When to pull bristelnose pleco fry

[nik_n]

Hello everyone,

my common bp pleco spawn a couple of days ago. This is the second spawn and the dad is doing a great job at fanning the eggs. It's been about a week now and the fish are at the wigglers stage. They are still tiny about 1cm. I could barely see them until I slightly moved the cave. Even then every time I would shine my flashlight in the dad would immediately cover them all up. I could only see the babies about 2 times and I can say, with certainty, that there is about 4 of them. I don't know how many he is keeping at the back of the cave but could be a lot more.

Since they are in a community tank, I wanted to take the fry out and raise them up on my own. Now that they are all wigglers (and I think most of them absorbed their yolk sack) should they be moved out of the cave. I want to keep as many of them alive as possible, so I don't want the dad to release them in the community tank. When should I take them out? When will he let them out?

I would prefer to wait until they are bigger since they will most probably end up in the same tank as my blue gourami fry, which are much larger than them and will probably pick them off easily. I could make and use a DIY breeder box to hold the fry for a little while, but I don't know whether it's worth removing them from the cave at all then.

Couple of quick questions:
Does looking into the cave stress them male out and make him less likely to breed in the future?
How often do these fish spawn? I heard anywhere from every 2 weeks to a month.
If I were to breed a common type with albion/yellow/super red, what would the phenotypic ratio of the fry be?

 

[Colin_T]

Leave the babies where they are until they are at least one inch long.

Make sure you have algae and driftwood in the tank.

Don't wipe the inside of the glass down because the babies eat the biofilm on the glass, plants and ornaments.

-----------
Shining a light in the cave can stress the fish but doesn't normally cause any long term issues.

Under good conditions the females will breed with males every week. Males spend several weeks looking after the eggs and fry and don't normally breed until the first batch of fry have left the nest.

 

[ghyti]

Take them out now. If you want to save any babies take dad and the cave out and put in their own small tank. When they come out of the cave put dad and the cave back. Everything in the community tank will eat the babies as soon as they come out of the cave. A light will upset dad but not cause any other problems. They will usually spawn about once a month. A brown spawning with an albino or super red will produce 100% browns.

 

[Slaphppy7]

If these are indeed common plecos, you're gonna need alot of space to raise them

 

[ghyti]

He said common Bristlenose. I think Common Plecos don't breed in captivity.

 

[itiwhetu]

Leave them alone, they will be fine. Just give them lots of hiding places.

 

[dhjaksu]

Hello everyone,

my common bp pleco spawn a couple of days ago. This is the second spawn and the dad is doing a great job at fanning the eggs. It's been about a week now and the fish are at the wigglers stage. They are still tiny about 1cm. I could barely see them until I slightly moved the cave. Even then every time I would shine my flashlight in the dad would immediately cover them all up. I could only see the babies about 2 times and I can say, with certainty, that there is about 4 of them. I don't know how many he is keeping at the back of the cave but could be a lot more.

Since they are in a community tank, I wanted to take the fry out and raise them up on my own. Now that they are all wigglers (and I think most of them absorbed their yolk sack) should they be moved out of the cave. I want to keep as many of them alive as possible, so I don't want the dad to release them in the community tank. When should I take them out? When will he let them out?

I would prefer to wait until they are bigger since they will most probably end up in the same tank as my blue gourami fry, which are much larger than them and will probably pick them off easily. I could make and use a DIY breeder box to hold the fry for a little while, but I don't know whether it's worth removing them from the cave at all then.

Couple of quick questions:
Does looking into the cave stress them male out and make him less likely to breed in the future?
How often do these fish spawn? I heard anywhere from every 2 weeks to a month.
If I were to breed a common type with albion/yellow/super red, what would the phenotypic ratio of the fry be?

any updates? I hope you didn't leave them if your tank is anything like mine. I have lost hundreds of fry to my angelfish when breeding traps have broken and this is in a very heavily planted tank.

 

[nik_n]

After about a week, I pulled the fry, and put them in a large plastic box with a filter where I grew them out. 2 weeks later I had another spawn, which I pulled out again and placed in the same box. Once they have grown to the right size 5cm, I sold them to my LFS and kept a couple in my own tank. I honestly don't know if they survived, I saw them about 1 week after I put them in but not since. The tank is overgrown and there is lot's of caves and driftwood so they might have a chance of survival.

I stopped breeding the plecos for now but will continue some time in the near future

 

[nik_n]

Update: Just saw one of the babies in the tank. That was unexpected but it's a nice surprise. It has grown a lot since I put it in and it's too big to be eaten by the anglefish, so it should start coming out more often now. I think I put about 4 in the tank, haven't seen all of them since but this could mean that either some survived or all. I can't know for sure until they grow up, but it proves that provided enough cover some can survive in the main tank.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Update: Just saw one of the babies in the tank. That was unexpected but it's a nice surprise. It has grown a lot since I put it in and it's too big to be eaten by the anglefish, so it should start coming out more often now. I think I put about 4 in the tank, haven't seen all of them since but this could mean that either some survived or all. I can't know for sure until they grow up, but it proves that provided enough cover some can survive in the main tank.

Nice! Glad to see a happy update! Love it when people come back and update us


I know the feeling when your tank is so packed with plants and hardscape that you really can't tell how many fish you have! I have a colony of pygmy cories breeding in their own well planted tank with some otos, and the fry raise themselves in the tank. I just know that I started with seven adults, and that there must be 40 odd pygmies in there now. I still see spawning all the time, and tiny fry when I do substrate cleaning (have to rescue wrigglers from the bucket during water changes, and they're so tiny and hard to spot in the mulm!).

I found good homes for 16 of them the other week, but the tank looks as stocked as ever. Just got another tank to upgrade them, so will be interesting to get a headcount when that happens! It does feel weird though to have no idea how many fish you have in a tank, lol.