Bristlenose Breeding Setup need some advice

Hi all,

I am new here. This is a wonderful website that i found browsing on google for these lovely gems

Anyways I have a pair of bristlenose (Common ancistrus) and I intend to breed them. They are 1 year old. I am going to buy a new tank 107 litres with an overflow filter and will try to make a sponge or something on the intake of filter so that fry do not get sucked up by the filter. This tank will be a bare bone tank so that i will make it easy for myself to clean it is this ok?

I will do weekly water change. My tap water has a ph of 8 and rather hard water about 16GH. I read that ph to breed ancistrus should be 7. Is this true?

I will add some driftwood and try to find some small pots for them to breed in. Is this ok or do you know something good that i could buy over the internet?

As food I will give them a mixture of Algae discs, frozen bloodworms and cucumber is this good to make them in the mood to breed? Also for how much time should I leave the cucumber in the water?

I hope i covered everything if not please point me to the right direction.

Thanks for the advice in advance

Yet again this is a great informative website. I love it.

G'day and welcome!!

Personally for filtration i reckon you are best to go with a sponge filter if you don't intend to move the fry / eggs to another tank. Plus it is a great way to add lots of extra oxygen into the water.

A PH of 7 is definitely preferable. I would decorate your tank with some drift wood to help bring the PH down, plus the BN's can rasp on the wood which can heklp with their digestion.

For breeding try getting hold of some breeding logs. Theer are traders on here that make and sell their own, or a local aquatic shop should have something readily available. When buying a log try and get one that the male will be a snug fit it. He will better be able to trap the female when spawing this way.

Asd for food cucumber will be fine and can be left in the tanks for a few days as it's basically water based anyway. You can also use zuccini but make sure you don't leave it in the tank for more that 24hrs as it stinks to high heaven if you do!! lol.. Plus the algae discs 2 - 3 times a week will be sufficient. Only feed the high protien stuff every so often as it can cause bloat.

Also, read Doug's article on owning and breeding BN's. Its a sticky at the top of this thread. Great read and plenty of helpful information!

Good luck mate! I'm sure you'll find the members on here to be all too helpful and happy to give advice whenevr you ask!

Pete.

Oh, and as for barebottom vs substrate.. There is arguments for and against.

Personally, in my breeding tanks, I have gravel. However, in my grow out tank, I have a sprinkling of substrate just for that extra bacteria build up and helps with keeping the water a little cleaner.

My opinion anyway! Like I said, some will argue black and blue in the face in either way.. Just try both and see what works best for you.

Pete

First of all welcome but a post in the introduction section at the top of the forum would be better lol...
here's my advice on setting up for breeding in very simple terms....

http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/the-breeding-cave-f8/breeding-the-bristlenose-pleco-t1320.htm

Doug also has a 5*****star rated article that is available for a small purchase which is well worth the money....

http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/the-breeding-cave-f8/doug-s-bristlenose-article-15-pages-of-owning-and-breeding-them-t1793.htm

as for bare bottom tanks iam not a great fan as ive had issues in the past with my PH levels as they drop drastically with nothing in there to raise it...

hope this helps......

Thank you for your replies. As for gravel what should i buy? Is it more of a problem to clean it though?

As for breeding logs could you please point me to someone that sells these and ship to Malta (Europe)?

Thank you

gravel is up to you. I use a largish sand but only spread very thinly. in some sections its bare cos the filter blows all the sand away, others its about a cm thick. I use large sand as its small enough to vacuum easily but large enough that it doesnt get sucked up the gravel vac and into the waste water

Hi Doug,

Is a GH of 16 good for breeding?

Thanks

i'll answer here to for the benifit of others.

I have never checked the GH of my breeding tanks although i suspect is high. I find that the most important thing is stability. as long as its stable then they will prob adapt to it. But add in some wood to help drop it down, i find that wood is one of the most important things. without it my breeding tanks almost always go quiet

ok thank you

Ok so my bn's spawned and some of the eggs got kicked out!!! grrr anyways i put them in a fry saver with an airstone and 3 of them hatched. It has been around 24 hours now. Should i feed them courgettes in the fry saver or should i release them in the tank where a big courgette awaits them? Also the wigglers in the cave did not go out. Yet again it has been around 24-48 hours that they hatched.

All the wigglers are orange when will they colour to normal like parents?

this question and many others are answered in the forum...

you may wish to type your query in the search box above......

I would not put the wrigglers in the main tank so soon, though it depends what else is in the tank.

The egg sac usually is consumed by the fish within 14 days, some times quicker....

I always leave wrigglers in the fry saver for about 4 weeks after being kicked out by the dad.....

others may vary their advice to you...... different fish have different habits.....

good luck

lj

but to get the exact answer i do not think that i will find in the search box right?

In the tank I only have daddy bn and mummy bn

Since I only have only 3 fry should i feed them a small courgette in the fry saver?

you would get the exact answer in the search box, though you would get possibly a few vqaried ones as ever...

