Double/triple spawns

Hi all,

I'm a big bristlenose fan and have kept them for severel years now. I have four adult females (three common, one albino) and two males (one of each). I have a great breeding system going where I have almost constant spawns. One male is in the big community tank at a time and the females will lay eggs within a day or two of him being there, I let him look after the eggs till they hatch and eat the yoke, then I put the whole log into one of my two grow out tanks and replace that male with the other who's usually just finished with his own brood of new babies. My question for you all is have you ever had more than one female breed with the male at a time. Normally my dominate female is straight in and lays her eggs, but I have had other batches of eggs turn up in the log as well -- yet they never seem to reach maturity. Also I've just watch my big albino male today. The female (dom) went in, layed her eggs, a few hours another batch appeared on the bottom of the log, an hour later they were gone, and then I notice my very egged-up little albino female trying to get into the log but the big male wouldn't let her and kept chasing her off. It's a pity because i'd really love some albino babies!

Also I have never have two lots of eggs when both males were in the big tank together (150ltrs), even though there's severel breeding logs. Has anyone else?

Bristlenose quite often have double batches. Not too long ago both my albino longfin females spawned with my albino longfin male on the same day. He had one batch on the roof of the cave and one on the bottom. Sometimes males will even let females in to lay while they are tending to newly hatched fry.
My idea for you would be to take the dominant female out when you put the albino male in and let the albino female spawn. I'm sure if you put her back in straight after she would probably be able to lay in his cave too. The dominant females know how to get what they want. Be careful tho as the females can (but rarely) eat the eggs that are already in the cave.
Oh and welcome to Bristlenoseworld

Thanks mate,

Yeah, I might try that. I think she (dom) might have eaten the second batch of eggs this morning that were on the bottom. Be interesting to see what happens when she's removed. I might sell my two other common females and replace them with some of the half albino fry. Is it ok to breed with them and their dad?

I wouldn't recommend it as I don't like inbreeding bn but you could if you wanted. Or get rid of the commons and just breed albinos if that's what you want to do. I myself only breed albino longfins now. Well until my marble longfins are mature that is

Yeah, I might swap them for a couple of albinos, rather than using my own spawn. I'll keep my dominant female though as i've had her for a few years now and she breeds like clockwork.