Hello, im new to bristle nose plecos

i have a 60 gallon breeding/grow out tank

this tank has been up for 3 months after i moved, it was up and running 8 months before that. it was down for 36 hrs. just the history of the tank.

i bought a breeding pair of albino bristle nose. the female came to me fat with a orange belly. ive had them for more then a month and she still has not laid the eggs.

the male has a cave he never seems to leave. if he does its not for too long then he goes back and hides. he has 4 caves to chose from.

the female seems to hide in the back or under the drift wood.

in this tank i have about 8 baby plecos im trying to get another pair out of. from 3 different breeders. so i am pretty sure the blood lines will not be the same lol.

filtration is a wet/dry sump with bio balls, and with bio rings in the bottom of it. i also have a 40 gallon size sponge filter.

temp has been 74-76F in the tank
PH is 8.2-8.4 (city tap water)
ammonia is about .25 PPM
nitrites are 0ppm
nitrates are 10 ppm

i have rocks pots and caves in this tank for them to hide on and eat off of.

fish in this tank are

10-15 bristle nose plecos
1 raphael catfish
12 angel fish
12 neon tetra

let me know what i can improve on or change for this tank. thank you for your time.

Hi, and welcome

I would suspect that the male is working with eggs atm, or perhaps the angels are eating the fry soon as they come out of their cave, but am not sure as I only have plecos and 2 catfish... am not familiar with other fish behavior

If you are sure they haven't had eggs yet try 20% cold water change for a couple days, should do the trick.

I would check why you have any ammonia readings as it should be zero, mebbe that is why she hasn't dropped em off yet

PH might be a little high too, just wait someone with more knowledge than I will surely help you out!

i think the reason im havin ammonia levels is due to the new bio rings i put in the sump. but im not sure. i do a 10-15 gallon change every day right now since the ammonia is up like that. i also lost 2 neons today. so i think there is a fungal infection in the tank. but im lookin into that.

as far as eggs being in the tank i dont think so since i have not seen them. i keep lookin in his cave every few days with a flash light.

the sump is a new addon. and it was used. i figure this might be releasing the extra ammonia into the tank as well.



oh ya about the angels. they are really small. about the size of a quarter-half dollar.

Hate to say this, but you may be overstocked

How big are your angels?

Also Bns are notorious for making waste and require more gallons per inch of fish than most

Sorry to hear of your neons dying

I am new to keeping fish (5 months) so please take my comments with a grain of salt.

But I have had 5 batches of eggs and learned about overstocking the hard way

P.s. Please say hi in the new members section!

I have no experience of using sumps but it sounds like you have stocked before the sump has had time to cope with the bioload of so many fish. Reducing the stock for now, before nature does, would probably be the simplest option.

Bn fry do not cope well with ammonia so it's probably a blessing you have not had eggs yet.

Hello and

I'd say once the tank is settled, the sump is cycled and your water readings are all good. They will def breed.

alright cool. i think this will all work out well. i do about 50% water changes every 2 days. so im not worried about the cycling of the sump. ive beem doing it for about 3 weeks now. so no worries.

the only fish i have problems with is my neons and i lost a ram. but i ddint do a water change in 3 days. so back to every 1-2 days and it should be fine in 2-3 weeks i figure.


my BN are doing fine. look fat and happy. i see all of them in the tank right now on the sides of the tank and some on the drift wood. its nice seeing them.

also got a new male today. something i couldnt pass up. got a 3" male for 8 bucks.

my over flow box i made alot of 1/8 holes in it so the small pleco dont get sucked into the box. i tryed to use it the way it came with the teeth on it. but i lost 3 babies this way. i drilled 2 rows of holes. so if they get clogged the teeth at the top will be used.

Hi! It just came to me: do you age your water? When I read: "50% of 60 gal" I started wondering... Anyway, if not, it might be good idea. Fill the buckets, let it be for 24h and you need no dechlorinator, if you're using one.
If you're using activated carbon in your filtration, REPLACE it with the peat. Don't use both at the same time. Peat works like carbon, but also !slowly! lowers pH. Side effect: yellowish water.
Once you'll have your tank stabilized, to induce spawning, you can try creating "wet season" : don't do any water change for 2 weeks, then 25-30% and drop pH (0,2/day max)

kaban wrote:

Hi! It just came to me: do you age your water? When I read: "50% of 60 gal" I started wondering... Anyway, if not, it might be good idea. Fill the buckets, let it be for 24h and you need no dechlorinator, if you're using one.

Your water or Down2Earths may contain chloramines, unlike chlorine, chloramines do not rapidly dissipate on standing. Neither do they dissipate by boiling. The use of a dechlorinator will not only neutralize the chlorine but also the chloramines.

my water is not aged but it is treated with prime. the bottle says for every new 55 gallons use a cap. well i use a cap anyways. its only a 70 gallon system

i stopped aging my water a while back. i talked to a breeder here local and he says he doesnt age his water either. he has over 600 discus in his house at one time. so i think he knows a thing or 2 about water. plus he has been doing this for over 32 years.