Breeding Equipment

Hi all, i would love an experienced BN breeder to give me some advise on what to buy for breeding. This is because i would like to be ready for when i start breeding.

It would also be a bonus if you could tell me where to buy this stuff.


Thanks for any help

James

To start with I would advice you to read Curbys post HERE abour breeding BN's.

All you really need is good water condtions, good food and a cave. As Curbys says there are a lot of things that can be used as a cave some can be bought from places like Ebay but you can just as easily make one, have a look in the DIY room.

Oh, plus a male and female BN

Here's a picture of one of my males in his cave, it's half a coconut (cost 75p)

thanks Jim, this is good advice, i will have a look around ebay to see if i can find anything,

Shame you are in England, I am selling all the stuff you need to breed.

You need

tank (60ltr min)
filter x2 (either two sponge filters or one sponge and one power filter)
Wood (for them to hide on, munch on, and generally imporve the conditions in the tank)
heater (26 degrees)
bit of gravel (easier to start with than a bare bottom tank)
oh, and a jim mentioned, some breeders

thanks Doug and Jim, this is very helpful

P.S : would 80 litres be good for raising fry up until i am able to tell whether they are male or female?

Thanks

James

depends. if you are raising them to sexing age then you will have them for about 7-9 months and they will be way too big for that tank.

You generally look to sell the fry on at 3cms, 3.5 for the longfins. if you just have one spawn then you should be ok with 80ltrs, it will be a high effort tank though, im talking daily water changes and cleaning. I generally recommend 150ltrs min for a grow out tank

Thanks Doug, I'll have a look around to see if I can get a 150-180 litre tank for around £100, have you got any recommendations on what make of tank? I have a juwel rio 125 at the moment with an internal filter, it is OK but it seems to be getting really nasty behind where the filter is attached to the glass, I don't really want this in a grow out tank because I don't know whether it would be good for the fry, I have found the emporer power filter, would this be a good second filter?

Sorry about all the questions but I think that this stuff is really need to know

Thanks for all the help

James

for a grow out tank you want simple as tanks. I have a standard 4ft tank with a very large canister filter one it. bit of sand, few bits of wood, rock or two. I sometimes put a powerfilter in there to cycle before moving it into a breeding tank.

The biggest worry with the fry is being sucked into the filter. this is not good! apart from that as long as the filter is good enough to do the job, you will be fine. The 'stuff' growing behind the filter, bristlenose call that food

maybe I should just move the filter away from the glass and leave my BN to it

I will try and find some tanks that may be possible to buy

Thanks

James

OK, lets just put the brakes on here for a tick.

I know it is easy to get swept up in breeding bristlenose, now I am not saying this to rain on your parade but I think that you may be getting slightly ahead of yourself, as all of us fishkeepers are keen to do. You have 3 tanks which is more than enough to start breeding. Use the 6ft as your community tank, keep this for looking pretty and having as a display tank, by all means have a pair of bristlenose in there, maybe even a trio (1m, 2f). I always think that keeping breeding seperate from display tanks is a wise move. breeding is messy, destroys aquascaping and is generally no suited for display tanks.

Set up the 125 as a grow out tank and the smaller one (80ltrs ?) as the breeding tank. Get a breeding pair and breed them. once you have sold enough fry to pay for another tank, then buy another tank. I recommend doing it this way for several reasons. Firstly, it will give you time to lean the skill of breeding while you only have one pair to worry about. Secondly, it means that you dont have to spend any money on it, the hobby pays for itself. Finally, it allows you to build up the number of tanks over time until you find an happy equlibrium between how many tanks you want, how many you can afford and how much time you have to spare on them. Remember that each tank will need cleaning, water changes and power.

And don't think that I'm talking as the wise one who never made a mistake in my life. I went from having 2 tanks to having 17 tanks in a matter of weeks...talk about steep learning curve. I found the time it took to deal with them all was impacting on other areas of my life, study etc. not to mention the power bill was enough to power a small factory. very quickly I was struggling and its wasnt me who paid the price, it was the fish ended up selling a lot of them as I was not able to give them the care they deserved. I learnt the hard way and now I run 6 breeding tanks, a grow out tank and a display tank. much more managable for me

Thanks Doug...I shall bear this in mind