Is it always this hard to give them away?

Hi everyone!

I've used the info on these forums quite a bit when I first bought my Bristlenose female/male breeding pair. My love for the BN started when I took my BF down to the pet shop and let him pick whatever he wanted to go in my tank (within reason... the 4ft long shark he pointed to first wasn't quite what I was talking about). Well after that he settled for a pair of breeding bristlenoses which I was a little against since my tank was supposed to be all about breeding guppies not bristlenoses. Needless to say from about three days later when I first noticed a pile of orange eggs under one of my ornaments I was HOOKED.

Sadly I had a lot of trouble with the fry and lost all but ten as well as the father. The water conditions when tested were perfect and I sought help from an online forum but it really was unexplainable.

Now the time has come for me to sell some of my survivors, I know it'd be a good idea to lessen the numbers for food reasons and tank space... but I never realised how attatched I was till now!!! I'm selling/giving away four of the ten and picking which four is painful! I've already gone and promised them away but oh I wish I didn't now haha. I'm, well, quite desperate to have a male from my group so the idea that I might give away a male is hard too. I thought my adult male BN was absolutely beautiful and I'm hoping one of his fry takes after him ;p

Here's a pic of the fellow from when I had him:



(looks a little yellow but I think thats a combo of the light just being turned on - he seemed to get lighter in the dark for whatever reason - and the camera setting)

Of the ten fry I had live I now have one thats quite big compared to the rest with bristles around the mouth. I HOPE its male bristles and not female bristles lol. His mum doesnt have any sign of them at all but I'm supposing that doesnt factor in much with a new generation?

This fellow (still hoping) doesnt have any bristles on his head yet though. I'd say the ones around the mouth appeared maybe a week or less ago. Is there a pattern to how they develop? If they're just around the mouth at the moment is there a chance they'll start on the head and I can rejoice in his maleness?

Anyway back to chosing which of my darlings are going to new homes

Here's a couple of lil pics though to share with you first ^_^

From lil bubs



To adolescence!




(this might be the 'fellow' I mentioned in front with a couple of bristles showing)


The 'feeding' area with mummy BN having some dinner. I use the dish so that algae pellets dont go soft and sink into the gravel ;p also a good shot for playing 'spot the BN' haha.

love the bristlenose pictures and the little ones are growing fine too...

Hi daisakura, I'm the same I always find it hard to part with fish I've had since an egg, but as you say It's no good overcrowding tanks.

I think your right in assuming the one starting to show bristles is male. There are a lot of people on here who can tell by body shape so If you have photo from above or grazing on the glass it should get you a more positive answer.
Males are ususally a larger fish, not so much in length but they are chunkier, this is particularly obvios across the pectoral fins where the difference between male and female is more apparent, especially when viewed from below.

even though I have a nice selection of Bristlenose right now I am always envious of people with bigger well kept aquariums / tanks.

I get a little down seeing my Bristlenose growing in a small tank as it stunts their growth and can shorten their life span.

A 4ft tank or bigger aids development and can nearly double their maturity rate.

If you do not believe me just try it and see.

Keep up the happy and well placed fish keeping.

Kind regards

LJ

Great post Great pics and a warm welcome from me....

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Yeah I think I'm especially attached because at one point I was thinking 'oh god I'm going to lose the whole lot' but these ten pulled through. Oh goodie! I'll keep my camera by the tank and try to catch my "I-might-be-a-male" BN when he's up against the glass or in a better spot for an above photo. Either way I think I'll be holding on to 'him' just in case ;p

Its funny how they all grow at such different paces. Like with guppies they all seem to end up around the same size but with these guys I have a couple of monsters for their age, about 5 middle sized and 3 just a bit smaller (the size difference is shown in one of the photos actually). Could this be anything to do with food I'm just wondering? I feed them with alage pellets and zuchinni daily but sometimes I wonder if the bigger guys are just hogging it all. Or the guppies are too, I have fun at BN dinner time trying to shoo the greedy things away! Thankgod they cant eat zuchinni!

Else I suppose it's just the BN's individual growth rate

Great post and some nice pics. I've just had my first couple of batches of fry in the last 3 or 4 months and the difference in growth rate amongst fry from the same batch always surprise me!

I have a two week old batch of fry. The browns are growing rapidly and always seen eating food as soon as it is put in. The albinos however have hardly grown at all and just hang around the filter or on stones with algae on. The browns are about three times the size of the albinos. My first batch were all brown except for one albino and that one has kept pace growing with the browns. I am mystified about this.

daisakura, good story and nice pics. I hope you do get one that takes after his dad

Thanks! Me too haha! Unfortunately none of them seem to have his beautiful dark blue eyes but I do have another of the largest BN bubs starting to show a couple of very, very small bristles too