Hi from Kansas

I have kept fish since March 11th 1968. My Uncle who is now in his 88th year and still keeps fish, gave me a 24 x 12 x 12 tank and excuse the pun but I was hooked.

My beloved and I are currently in a state of flux as far as our fish room goes. We until recently had 54 aquariums with the majority housing Corydoras. However as far as selling them it became a bit of a nightmare, not many people in the area are interested in buying them at more than a couple of dollars each. As a consequence we are trying a different approach. We sold 18 x 10 gallon tanks to make room for bigger tanks.

We are now keeping and breeding Bristlenosed Plecos. Our main breeding tank is a 135 gallon with two very large pieces of bogwood and several Pleco caves, with two 55's as grow out tanks. We recently acquired six 66 gallon tanks, that have a divider in each. Making twelve 33 gallon tanks. The 33's will be used for further breeding and grow outs.

Our latest batch comprised of approximately 125 - 150 youngsters that are growing like proverbial weeds. The youngsters are pretty much equally divided 25% long finned ABN's. 25% long finned browns, 25% short finned ABN's and 25% short finned browns. They are treated to a 35 gallon daily water change which we can now do in a matter of minutes.

We would love to get hold of some of the red BN's that have recently appeared on the market, but the shipping takes them beyond what we can afford .

Looking forward to learning more about our aquatic charges, especially of course the wonderful bristle-nosed beauties.

Hello and

good luck with the breeding. its a lot of fun

Thanks for the welcome!

This batch was a complete surprise, I was doing my usual monthly clean on an Emperor 400 filter and as I was dumping out the water into the sink two babies shot across the top of the water, talk about panic!

No plug in the sink so I grabbed a small towel stuck it in the drain hole and dashed to grab a net, thankfully I managed to get them both into the net before the water ran out completely.

Of course over the next few days their brothers and sisters came out to play and made my MONTH!

I save all the rain water I can by running the downspouts from the rear of our house to two water totes that hold 375 gallons each. Last night we had a wonderful thunderstorm accompanied by a two hour downpour, and I now have about 500 gallons to utilize. I siphon the water into three trash cans inside the house and filter the water for 24 hours before using it in the tanks.

This weekend is going to be a planning exercise for next weekend when we move everything around. My back will not be my friend after moving everything, but I am sure I will survive.

I hope you like taking pictures because your setup sounds awesome and we all appreciate pics her on BNW

Might not be a bad idea that ... a before and after to show how far we have got.

Watch this space

Hi Wooster and welcome Look forward to seeing pics.

Hi Wooster and

Welcome Wooster ! You are gonna love it here. The people are great ! I'm a newbie to BNW and have learned so much here
in barely a month.

Have you looked on Aquabid for Super reds? Sometimes there are decent SR babies there. Right now there is even a trio
at $450 with one more day left to bid. Will be interesting to see how high that goes. I'm assuming you are interested in aquiring
German reds.

I too would love to see pictures,



[quote="WoosterWe would love to get hold of some of the red BN's that have recently appeared on the market, but the shipping takes them beyond what we can afford . quote]

welcome to bristlenose world mate!!

if you had a big storm go through then i would be checking for more eggs they love to breed during storms, the drop in pressure is a big trigger

sounds like you are getting into it in a big way! can't wait to help out with some advice

Morning all

I did see the super red trio on Aquabid but I think Vicki (the beloved one) would cut my retreat off if I spent $450 on three fish.

There would have to be some serious negotiating going on in our house before that would become a reality. Either that or winning the lottery this weekend which according to where I bought my tickets is going to be $640 million, if this were to occur I would build a tornado proof house centered around the fish room. Automatic water changers, personal water supply from our own well etc etc etc. Having said that I do enjoy doing the water changes, I spend maybe an hour a day taking care of them, and of course it gives me time to check everybody out making sure everyone is eating ok, and of course to look for any new babies. Current diet consists of algae wafers and green beans. I think they prefer the french cut beans but there is no accounting for taste

A pleco buddy of mine is coming over in a couple of hours and we are going to try and plan out how the new and advanced (HA!) fish room will be laid out.

One wall will have 18 ten gallon tanks that are holding my fast dwindling corry population. This time last year I was up to 36 tens with a minimum of six fish in each tank. Apart from a breeding group of 6 Albino Anaeus which would regularly pump out a batch of 200+ babies, our most successful of the less common corries has been the gold lasers, but as I have said before no one locally is interested in paying what they are worth. Corries are sold in the three local stores as *a good clean up crew*

Anyway on to a happier note, and a question for all you Pleco aficionados: Given that the pleco breeding tank is a 135 with six adults and about 85 babies that are about 3" and growing really well. Would we need to remove all the babies before the parents would go again, or would it be a case just lowering the number of babies by using different tanks for growing out?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

at 3 inches they will be getting near to maturing and there will be way too many fish in there for one to feel safe in a cave. hence no breeding.

I move my babies over either when they are still eggs or when they are about 1.5cms

Well folks I was feeding the pleco tank this evening, low and behold more babies! Only about 7 or 8 out exploring this evening, but I am betting dollars to donuts that there are more to come.

Obviously this puts me in a bit of pickle as far as space goes, I am going to have to do some serious moving around. The first generation of babies are around 4 months old at the moment, realistically speaking how many can I put in a ten gallon tank without overcrowding? This will only be a temporary home until I can move them on.

I am thinking that I am going to have to make a trip to the other stores in the neighborhood, and see if they are interested in purchasing some of them.

We want to grow some on to keep them for ourselves, as the parents of both lots are somewhere in the region of three years old. How long do BN's live in captivity?

Anyway thanks again to all that have given so freely of their advice.

Signing off from the desk of your resident crazy Scotsman!

hi and

Sounds like a very nice set up you've got going there.



Jon

Welcome I believe Bn can live 10 yrs+ (so says the internet), but have only been keeping them less than a year myself.
As for how many you can keep in a 10g depends on filtration and water change schedule. Imo I would feel comfortable keeping 2 adults in a 10g