now... Anything approaching 1 inch will be gone by the end of tomorrow. So I may not need to setup the 2nd tank after all (for now...)

 

[Final Dynazty]

awesome how much a pop

 

[yhbae]

awesome how much a pop

I was able to sell so far to two groups - individuals and the breeder. To the individual, they were willing to pay around $6 each, while breeder wants to pay $3. I don't know enough individuals to sell all the fries, so I need the breeders to purchase the rest...

 

[Final Dynazty]

Where I work we sell em for 6$ ragin from 3-5 in. But yeah, I'm tryin to get mine to breed but they dont seem interested in eachother.

 

[yhbae]

Where I work we sell em for 6$ ragin from 3-5 in.  But yeah,  I'm tryin to get mine to breed but they dont seem interested in eachother.

When I purchased my 4 bristlenoses about a year ago, I looked for albino kinds since they are rarer. I managed to find _one_ LFS out of 10 I searched, and they costed me $10 each... And they were only 1.25 inches long.

Common bristlenoses are definitely cheaper - I can get them at $10 each for 3 inch fully grown up specimen or $6 for 2 inch ones...

I think I saw Long Fin Albino Bristlenose Pleco (what a loooong name!) fries from a breeder (at even higher price than my original fries). Perhaps I should try those out. The fins are about twice as long as the ones I have, even when they are 1 inch in size...

 

[Final Dynazty]

wow. Yeah you should try breedin thoughs that would be sweet!

 

[yhbae]

Day 37
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This pretty much concludes this log for me. It appears that you can raise them to 1 inch at 5 weeks (after the male releases) with vegetables. From what I hear, they are quite hardy at 1 inch, so you can start transferring (or selling) them at 1 inch+ size.

Some final (random) notes:

- I mostly fed zuchini & cucumer - thin slices when they are young, thick slices when they are larger (this wastes less vegetables). FYI, I used only about 12 inches of cucumer and 12 inches of zuchini - that's less than $2CA over 5 weeks. Food cost is very low!
- Little bit of baby brine shrimp as well.
- Temperature was set at 81F
- I left light on only about 5 hours a day - they seem more active when the light is off.
- This is done on 5.5g tank only, but I will use 10g for larger fries in the future.
- Death rate is really low! I lost about 5% of the total during this 5 weeks venture.
- I did not use any wood! They seem healthy without wood in their diet.
- 50% water changes every two days.
- No need to promote algae growth in the tank - they always have more nutricious food to eat.

About 30 more (smaller, 4th spawn) fries are remaining in the tank - I will continue to do what I did, hopfully it will continue to grow well for me...

Good luck everyone!

 

[smithrc]

Nice work - I'm sure it'll be a well read thread in the future

We're doing well now too. The male we kept from our first spawn is big enough to start breeding (It'll take the preasure off the male in the breeding tank )

and the 4th spawn is doing well... counted about 20 fry in the breeding tank

I might try turning the temp up a bit in there as we run our tanks at about 26C

 

[robgurr]

cool!...keep up the good work and keep us informed, i'm eager to see how this batch turns out

 

[yhbae]

Nice work - I'm sure it'll be a well read thread in the future

We're doing well now too. The male we kept from our first spawn is big enough to start breeding (It'll take the preasure off the male in the breeding tank )

and the 4th spawn is doing well... counted about 20 fry in the breeding tank

I might try turning the temp up a bit in there as we run our tanks at about 26C

Good luck with your current batch!

 

[Angelbby8378]

Finally, I have my 3rd spawn from the pair. This time, I will post what I am about to / is going through, and hopefully will share the experience with those who are also interested in breeding/raising bristlenose plecos.

As a reminder, I completely lost both of the previous spawns for unknown reasons (strongly suspect water quality). This time I'll try whatever I can do get as many to survive.

The male has started to release fries yesterday - I can see about 7 of them in the main tank now, and more and showing up every hour. This time, I expect at least 25 fries.

My setup for the fries:

- Tank: 5.5g (obviosly, I'm not going to raise 1 inch fries out of this tank)
- Heater: Ebo Jager 100w (don't have anything lower rated)
- Filter: Aqua Clear Mini
- Substrate: None.
- Plants: None. Does anyone see any benefit of adding java moss in this tank?
- Water: 50% from the main tank, 50% from the tap, with water conditioner added.
The tank has been left running for 24 hours with the filter on.
- Light: None. There's dim ambient light - that should be sufficient.

- Food: I've chopped zuchini, cucumer and stems of brocoli into thin slices. I plan to blanch, add them and keep them in the tank for two days max. Anything they don't eat will go into the main tank where the adults live. I plan to add all three of them at the same time to see which ones they prefer to eat. Does anyone know if they eat baby brine shrimps?

- Water change: I plan to do it daily, about 20% or so. I will be vaccing every time to remove anything that is not fish in the tank other than vegetable slices.

That's it for now. I'll post every few days to see how the setup goes. I plan to transfer the first batch of fries tonight.

Can't wait!

Hi, I'm new to this so please be patient with me. I have just gotten two mini albino plecostomus's. I was hopin to breed them. One has whiskers and one doesn't. You said you was feedin them veggie slices?
I have been puttin in the tank those little alergy disk's and they don't seen interested. I don't know a lot about them and I don't want to lose them. Can you tell me anything more about this fish? Any advise would greatly apreciated. Thank you.
Angel