Tank Setup?

Hello, as you can probably tell by my post count, I'm new to these forums. The reason for the joining is because about 3 months ago, my mum got a fish tank. I went looking for a bottom-feeder and instantly fell in love with bristlenoses. Both Males and Females ofcourse.

Unfortunately, my first one (went into a 180 litre community tank) died after 3 days, it did not eat any of the wafers, courgette or cucumber and very rarely moved. It was tiny too, just over 1cm. I believe that it may have been too young to sell, in my opinion. I have left that tank another two weeks as I do not believe that the tank had been properly or fully cycled. I will be getting another two bristlenose to go into that tank in 5 days, both of which I will be ensuring are of a decent size.

Now for the reason of this post. I have managed to get the exact same tank which costs £560 new from the different fish stores around here for £165. The only orders I am under is to make the tank look good as it will be the first thing you'll see as you enter the house. I would like to breed common bristlenose plecos in this tank, I am not sure exactly how many males and females should go in there. I have been told that I shouldn't have more then one pair in the tank, but I have also read that in a 180 litre tank I could have three pairs.

Out of what I currently know, there would be a fair amount of driftwood, plants and at least one cave for each pair which would be at least 1ft away from each other. I would be feeding them wafers, cucumbers, steamed courgettes and shelled peas (the wafers are currently being demolished by my mum's cory's in the community tank). I will also be putting some sponge or something similar at the pump's intake to stop any fry from being sucked in. The tank and equipment; http://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/rio.htm

What I would like to know if it's possible are;

How many males and females should I have in the tank?
How should the tank be setup?
Is there anything else that I need to setup?

Any help would be appreciated, I would love to be able to breed them.

Follow my guide and you will have a good setup to breed......

http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/t1320-breeding-the-bristlenose-pleco

have a read..............

Thank you, looks good.

So, do you recon with a 180 litre tank, 3 males and 3 females? or 3 males and 6 females? 9 bristlenose sounds a bit high to me. XDD

Plus, do I not need a rearing tank of any sort? Just a fry saver?

My main breeding tank is 180 litres bang on.....
this is what i have in there,,,,,

1 Mature Male common albino...
1 Mature Female common albino...
1 Mature Female common Brown...

1 Very Large L182 female...

2 Female...L349 green spotted ancistrus....

SO as you can see i only have one male in there, i used to have a large male L182 in there before he died....

i would personally put no more than 2 males in there using caves at either end of the tank....

I would put 4 females in there with them.....

A fry saver will only be needed if your male boots any eggs out of the cave so its handy to have one spare......

But believe me if all 4 females breed with your 2 males you will need a large grow out tank for the fry as you will roughly be getting about 30-40 eggs per female every 3-4 weeks.......

so thats,,,160 babys nearly every month without fail.....

so do you think you will need another tank??

Excellent advice from curby, unless you can cope with the possibilty of so many young then I would only have a pair or possibly trio(1m,2f). This would allow any youngsters to stay with there parents untill they reach a size when they can be moved on.

p.s Why don't you introduce yourself in the new members section so eveyone can say hello

Curby's guide is good. My book also goes through a lot of this stuff, from setting up the tank to the need for fry savers, water conditions, triggering a spawn, the whole breeding caper. There is a link to where you can get a copy in my sig. It is a great place to start out for someone like yourself. Covers all the basics and gets into some of the more advanced stuff

some feedback

http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/t2150-rate-dougs-book

Why does it have to look so good? Breeding tanks should be more on the practical side rather than for show. Couple bits of driftwood, couple plants, thin layer of substrate, sponge filter, internal powerhead filter (more so for water movement) and a couple caves. In that size tank I'd only go for a pair or trio and some dither fish. Good dither fish are guppies, endlers, tetras and rasboras. Altho all these things if positioned right could still make a fairly decent show tank eg more plants. But be warned, when they do breed and it comes fry collecting time u gonna have to take out nearly the whole tank just to catch the little devils lol

Haha, thanks for the replies everyone. The reason for it having to look good is because the only place it can be put is next to the front door, so it's going to be the first thing that anyone sees as they enter the house. But to be honest, my mum's community tank has a bit of ornamental wood, two ornaments both sides, a bubble curtain and some plants. I can get a setup like that easy by putting a cave in place of one of the ornaments, driftwood instead of the ornamental wood and the plants will still be there.

As for tank mates, do you guys think it would be sensible for me to add some 'L' numbers? I have fallen in love with the bristlenoses, as you do. xDD But I have also fell in love with plecos such as the L397.
Neons were also an option for tank mates, might still go for some.

I'll go for the trio, I just have to start the challenge of finding two different batches for me to get the male and females from around here.

One more question too, bubble curtains would be ok for the back of the tank right? I have seen videos with bristlenose and common plecos enjoying the bubbles.

Another pleco should b fine and yes bubble walls are ok

Ok, thanks for the help. Should be getting my first two bristlenose on Friday. :D Looking forward, want them so badly. xDD

Don't be in to much of a rush to get L No's, once you have mastered keeping and breeding BN's then you will have a better grasp of keeping L No's, which are ususally more demanding on things like water quality.

Ok, I'll keep the number of fish low for a while. It'll be hard for me to find the L Numbers that I want anyways, I can't find even one place in England that sells the plecos such as the L397. I'll focus on the bristlenose for now though.