first time! please help

i had no intention of breeding my bristlenoses but i do have roughly 20, a mix of commons, albinos and albino longfins and i am unsure of which the male common bred with as they are all different ages. this is pretty exciting for me as i only found the eggs yesterday and three have already hatched! i am unsure of how to care for and raise the fry as i have only bred american cichlids before. i have moved the breeding cave, father and eggs into a hatchery on the outside of the tank which pump water from original tank into it and releases water back into the original tank also. i dont know if im doing the right thing? or what to feed them and how often or when i can put them back into my original tank, as i only have bristlenoses in this tank now.

Please help i really want to be doing the right thing for the little youngsters!

Courtney

Hi,if you only have bristlenoses in the main tank it would of been best to leave them where they were.If you only have bristlenoses and no other fish in the tank you took them from just put the cave back in the same place you found it.They will be better off there and none of the other bristlenoses will harm them at all.You don't need to feed them until they leave the cave and they will eat algae wafers and cucumber and whatever you are feeding the others as long as you don't feed any meat based foods.



Bristlenoses

Man those trapS you are talking about work great! I use them for my swords all the time. However, if it is a BN only tank you don't really have to seperate them. Dad will care for them until they are free roaming. After that just make sure there is enough food and space for all the new mouths in your life!

Dad will need a break from raising the little guys. He won't eat the whole time they are in the cave. So don't let another female lay eggs with him right away.

Hope this helps search the forum you will find loads of info.

Courtney, The arrangement you have for dad & eggs/fry sounds perfect. What size tank do you have? Are the cichlids in the tank also? I was also curious if the female BN would try to eat the free swimming fry. Did you notice this?

ktk05, You mention in your post to Courtney "So don't let another female lay eggs with him right away." Exactly how does one go about doing that? I see the 2 females in my tank seem to be very interesting in going back into the cave now that my fry are out. They both look pretty full of eggs too. The fry just started coming out yesterday. Lynda

I usually pull the cave out and they'll stop spawning until I put it back in. In the past I have separated my males and females into different tanks. I like to give dad a break between spawns so he doesn't exhaust himself raising fry all the time. Plus that gives me time to focus on raising the ones I have and finding suitable homes for them all.