Expecting Bristlenose

[weird]

My bristlenose dad when meant missing for 4 days, so I went looking for him ... he was guarding an egg sack under some driftwood !!! Wow ... like I have had live-breaders bred before ... but this is new to me ... the dad actually looks after the eggs and blows air on them to stop them growing fungus ... does anyone know why this stops em going fungus ... my mrs asked me ... and I "the all knowing" had to go ... ummm ... dunno ?!! lol

I have moved the bristlenose, driftwood with eggsack to my old 2 footer ... hopefully they will survive fingers crossed ... if they do I might have some discus buddies to give away down the track.

Btw , no pictures ... my bloody camera died on the w/e ... gee I really need a replacement ... a kodak moment !!

[jim]

Can I please ask how big is your bristlenose??

[weird]

Male is about 10 cm, has big bristles ... got him as a baby about 1 1/2 years ago.

Only change I can think about which made them spawn is that I replaced thin layer of large gravel with a thick layer of fine gravel ... this allow him to dig under driftwood and make a cave. They apparently need a cave to spawn ... if the chick likes it she pushes him out lays the eggs, and he takes over. The dad is a great parent ... really cares for the babies ... amazing .. I hope they break through the egg sac ... I can can see tails wriggling under it ... oh well if they don't still a great experience.

[jim]

WOW COOL!! I am so jealous

[weird]

Thanks Jim

I was very lucky when I transported the driftwood, I did a straight lift (in hind site I should have transported them in water across to the new tank). In 24 hours they have separated from a single egg mass, to separate eggs with their actual tails wiggling out ... I see them hover in the air (under the driftwood) and back again to the driftwood ... one of them has gone wondering around the tank ... egg with tail sticking out ... not sure he knows he has left the main camp ... but atleast there is no predators to eat him.

The only way I can see all this is peaking through the newspaper I wrapped around the tank, letting my eyes adjust to the light for a minute, and checking them out from the reflection in the bottom of the tank.

I have bought some lettuce (which I boiled for a minute) ... this I intend to feed them for their first few months if everything still goes alright.

[weird]

Yeah !!!!!

Father bristlenose went back to the community tank today, and I have little bristlenoses now everywhere in what use to be my first tank ... my 80 litre one !! About 20 are scattered all over the place, still about 40 or more under the driftwood where they first entered the world.

If all goes well I might have some bristlenoses to offer in about 3 months ... I should get a new digital camera to show the father and mother ... they are both brilliant looking fish ... especially the faher ... quite fierce looking (funny how the tough looking ones usually have the hearts of gold ... wow ... b/n make seriously good dads.)

[jim]

hi weird, how your bristlenose babies going??
got new digicam??

[weird]

They are going so well ! I feed them blanched cos lettuce ... huge leaf every night ... they destroy it in 24 hours ... stripped. They are growing very very fast.

Will get a new cam this week ... stay tuned !

[Essayons89]

Congrats on the bristlenose fry weird!

Bryan

[weird]

Pictures !

[weird]

more

[Mattzilla]

great pictures!

[Essayons89]

Awesome pictures wierd, they are developing very well.

Bryan

[weird]

The home of pappa and mamma bristlenose.

[jwight]

Do you boil the luttuce first before feeding?

[weird]

Yes, "blanched" i.e. boiled lettuce for about 60 secs. Use cos lettuce, the type used in caesar salads ... I weigh it down with plant weights.

[jim]

wow....look at how they finish the lettuce... you got a army of bristlenose there weird...cool.... love it..

hey..does discus or other fish eat boiled lettuce too??

[BlackGhost]

Congrats on the amount of well raised baby bns you have. Cant wait untill mine breed if they do lol. I have heard that bns and other sucking cats like the slime on discus but if you feed the bns well they dont bother the discus.

[weird]

Jim, I have noticed that the sucking catfish I keep (they are adults ... almost the biggest fish I have in the community tank ... and they get a bad rep from some stores but honestly they seem to only bother each other nobody else, and they only play fight ... hate when people give some fish a bad name undeservingly) ... anyway sucking catfish seem to like to eat lettuce too ... I am sure there must be heaps of other fish out there that like their veges.

[kevkoi]

Sucking catfish (aka Chinese algae eaters) Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, are great in a tropical community tanks. They just don't do so well with large bodied fish like goldfish (which sadly most are sold with!) and large discus.

