i got a proven breeding pair

i got this pair about a month ago. i have yet to get them to lay eggs.


i have been doing water changes every other day of 10 gallons. the tank is a 60 gallon.

i did a 50+ gallon water change today. had to clean out the un eaten food from under the rocks and drift wood.

this is a bare bottom tank with a few soft ball size rocks in it. i also have a good size piece of drift wood for them to chew on and hide in. i have 4 caves in there also

i have about 10 brown 3/4 - 2" bristle nose.
i have about 8 albino 3/4 - 2" bristle nose.
and my breeding pair of albino bristle nose.

i have neons and angel fish as well. just to add something to the middle of the tank and a little bit of movement.

what do i do to get these fish to start layin eggs?

firstly, no more 50 gallon water changes or you will cause the tank to cycle again and that is no fun. For a list of triggering techniques you can read the 10+ page section on triggering spawning in my book (see link in signature).

one question though, you mention you have rocks and wood...do you have a cave?

yes i have 4 caves in this tank. i have so many so the small guys can get a cave also. some of these fish will go into my discus tank.

the 50 gallon water change should be fine. since i have a 10 gallon sump that was not emptied. i do this with my discus tanks all the time. the sump has tons of bio rings in it for over kill filtration.

fair enough.

have a read of the book, goes into heaps of details about triggering, more than people can post up here anyway

sorry dont have the money for the book. im a collage student so i dont have the funds to spend right now.

Hi,what temp is the tank at and what are you feeding?Also what caves are in there?Any photo's?

what is the behavior of the pair? does the male cave? is the female gravid? does she hang around the males cave? sometimes it can take a while after moving to a new tank for proven breeders to get down to business. what ph do you keep the tank at? if its higher than your discus tank then try using that water for water changes for a week. sometimes the sudden temp or ph changes can help with the spawning.

my ph is 8.2-8.4 same as the guy i got em from.
temp is 78f
i feed them brine shrimp, algae waffers and flake

the male stays in a cave all the time. i never see him. he does change them during the night
the female stays under the drift wood.

the guy i got them from says they were going to spawn b4 i go them but he ended up taking them out since he didnt want them to spawn in that tank. the female is fat and looks like she has eggs.

they been in my tank for 5 weeks.

That ph seems too high to me but see what others say.Try giving them some cucumber and shelled peas.If you can get them also try Tetra Pro Veg Algae Crisps.I have found these to be an excellent conditioning food and all my BN's love them.The angel fish could be proving a problem or will prove to be a problem when the babies leave the cave as they will more than likely eat them.

What algae wafers do you feed and what flake? Also what are the rocks made of?

not sure what these wafers are called. but they have high spirulina in them. i also have the Hikari Sinking Algae Wafers Fish Food and TetraVeggie Algae Wafers Extreme. i mix it up for them.

the angel fish are not a problem for one reason. i have a 20 gallon long for the male to be put in once he has a cave full of eggs. this tank is next to the 60 gallon tank and will be a great grow out tank till the babies are over an inch in size.

as far as the rocks. i have no idea. i got them from the river. i treated them for 4 days and let them dry. then put them in a smaller tank with one fish. this fish didnt get sick so i put them in the main tank... that was a month ago. no problems with them.

also i cant get RO water where i live. so i have to either invest in a unit my self or not use it. i was going to get one in jan of this year but my discus do fine in this water so i wasnt too concerned with it. but since i started with the pleco im not too sure if the water is ok for them. so i am trying to save and make side money to get a ro system good enough for 150 gallons per day. this way i can change out all pleco breeding tanks and grow out tanks and not worry about if i have enough ro water.

this is all once i get my operation up and going at full tilt.

I was just wondering if the rocks were highering the ph? You could add some more bog wood that may help lower the ph.

Why don't you put the breeding pair into the 20 gallon ?

A ph of 7 would be a lot better for them.

How often are you feeding Brine shrimp and do you feed any fresh veg

What are you feeding the Angels

You say the female is fat but bloat can easily be mistaken for a fish being gravid.

i have not set up the 20 gallon yet. i am going to build a custom stand to hold this and a few more tanks on it so i can move all the babies to these smaller tanks. i also dont have the bogwood for the new tanks.


i feed them zucchini right now. but i cant get anything else till i get paid.

the female's belly is really orange. looks like eggs to me but im new to this so i could be wrong. she eats well. i put in 2 wafers this morning and she found them right away and started eating them. the male came out of his cave for a few sec then went back in when a baby brown pleco tried to go in his cave.

all my fish are healthy and eating alot. i put in 2 wafers every other day. or 1 wafer on the off days if i notice no wafers in the tank.

the angel fish eat flake. i over feed this so some makes it to the bottom of the tank for the pleco. i think im going to use small amount of flake but add a feeding once the lights go off so the pleco get some that way.

question. i see all these pics of tanks. no one is running a bare bottom tank it looks like. should i put aquarium gravel in my tank ?

Some of the pros and cons of bare bottom tanks have been discussed HERE .

At the end of the day it's what works best for you

It is really personal preference i think.I don't like bare bottom tanks but others prefer them.If you do get gravel make sure it is smooth and not sharp.

Down2Earth wrote:

question. i see all these pics of tanks. no one is running a bare bottom tank it looks like. should i put aquarium gravel in my tank ?

Good question! All choices have their positive and negative effects. Imho it is up to you to decide which is best for you, and how much maintenance you are willing to do.

Small gravel works for me, tho it is a lot of maintenance(vacuuming).

whats better for the pleco ? thats what i have this tank set up for. my discus tank is bare bottom. so i figured id do the same with this tank as well.

One of my tanks has medium gravel, second one has fine gravel, and the 3rd has a mix of medium gravel and marbles. They all work for me.

If you are planting the tank I recommend fine gravel, click on the link provided by Jim(sry don't know how to post links to other topics yet) for the pro's and con's of bare bottom vs substrate. I like gravel myself.

The choice really is up to you
*Psssst... go for the fine gravel*
*cough.... fine rounded gravel...cough*

i think ill go to petsmart when i get paid and get me about 40LBS of the small smooth river pebbles.

dont get river pebbles! you will be forever fishing baby bristlenose bodies out from it. If you are going to get a substrate then 3mm gravel or sand is the way to go.

i think something is about to happen. the male is in his cave looks like to be cleaning up. alot of movement. his tail fin is fanned out also. the female was sittin out side his cave this morning when i got up..

as im writing this the male is now sittin right out side the cave. only his head is inside. the female is under the bog wood right next to the cave.

Sounds very positive

now he is out side with all his fins up. she is still under the bog wood. he is showin him self off all stupid... im so glad i dont go to school for another 3 hours