How many breeding pairs can i keep together?

ok. how many pairs can i keep in a tank? i read about a person that had 9 pairs in a 100+ gallon tank. but i also read about some one saying if there is 2 males in the tank. they wont bread.

so i have now 2 males and 3 females. i am wondering if i can put them all together. other wise i will put the 2 pairs in separate tanks and the odd female goes with my older pair that produce browns.


let me know what you think

Hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread but I was also wondering about this.
I was actually thinking about housing 2 Trios or possibly 3 ? in a 55 gallon tank. Would love to know what some
of the more experienced Bn folk think about this.

im just glad to see im not the only one thinkin about this stuff..


i been thinkin about keepin all 3 females in the tank and rotating the males out. i have 3 tanks for them. a 60 gallon and 2 20 gallons. but i also want to get a long fin pair/trio going as well. so i need to find out if i need another 20 gallon or can i keep them in my 2nd 20 gallon tank.

Along with all my albinos, I'm growing out 2 normal male Bn's that I got a few weeks ago and just ordered 6 Calico youngsters.
I've been keeping fish for most of my life and can't remember having this much fun with one type.

im new to all this. i normally just have angels in my main tank and watch them. but i tryed to get a pair of discus but no luck there.

then some one i knew had my pair for sale. so i grabbed them. didnt know they were albinos producing mostly browns but its fine. i wanted browns too.

i just ordered a albino trio so i need to find out if both sets of fish can be in the same tank or what .

im havin a blast breeding these fish.

how old are they and what size till i can sell them to the newbie fish keepers? i have friends that want them. but they are newbies so i dont want them killin the fish cus they are too young or small.

My first spawn will be 3 months old at the end of this month and will average 1.75+ inches long
My greatest concern would be them going into a tank with fish too large/agressive or being picked on.
Mine will be going to a lfs that has already shown interest in them and i'll probably wait til they are all 2 inches
long just to be sure of their survival in their new homes.

Your friends could take them at 2+ mos of age depending on size as long as they are willing to see that they don't become
snacks/ have to compete heavily for food or get sucked up in a filter.

Having more than one male is not the problem, the problem is the females will want to choose the best male they can find. The chances are that the females will only mate with the dominant male and the sub/dominant male will be redundant.

Rotating the males means that one can be removed along with his caves and eggs to a seperate tank and another introduced to the females.

You could use the two 20g as breeding tanks and the 60g as a grow-out tank. If you do get a pair of L/F's you could put them with a normal female creating two trios (1m/2f) and have a male resting/nursing.

3cms in size is considered to be a minimum size for moving them on.

i cant put the babies in the 60 gallon. they cannot release into this tank till they are about an inch. the sump i have on the tank will suck them up. but after an inch they will all go into the tank to grow fast. i over feed this tank to keep them with plenty of food.

but i can put all the females in the 60 gallon and wait for them to lay eggs in the males cave and move the male to a 20 gallon. then put the next male into the 60 gallon till he gets eggs..

like i said before, there is this great book written about bristlenose catfish that answers all these questions. it goes into great detail on most of the good questions you have asked. and for only $19 it is cheap as chips!

if you want to learn all you can about these fish then buy the book, and buy Kath Jenkins' book too, 'Bristlenose Catfish: Catfish with Character'. mine goes into how to keep them and breed them with lots of details on tank set up, water parameters, spawning methods, grow out techniqies, a bit of basic biology on the fish. Kathy's book goes into the biology of them a lot more. It also looks at a few different species of bristlenose avaliable in the states.

all these questions have been asked before and they are good questions. The old dogs on here sometimes get tired of writing the same responce on a weekly basis. We love to help out, dont get us wrong, and the more questions the better, just not the same ones over and over.

oh, and Jim is spot on

i thought if u mixed a long fin and a short fin you get a bunch of short fins.

Down2Earth wrote:

i thought if u mixed a long fin and a short fin you get a bunch of short fins.

Longfin crossed with shortfin can give some longfin fry but most would be shortfin. Longfin crossed with longfin can produce some shortfin fry but most would be longfin.

It all depends on the genetic make-up of induvidual fish.