They have a bad habit of jumping on large fish for a taste of the slime coat. In a community tank with fast fish or small fish, they are great.

The trouble is that this fish is often marketed as a "cold water fish". God knows how they get marketed as such since their natural range of habitat extends mostly thru tropical Thailand (there are none of them in China.... so I don't know how the common name came about either!). Most of them die as a result of wrongly keeping them unheated in goldfish tanks and (god forbid) Goldfish bowls.

I find them particularly useful in cleaning up algae in general community tanks (not with discus), even Malawi cichlid tanks with high pH they seem to do well in. But then again, common bristlenoses are a more efficient, versatile general, all-purpose cleaner IMO.

Ottos are great with fine leaf plants... just need an army of them. And they can sometimes be touchy when first introduced to a new tank.

[jim]

Thanks Weird..I have 2 yellow sucking fish in my tank with my discus..they seems ok so far..they are adult size as well...guess I am very lucky.. they are great algae eaters too...maybe I have too much algae in my tank at the moment.so they are too busy eating algae

[weird]

:D :D :D I have another batch of baby bristlenose ... I just emptied the babies from the cave in the community tank into the baby bristlenose tank. Got a few day year olds living side by side with 5 week year olds ... wow ... looks like my mum and dad have deciding its time to breed ... they now have a permanent cave in the community tank ... so hopefully this will continue. :D :D :D

[kalebjarrod]

holy flying toilet brush batman

what are you gonna do with them all?

(p.s i am a sucker for baby fish pic's, how they looking)

[Mattzilla]

hey i need some bn if anyone has some spares.... i have 4 2cm bn in my new tank and wouldn't mind a few more.....

[weird]

I suck at taking pics (my mrs takes betters ones but she is watching some stoopid chick movie) so here goes.

In regards to b/n Mattzilla, if you can wait 5 more weeks I may have some for you. I have put about 5 in my baby discus tank. But anything more than a baby discus, then you might as well be putting bloodworms in ... lol. Even the biggest right now, is still smaller than my turqs Discus mouth , and as they say, if it can fit in the mouth it is food.

[weird]

one more pic

[kalebjarrod]

good stuff dave

wish i was in sydney

[weird]

Some more pics ! You can see the new babies on front glass.

These guys would be awesome for your new tank Ryan, them and the guppies would get along great, wish I could come over and give you some :(

[kalebjarrod]

i wish too matey, then i could shout you a beer and we could talk fish crap all night lol

although i think my pair are huckering down to do some good lovin

heres hopein, whos got that barry white cd again?

[Mattzilla]

just let me know when dave...it'll be a good excuse to come over and see your fish and as ryan said "talk fish crap all night lol"

great pictures....how many babies do you think you have there?

i know a guy who actually hand counted a batch of 177 bn babies.....waaaaaaaay too much time on his hands lol

[weird]

wow that is a lot, not that many! Well see what my pair do between then (fingers majorly crossed!)

But for sure that will be great :D

[Bad Inferno]

They look great...must be the season as I found 6 babies in my tank...suggest the other 40 got eaten for breakfast by the discus. I can still see a couple.

Does anybody know how often they will lay eggs....Now I know I have a pair I may put them in another tank.

[weird]

Well my guys have another batch 5 weeks after ... :o

I don't think it is the time of year, as our tanks should almost have constant parameters throughout the year. So unless we are somehow simulating a seasonal change (through water changes/ change in temp/ph etc) it must have something to do with either reaching sexual maturity or the b/n have found that the physical environment (which is a cave) is conductive for breeding.

[DiscusMad]

can I put my had up for some weird when you are ready to part with a few?

[weird]

I should have enough. Though don't ask me to give you a specific number how many I have. :wink:

Some remained in the community tank when I shifted the last lot of babies. They seem to be comin along nicely. Some have also got some really nice patterns. :D

[dreamer]

i want i want ....
is there any secret to keep bn alive? i thought they suppose to easy to keep ...i killed more bn then discus ... go figure...

[kalebjarrod]

LOL

Dave

seems i may be joining you in fatherhood

i have seen two wrigglers just pop out of the BN log

LOL thought of this post immediatley

i will see how many i get and post soon!

