Do you think she is gravid?

Long story short, I brought home on a long finned albino female today to introduce to my male common BN.
They are both in a 37 gallon tank with live plants. The male has been in there for about 2 years now, raised him from a baby(And he also already has a cave he's been living in for the last few months.), and female is around the same size as him(Which is about 4 to 5 inches). The only other fish in the tank are some guppy fry. I didn't initially think she would be gravid coming home, but I looked up some pictures on the web, and she seems to be gravid.
I'm no expert though so I figured I'd post some pics and you all can tell me what you think.




Sorry the second one is blurry. She left the glass after I took these.
My male and other female(Lost her in a house fire, my male and the late female never spawned) have never had a round stomach before, it's always slowly gotten skinnier down to the tail.

This is my first endeavor into BN breeding so I would love any advise you have.

Although I do not have albinos the pinkish hue to her belly would make me think she is gravid, she looks like she may get slightly larger before she is ready to breed.

She looks like she's close to laying so yea I'd say she's gravid. That saying my albino longin female used to get huge Any ways good luck with them spawning. IMO I'd get an albino longfin male and just breed them, very rewarding having a tank full of albino longfin fry

i agree.

if you think she might be a bit bloated just throw a few deshelled peas in. she will love them and they will give her system a good clean out.

cover both bases, i reckon she is gravid but doesnt hurt to be safe

I'll definitely throw in some de-shelled peas to be on the safe side, but i'm hoping she's gravid.
The male definitely took notice to her when she was released to the tank, he was swimming around her with his fins out all showing off(That is showing off from what I've read, he didn't seem aggressive)

A male showing of is him sitting in his cave, head first with his tail sticking out, with the tail fin fully erect and waving side to side. Kind of like flagging the females to come n have a look lol. What you seen your male do is probably his way of saying "this is my tank, I'm the boss". Well I'm not going by notes on this just experience so if I'm wrong anyone please correct me

my male haed in home made cave waving erect tail about now does he know i have a femail ready to spawn then ?

I added two more caves to the tank, and he dug himself a cave under a piece of driftwood and is going between that one and a fake driftwood cave that was already in there. His fins always seem to shoot up when he sees the female.

I've been reading around on the forum and it seems some people have two females in with a male and he will father babies from two different females at the same time?
I know I have enough room in my tank for another female, would that be a good idea?

the debate about trios vs. pairs for bristlenose is one that is not yet settled. For most plecos having a trios seems to yeild higher spawn rates and there is some evidence to suggest that with bristlenose however, it is not absolutely needed. other plecos may not spawn at all if they dont have a trio, but bristlenose will spawn regardless as long as all the other conditions are right.


in answer to the question, should you get another female. There is no reason why not, put it that way will it lead to higher spawn rate, maybe, but you do risk overworking the male. but that is easily managed by giving him a break after every other spawn. if it was me, and i had access to another female from another bloodline...you had best believe i would be in there like a shot! but thats because longfin albinos are as rare as hen's teeth at the moment

Having a trio may increase your chances of a spawn but it's not a guaratee that you will get double clutches of eggs.
My original male even though he was with two females would only spawn with one of them at any one time.


A trio is a good excuse to get another BN though

jim.and wrote:

A trio is a good excuse to get another BN though

See, thats what I'm thinking!

Better idea. U said u had 2 males. Why not get a female for the other one too? 2 pairs should be more productive than a trio. Get another albino longfin female for that calico and see how it goes

kfenk wrote:

Better idea. U said u had 2 males. Why not get a female for the other one too? 2 pairs should be more productive than a trio. Get another albino longfin female for that calico and see how it goes

Only thing with that is my calico is in a 48 with 3 fancy goldfish, ranging from 2-6 inches long, so theres no way I could keep up the water quality with another pleco added to that tank, cause it's definitely full up.
My mom said that if this spawning goes well she'll let me set up another tank, I was thinking something like a 29 for a trio of BN, I would hope to get a peppermint trio, but i'll have to go on aquabid or something like that to get those, my local stores carry adult regular and albino's only. I don't know if I could order adult peppermints.

Also, my two turtles will probably be upgraded to a larger tank, or maybe a pond soon. They are in a 65g tank atm, so i'll probably get that once my turtles get there new crib...I just don't know when that will be.