Jumping in head first!

Hi all!

New to bristlenoses. Located in Kansas.

Here is our story:
My hubby & I got our fish tank a couple years back. The guy we got it from had a bunch of Mollies in it. After several rounds of baby mollies and trying to find homes for them all - we finally found the male a new home.

With one of the last batches of babies we gave away - the couple that we gave them to had some albino bristlenose plecos that they wanted to rehome so we traded (this was ~ 3 months ago).

We soon figured out via this site that we had a male & 2 females. We also did not provide any caves or such thinking that would keep them from breeding (wrong!).

A few days ago we went to clean out one of our filters (have 1 canister & 1 that hangs on the back of the tank) and found a clutch of eggs! Apparently the adults had been swimming in and out of our filter and decided that was a great place to have babies.

After a couple days of reading and debate we decided to move the eggs to a plastic 3-way breeder (with the partitions removed & added air stone) to avoid the babies getting sucked into the carbon filter (didn't know how strong their suckers would be). We moved them on Monday (6/3/13). This morning we woke up to 2 little wigglers! Fast forward 20 minutes & almost all of them had hatched - wow that happened quickly!

Based on a picture I had of the eggs prior to hatching we have 50-60 babies!

So now comes the fun of figuring out how to care for these little ones & getting them new homes

1st question - other than the book that I plan on downloading - where could I find info on fry care? I tried to do a search on the forum and only a couple hits popped up and none that had super useful info.

I'm looking for basics - ie when to start feeding them (presumably when the egg sac is gone), when to let them back into the main tank, how long to keep them before finding them new homes etc.

Looking forward to learning how to care for these guys - whole lot different than the mollies so far!

Thank in advance!

Jessica

I should note we have the following:

30 gal tank

1 Canister filter & 1 of the ones that hangs on the back of the tank (specifics escape me at the moment)

Fish from prior owner: 4 female mollies, 6 neon tetras & 1 red tailed shark (so far hasn't hurt anything including baby mollies)

Critters we added: 2 apple snails, a couple ghost shrimp & 3 plecos (as described in orig post)

We check our water levels weekly & my hubby takes care of water changes (40%ish) weekly to biweekly depending on how things look.

Per a couple sites I looked at we are already at our limit on fish so I'm hoping raising these babies up until they can get new homes won't put everything out of wack or stress the exisiting system. I don't think we would be able to set up a "grow out" tank at this point, but depending on how things go this round we may need to consider one.

Any thoughts on a need to up water changes etc while the babies grow?

Thanks again!

Hi,welcome to Bristlenose World and Congrats on the babies.A 30 gallon tank (as long as it is a long tank and not a tall one,which I would suspect it is) is plenty big enough for the fish you have in it and will be fine to leave the babies in till they are ready to go.If they decide to breed again straight away which is a big possibilty now he has found a spot then that will be where overcrowding issues will start.I would keep the babies where they are for about 7 to 10 days before releasing them into the tank.After about 5 days of hatching start to feed them on good algae wafers,canned green beans,Tetra pro veg crisps,skinned peas,cucumber etc etc.Once released make sure there is always plenty of food in the tank for them to find.You will need to do water changes more regularly once they are in the tank,approx 2,maybe 3,times a week depending on the tank.Regular gravel vaccing (if you have gravel) is a must also and plenty of water movement and surface agitation is good for them also.

One question,do you have wood in the tank and plenty of cover (rocks plants etc) ?

Bristlenoses

Thanks for the reply!

We have several good hiding places while they are small: smallish piece of wood, 2 level rock decor, vase decor (looks like a broken pot on its side), several live plants & a couple artificial.

Once they get bigger they may run out of ideal spots, but hopefully they will have new homes by then

Update on baby count: ~82 live & 6 possibly DOA...although we had several Molly fry that looked dead on first inspection and were fine so I'm not giving up on them yet.

We are going out of town this weekend for our anniversary so glad to know my in laws won't have to mess with the babies (was worried since they aren't as crazy about our critters as we are ).

They should be fine to stay in the frysaver until they are 2cm+ big - will take about 8-10 weeks if you feed them daily.
Usually i have a small piece of wood broken off my large bit & added to the frysaver, at 5 days add some cucumber on a metal bbq skewer or fork.

You will probably not notice them eating it but they will work out this is food pretty quickly,

Change it every 24hrs max just a 1cm round slice will be big enough for a while. When you notice them eating the whole thing within the 24hrs, add another piece. add wafers at 1 per morning so you can see them eat it... they will work it out eventually. Add 2 shelled peas every Sunday - will help prevent bloat. ----- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS!!! I am simply telling you what works for me

There is no harm in keeping them in here until 2cm - probably have a higher survival rate as there are less bigger fish

Your bio-load will increase, I have 5 adults and about 200-300 fry in a 4 ft. I do a 15% wc daily.

If you advertise via facebook & many fish sites, you will find buyers very quickly




Have fun watching your babies grow!!!

Thanks Chaase for your feedback! Can use all the help we can get

Chaase wrote:

If you advertise via facebook & many fish sites, you will find buyers very quickly

I went by our local pet shop today to pick up another small piece of wood to put in the fry saver and asked them if they would be interested in some. The owner got all excited & said she would love to take them once they are an inch or so big! Unfortunately I couldn't get into details of whether they offered store credit, cash etc because a patient of mine came in and she is very chatty. But first contact was made about it and I suppose we can work out the details when they get a little closer to 1 inch.

Thanks again to you both for your replies! Off to post in the breeding cave with more questions

Welcome to bristlenose world

Dont really think i can add much more to the great advice already given. Maybe a copy of 'Keeping and Breeding Bristlenose' would help out :p see the link in my signature.

Shameless plug there

Keep the questions coming!

Good advice already given!  I raised mine in a breeder trap until they were 8 days old.  What an adventure these BNs can be, lol.