How often do BN breed once they have bred? And finally, advice on how to catch fry in main tank

Hiya

Further to my last post that my common BN have bred (female introduced to male on 15th March), I have two questions.

1. How often are my breeding pair now likely to spawn? Free swimming fry were seen on 2nd April. The male (Mickey Bristles) only came out of his cave around a week ago, when all fry seemed to be out and about. However, the last day or so, he's been hanging around the cave again and becoming more agressive, like he was when he was guarding eggs. Surely he's not looking after another brood again so quick? If that's the case, I'm in big trouble! If so, see next question ...

2. Can anyone give me advice on how I can catch the bristlenose fry? They are soooo rapid and they are in my 165L community tank (albeit underpopulated at the mo, with only 7 corys & 1 x white cloud mountain minnow)? It's got a few plants (not HEAVILY planted, only about 30 or so) with sand substrate. The fry are around 2.5 weeks old free swimming. It's my first lot and want to move them to a 38L grow out tank, but wondering when is the best time to move them. Should I leave them in the tank until they are a bit bigger?

Any advice on how to catch the fry would be appreciated. Also note that the cave that was used for breeding will be modified this week to add a perspex base (aquarium safe silicone) in order to lift out the brood. However, timings on when to lift out are somewhat differentiating.

Cheers
Ged

Good couple of question's there ged...

right Q1- They reckon once your pair have spawned once or twice then the process will take place every 3 weeks if you keep the condition's the same...
Its possible that the male may be gaurding egg's again, the best way to see this is to point the cave in a direction were you can see in it but not in a place were other plecs and lights can be seen as they do like there privacy..if they have spawned again then you reallly do need this grow out tank ready and safe for your little fry...

Q2- There are a few way's around this, but size does matter with your fry plus you dont want to upset the tank to much whilst you have the setup perfect at the moment..
Preperation is key to breeding as i found out my self not being ready for your fry is a big no no...
To sell fry they need to be about 12 weeks old so keeping a seperate calender with all the date's on would be a good idea..
Wait untill your new are out and about on there own feeding strongly...
To get the fry out will prove a nightmare if you have a well planted tank and a very busy tank ie. rocks cave's plants and so on,,
You could choose feeding time as catching time, feed courgette and let loads of your little one's start feeding...
Use a siphon, to catch the fry as netting will be very difficult, you can rather syphon straight into your grow out tank or into a bucket then add them to your grow out tank..
This is as much info as i can give you as its what ive read from everywere else...

just another note. be ready if your eggs get kicked out now and again so it would be best just to have a little fry saver set up with an air stone going to it..
you may not need it but its there just in case......
Other than that good luck Jed

Hi Curby

Oh no! I haven't managed to get the first batch of bristlenose out of my main tank yet. I lifted up the cave to see a mass of orange 'wrigglers', so it looks like I have an even bigger fry load this time. I will set up my grow out tank this week but I was just waiting for the current brood to get a bit bigger/stronger before moving them. Seems I will need to get them moved as soon as.

You're right about the 3 week timescales! I didn't get chance to make the modifications to the cave (perspex bottom) before they bred, so I'm going to have to try and catch them when they are freeswimming. The clump of eggs all have tails and are wriggling. The male is still guarding/fanning them. Would I damage them if I try to take out the cave at this stage? I've not got much of a chance of catching the male as he darts out of the cave at any sudden movement in the tank.

Cheers
Ged

High Gedhart, Curby is spot on with the 3ish week time frame. I have 1Male to 4Females and can pretty
get a spawn every 2 weeks - as 1 female lays eggs the rest tend to come into season so it turns into a
never ending cycle, especially when you take water changes into consideration (cool water changes
will help trigger spawning)
As for catching the wriggling fry a 1/2 inch syphon hose works the best for me, just chase em down
and suck em up .
Cheers J

I am currently switching all my tanks over to undergravel filters. Since the gravel IS the media you can really overstock the tanks with fry and there is no need to take them out of the parent tank until they are quite big.
Gravel vac'ing is quite tricky tho, all those little bn bodies all over the place.

my commons breed every 3-6wks and my longfins bns breed around the same time

i use a 10 by 6 inch net bend the handle so it goes to the top of tank and place some courgette in the net when fry are feeding just lift the net within a few days you get them

My "catch" technique ... wait until the male has been fanning them three days or so. Then, shine a flashlight into the "burrito" spawning logs my Ancistrus use and see if they have absorbed their egg sacs; if yes, life the burrito out of the tank, ensuring to keep it full of water. Move the burrito above the growout tank where I plan to raise the fry, and with one swift flip of the log, 150+ fry spill into the new tank. I return the male and the log to the original tank. Some fry will be missed, but you will successfully transfer about 99.5% of them!