New Bristlenose

I posted on here several months ago to get info about bristlenose plecos. Well, I finally got one today! Right now he or she is in my 5-gallon quarantine tank with two male platies--and 5 teeny tiny snails that came as a bonus with the driftwood, LOL! Once the quarantine period is up, my new little buddies will be moving into my 20 gallon long tank with my other platy. My pleco is only about an inch long, and I'm not really sure how to tell if it's a boy or girl. I haven't fed my new fish yet because I figure they might want to settle in first, but I have algae wafers and cucumber for the pleco. Maybe tomorrow I can take pictures and post them.

Sabrina

So it begins

Congrats on ur first bn

you wont be able to sex it until it is bigger
and congrats they can be additive

I'm sad now. I got up this morning, excited about feeding my new bn a little bit of cucumber or algae wafer, and when I looked in the tank, the poor little thing was dead! I know my water is fine, because I tested it and did a partial water change before I added the new fish yesterday. I won't be able to go back to Petco today, but I'm definitely going to go back tomorrow and get my money back! I might get another fish, but definitely not from the same tank just in case. They did have a couple pigmented bns in other tanks--including the tank I got one of my platies from, so I might get one of those. I'll just have to look at them again and see if they look OK. Otherwise, I might just try to order one online or something. At least my new platies seem to be OK.

sad to hear,

Its quite common for a high percentage of imported fish to die in the first week.

For not so reliable merchants its usually a good idea to pay a deposit or pay for a fish you have selected and advise the store owner that you will not b able to collect the fish for two weeks.

Once fish have past the two week quarantine period their chance of survival is substantially increased

sorry to hear
if you were closer i would give you 2 of my 3 in ones

Thanks everyone. I went back to Petco today, and they gave me a new fish for free. I was worried that fish in the same tank might also be sick, so I got a regular pigmented bn from the tank where I got one of my platies. He's maybe 2 inches long and already seems to be moving around a lot more than the first one did. I got a couple clips on suction cups and used one to put in a piece of cucumber. Last I saw, my bn was still hiding somewhere, but I'm hoping that when it's dark he'll come out and find the cucumber. I'm still sad that my first bn didn't live long enough for me to get to know it at all, but I'm excited about the new one.

So far my second bn is doing pretty well. He keeps hiding underneath the driftwood. I don't think he's eaten any of the cucumber yet, but I think there's some algae on the driftwood, so hopefully he's eating that. At least he's already lived longer than my first one did. I decided to name him Krenshaw, after a character in one of my favorite TV shows.

Leave the cucumber in overnight, you should see little track marks over the top, you can also substitute with algae wafers

Good luck with your new BN!!

Sorry to her your first one didn't make it, but you are doing the smart thing by using a quarantine tank.

Keep us posted on how this one does and post pics once it gets acclimated more!

Well, the good news is that my bn is still doing well. The bad news is that his platy brothers have Ick. I haven't seen any on my bn, but since he's usually hiding in a little hollow in the driftwood, it's hard to tell for sure. If he does have it, he's not letting it stop him. I noticed today that he'd come out of hiding for a while and was moving around a lot, with his dorsal fin held high. Then I remembered that it had been a couple days since I'd taken out his old cucumber, so I put in a new piece. I didn't see him actually eat it, but when I looked in later, I thought it looked thinner than it had before, and he was moving around within about an inch of it.

I'm trying the salt and heat method to get rid of the Ick, so we'll see how it goes. I hope it will get rid of it soon, because it's nasty stuff. The fish all seem healthy otherwise, so I'm pretty sure they'll get through it.

Good luck with the ich treatment. I have never tried the "heat and salt" method but my BNs have always survived medications.

salt and heat method is the only one i use

Salt isn't good for BNs. It kills bacteria in their stomachs so causes slow and painful death.

Yea, salt isnt good, it burns them,

Try the Melafix/Pimafix's or Multicure.

make sure you gravel vac daily to disrupt the cycle

Krenshaw is still doing well. I'm pretty sure he ate the cucumber, because it looked thinner and over time it almost completely disappeared. I've also noticed that there's almost no algae left in the tank. I have a couple pictures of him I'd like to post, but it says the limit has been reached or something and won't let me upload pictures.

Anyway, I haven't noticed any Ick on Krenshaw, and today it disappeared from the platies, so hopefully the heat and salt will kill the free-swimming Ick and get rid of it once and for all. I've never heard of aquarium salt being bad for bns, but I'll keep that in mind and not use it once the Ick is gone. Once I'm sure it's gone and am sure the big tank is fully cycled, I'll add the three little guys to the big tank. Adrian, my platy in the big tank, keeps swimming near the quarantine tank, so I think he's eager to meet his new friends.

make sure you are doing a quick gravel clean every 2 days to pick up any ick that are trying to hide in there

Good job kicking the ich! You can always upload pics to photobucket or imgur and xopy/paste the image code. It's the one [ img ]

OK, I'll have to try that for the pictures. I don't know for sure if the Ick is completely gone, but if it's not, I'm sure it'll show up on the fish again within the next few days. I haven't seen any more so far, though, so hopefully the heat is killing it. I'm keeping the temp at 86, and the fish are doing fine with it. I don't have gravel in my quarantine tank, so there isn't any for the Ick to hide in, although they could still sit on the bottom of the tank or something.

I've tried feeding Krenshaw cucumber, and I'm pretty sure he ate some of it. Yesterday I decided to try green beans. I got canned French-cut green beans with no salt added, and I put a little piece in. Well, this morning I looked in the tank, and the green bean was almost completely gone--there was only a tiny bit sticking out from the clip. Interestingly enough, at that moment Krenshaw was probably no more than an inch away from it. So I guess he likes green beans! How often should I feed him? I want to make sure he has enough, but don't want to overfeed him.

i keep the heat up for 10-14 days
glad all is doing good

I can't remember exactly how long the heat has been up--I think I started turning it up as soon as I noticed the Ick. But they're doing fine with it, so I'll definitely keep it up for a while longer just to be sure. I have an airstone in there just to make sure there's enough oxygen in the water.

Just out of curiosity, do you change any of the filter media after an Ick outbreak? I'm assuming the heat will kill any Ick that's in the filter media, but I want to make sure all bases are covered before I declare the tank Ick-free and put the fish into my main tank.

I have a 3ft tank and I am setting it up for some peppermint bristlenose,I have bought 4 small one's and they are in a smaller tank at the moment they are about 3 to 4 cms long,when I put them into the 3ft tank and say I buy some more and end up with a few males,would I need to get some seperaters to put in the 3ft tank to seperate males,? or leave them altogether with a lot of caves,would you have gravel on floor of tank,or just have the glass bottom.?

you can leave them all in together but you will most likely only have one breeding male, the others wont breed for fear of the alpha male