[weird]

Have included 2 pics from the baby bn tank, and a pic of my baby discus tank, where I dropped in 8 that are doing well ... actually extremely well they have doubled in size from eating beefheart lol.

[kalebjarrod]

seems that barry white was workin

i now have no need to vist dave i seem to have a tribe starting off my own (except for that beer :wink:)

thought i would take a shot inside the log to see if i could zoom in and count the babys, well there are babies and another load of eggs too!

double trouble LOL

[weird]

thats great news !!

May our BN Kingdoms live in harmony ! :P :P :P

When they start they don't seem to stop, I am sure there is a third lot coming.

[kalebjarrod]

i have to setup a grow out tank so the little guys grow big fast!

hopefully someone will buy em and i can give some money back to the never ending pit i like to call "electrisity bills"

[weird]

When I first had them, I was loosing almost 2 a day ... I was not sure if my tank had not properly cycled or if there was something wrong with the water I was adding. It was only an 80 litre tank, and I was replacing about 15 litres a day from adding prime to a bucket, add some boiled water to increase temp and blasted water into the bucket from tap. Tank temp wat about 26 degrees. Their only diet was cos lettuce and a few pieces of cucumber.

I then removed about 8 to my baby discus tank. Tank temp 29 degrees. These guys in a period of 2 weeks dramatically grew compared to the baby BN tank. I knew previously that BN like blood worms, but I was feeding my discus alot of beef heart. I am thinking that the reason why these guys grew so fast is either because they had access to more food (most likely) and maybe because of the added protein to their diet. Also at that stage was a bit of algae in the discus tank ... this is all gone.

I have now increased the baby bristtlenose tank to 29 degrees, using same water that I have prepared 24 hours early for discus (from same water bin) and adding a few bottom feeder tablets which is high in protein as well as a few pieces of cucumber or zucchini (microwaved in water for about 45 secs). Last 2 weeks had no losses.

[kalebjarrod]

the only one i have lost is because i hadn't spotted them early enough and one went through the HOB :cry:

i am feeding lettuce, zuchinni and hikari algee waffers. blood worms ever few days

water is from my aged tanks as well and the temp is set to 28-29 like yours.

i have even started a veggie garden out the back so i can stop buying so much crap from coles for my fish.

i am doing water changes daily, these guys are messsssssyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, just replacing what i lose when i vac all the garbage.

[weird]

xtreme

[Aurora]

I tried feeding my bn lettuce and they didnt touch it. Oh well, I will try zucchini and see how they go.

[Ben]

Weird, your bristle nose are great!
well done!
with your success you should get some of those albino BN and get them breeding!

cheers,
Ben

[weird]

Aurora I have 3 tanks with my first and second batch, and I have noticed quite different growth patterns of BN in each tank.

The first batch is about 3 months old, in my baby BN tank they are approx the size you see in a LFS. In this tank they have only really been fed lettuce and zuchini.

However in my baby discus tank, I have 8 of the same BN and they are literally giants for 3 months. My wife and I are in shock everytime we see them ... they are so huge for their age. Twice the size as my BN tank.

So now, everytime I feed my discus I now put a pinch of bloodworms or discus dinner in the BN tank. I do daily water changes of the baby BN tank. I am experimenting, but I am hoping to see dramatic growth.

BTW my breeding pair of BN have produce their 5th or 6th lot since the 3rd lot I have been letting nature take it course.

Ben aka prodigydiscus, I would love to breed albinos ! I really love BN.

[kevkoi]

U know u could try your hand with other interesting types of ancistrus species....

Albino bristlenose, Peppermint bristlenose or Orange spotted bristlenose have been quite readily bred. Time to give them a crack maybe? :wink:

Or maybe some of the more exotic catfish?? :P

[Ben]

Here here big Kev!!
I think thats a challenge Davo!

see if you can breed :
Albino bristlenose, Peppermint bristlenose or Orange spotted bristlenose !

[weird]

Kev your twisting the rubber arm here !

My only problem is I have a full house in terms of my 4 tanks, and I am fortunate to have long term borders.

One of my projects is to set up a rack system of tanks. More tanks ... economical use of space at home. Most importantly more fish !!!

Then I can go further down that track of experimenting with other types of catish.

:D :D :D

[weird]

Papa with zucchini and breeding cave

[kalebjarrod]

if you want your fish to eat lettuce blanch it first

they will love it!