Bristlenose breeding problem

Hi all, i have a problem with my bristlenose, they have stopped breeding and im not sure why.

They had a castle ornament and a boat ornament at the start, i only had them for a week and the dominant male took residence in the Castle, the females were hanging around the castle, i did a 15% water change and a couple days later i noticed a stray single egg, which i came to the conclusion that they have spawned.

About 8 days later the fry were swimming around, they lived for about 15days then started dying off 1 by 1.

I was dropping algae pellets and putting zucchini in the tank, tank is 4ft in size by the way.

After most of the fry died, i decided to remove the cave and boat ornaments, and put 4 bristlenose breeding logs in the tank, along with 30cm piece of driftwood with anubias growing on it. Since then ive noticed that the 3 8cm males have hung around the entrance of the caves but they dont guard the caves how the male guarded the castle, it almost seems that they abandon them whenever i walk towards the tank. The caves entrance are facing the front of the tank.

The 3 or 4 females that are in there are never hanging around the breeding logs, theyre always hiding on the driftwood.

What can i do to get the males to take residence in a cave? I was thinking move the breeding logs and face them away from the front of the tank?

Also the females are never anywhere besides the driftwood, or on the zucchini.

Ive tried 20% cold water changes to try to stimulate them again, but no luck.

Also any tips on keeping the fry alive? They died around 1cm in size.

Thanks.

How big is your tank and how many males and females do you have in there??

4ft in size, with 3 males & 4 females.

30-40cm driftwood, 4 breeding logs.

Any ideas/suggestions?

4ft is a nice size tank but i wouldnt have 3 males, i always go with 1 male 2 females, 3 males will simply argue with one another, i had just 2 males at one stage and every time one was watching eggs the other would fight to get in his cave and on most occasions he did and began to loose eggs and fry due to their fighting....do you have any pics of your setup...

I could get some pics up tonight, is there any reason why they arent uising the breeding logs?

Thanks

calico88 wrote:

I could get some pics up tonight, is there any reason why they arent uising the breeding logs?

Thanks

a complete stab in the dark but if you have 3 males in there they will always fight for territory as i said in the post above....
they may seem peacfull before you go to bed and switch the light off , but when you do all the action starts as they a mainly night fish....

few ideas...

where are the caves? if they are just sitting in the open then there is little chance that the male will use them as they are too exposed. In my breeding tanks i always have a bt of wood and i put it on or near the cave so that the cave is some-what hidden. I also never have the caves facing directly out of the tank as that exposes them to all the movement that is going on in the room. by putting the caves at a 45 degree angle the glass and water refraction casues a lot of the movement to become much smaller, and therefore less disturbing.

As Curby mentioned, there may be too many males. My rule of thumb is one male per 1.5 square ft of tank bottom. this rule is esspecally important when there is little else in the tank.

I would also suggest adding in more stuff into the tank. Bristlenose are shy creatures and like to hide. at the moment there is little to hide under and their primary concern is being safe, not breeding. so i would add in some rocks, plants, logs or whatever you have to give them more places to hide. then they will feel safer and then they will think of breeding.

in terms of keeping the fry alive it is often not up to you. Where did you get the breeders from. if they are from the same breeder then they are probably siblings and the fry are too inbred to survive. Also, sometimes you just get a bad combo, and the fry dont make it simly because of natural selection. it has happened to me once or twice so i just switched up the breeding pairs and no more issue

If they are not siblings then it could be your water. bristlenose fry are sensitive to ammonia, there needs to be none of it in your tank. they also need a lot of O2 so an airstone or sponge filter are a must! finally ensure that they always have food. I give them cucumber from day one and they love it.

They do seem to be disturbed by the movement in the room when i enter, and i notice its only the males that venture out to the caves.

1 fry out of 25 or so has survived, has a nice golden belly, the others had clear sunken bellies before dying, which lead me to conclusion that they wernt getting food.

Ill start microwaving some zucchini so its softer.

I will move the 4 caves closer to the driftwood, maybe 2 of them under it, and 2 of them on either side? And the maybe fill the other side with another anubias driftwood?

How does that sound?

Thanks

dont putthe caves too close together as that will cause fights

Hi all, i have cleaned the tank and there is one fry that made it, its nearly 2cm now, nice gold stomach, round to.

Any ideas why he made it and the others didnt? I also moved the caves, and they are trying to use them more.

Thanks.

lots of reasons.

most comon is that the male booted the eggs out of his cave and just by pure luck one survived. other reasons are ammonia spikes, water quality issues, genetic issues and a few others.

I every now and again get this and its a bit sad but it does happens.

The fry were out of the cave and still had their yolk sacs, is that too early?

Im happy at least 1 survived and has made it to the 2cm mark..lol

yes

Often you will see one or two who sneak past dad but when they are all out at that size it means something has gone amiss. most likely the dad got spooked or one of the other males got into his cave and cleaned it out. Thats why i never disturb a male on eggs and only have one male in a tank at a time. takes a bit of time to learn the signs of a male on eggs but after a while you can spot it a mile away

Like doug said mate its not good news to see more than 2 wundering about.....
i havent seen any like that for maybe 6 months, i think your females have to much choice.....
you need to select the best male and remove the others to another tank as i think they are not getting enough experieance raising fry if the females are ed hopping so to speak....does that make sense??? Trust me it will work...

I would be having just the one pair in there, see how they go...might take a month to settle down, but I think you would be more successful this way...