I never feed them courgette or cucumber within the first 4 weeks, though that is just me......

quite often the first week they are still consuming there egg sac, I play it sensibly since i leave a fry saver in the tank accumulating some algae any way.

this helps for when I think a small pleco or fry is misisng out on their share of food then I just pop them into the fry saver for some algae..

alternatively I leave them in the fry saver after the male as kicked them out for about 4 weeks maximum.

during this time I leave a few pieces of oxygen plant in, a small broken algae wafer and a few curmbles of flake.... this along with
the algae on the fry saver side I usually find is enough...

as previously explained you could add them back to the tenk if you like, though I do not as when they are this small they can be pulled
up into the filter.....

Moo, Curby, Doug, Jim or another pleco breeder on here may give alternate advice.... zuchini, cucumber, cooked de shelled peas, courgette are all good...
though I only usually feed them this at about 2 months after being kicked out. Though you have to consider if they had not been kicked out of their cave
or home then they would possibly have stopped around the cave entrance and inside for approximately 4 weeks just grabbing what appeared in their cave which would not have been much....

I forgot tomention watch for any matter, food or plant fouling the aquarium and once they start to decay remove ASAP.... fry can be sensitive
to over feeding when young as their stomachs are not fully developed....

The option is yours.... just monitor them and do not feed them high protein until they reach adult hood or maturity..... try not to over feed...

will leave you thinking about that now, and wait for other members to offer help, since we all have our own thoughts
and many new ideas can often help greatly

1 last question since these are very small and they do not swim like other fry when i do a water change and syphon the bottom how can i make sure that i am not sucking up the fry?

that is easy quyestion to answer..lol....

if only you were here now as I am just about to do that in the next ten minutes....

easiest two options for me is.... always have a spare floating fry tank handy, some syphon air tube and 3-4 suckers...

I then put my syphon inside a spare fry saver with the suckers holding the tube inside the empty fry saver...
it takes my tube and syphon about 4minutes to empty enough water in to a bucket to fill it, though that depends on how high the
fish tank is.

I use this method as the syphon sucks the water out whilst the tube is inside a empty fry tank the water level decreases,
and no fry are pulled up the pipe as the pipe/tube is inside the fry tank, tube attached to inside of fry tank wth suckers

option 2 is to put a little mesh round the end of the tube / pipe... I also tried to put a little sponge inside the end of the tube, though that method can take ages....

option 3 is do the water change from the opposite end of the tank from where the fry are, keeping a close watch on the end of the pipe.....

I do use a large ruler sometimes which I might put in the tank to help move any young fish away from the end of the pipe.

I also put water back in the tank with a small jug when fry are around. I also pour the water from the jug on two large stones
to avoid the water pressure shocking the fish also.

Some people put the fry in a fry saver when doing water changes but I find that causes un necessary stress to them at a time when they need to be as stress free as possible.

Shame you not here you could watch me do it right now.

haha cool enjoy WC i do not like it

lol water changes are not that bad....

I used to have 1 x 6ft tank and 2 x 5ft tanks when younger those changes I never liked as my father made me watch the buckets fill up and at about
7years old I always got bored and used to spend more time watching the aquarium than the buckets....lol

I now play it well thought out and educated and I place a LCD thermometer on the out side of the tank at about the level where
I decrease my water level to when doing a water change so I know in advance when to stop the change or remove the syphon or air tube being used.

we all have our tips and hints.....

may be one day I will put a hint and tip guide together and flog it like doug

back to my water change now...

hehe

I have 7 tanks in total with around 200 litres weekly WC

migdem wrote:

hehe

I have 7 tanks in total with around 200 litres weekly WC

you are now a certified aquarist freak lol... that is meant in a good way...

hehe thanks

my wife told me that she does not want any more aquariums so my best bet to get more i install them in the garage where she does not go that much often. But i have to stop because the electricity is coming to HIGH!!!!

It seems the one's i bred are Ancistrus tamboensis. Is this a normal bristlenose to breed?

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.planetcatfish.com/images/thumb/loricariidae/ancistrus/tamboensis/5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/Ancistrus_tamboensis&usg=__GUL1agypBmHTpqYZrO33ZqdLPKc=&h=60&w=100&sz=3&hl=en&start=8&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=AzZgC_TdPROr8M:&tbnh=49&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAncistrus%2BTamboensis%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1R2SNYK_en-GB%26tbs%3Disch:1

wolverine wrote:

migdem wrote:

hehe

I have 7 tanks in total with around 200 litres weekly WC

you are now a certified aquarist freak lol... that is meant in a good way...

Welcome to the freak club

Hehe I love to be in the freak club.

Curby i just want to know if this is the normal bristlenose. Or the normal are the sp?

Ancistrus Cirrhosus is normally refered to as the common bristlenose.

A. Tamboensis is not kept as often but breeding is the same as the common but on breeding them.