No Albino Babies From albino Male

Hi, I recently lost a few fish. I finally figured out that I was unaware that that my PH had dropped quite a bit, and when I bought a couple of new tank mates, the shock made them sick and they in turn infected a couple of other fish. It took a week or so to get everything back to normal, I then realised that I hadn't seen my Albino BNfor a while. I sadly accepted the fact that he must have perished and been eaten by other fish.

Again, once everything returned to normal, I started enjoying my 300 litre tank and watching the fish more intently. One night I got so involved that I even got the torch out and looked into the upturned pot, that had been totally ignored, in the desperate hope that maybe my much smaller albino BN had shown an interest in enticing one of the two much larger females.

Much to my delight, my larger albino had not perished at all. In fact he looked more robust than ever, and he was absolutely surrounded by baby BNs. The little ones were already 5 - 10 millimetres long and moving around inside the pot...keeping the male pretty busy.

I decided that I didn't want all the babies to leave the nest and inhabit the tank, because ultimately I will need to get rid of them, and catching any fish in my heavily planted tank is a nightmare. I syphoned them up into a bucket. Only a few escaped this process and i have a few swimming around freely in the tank.

The ones I captured were put into a floating breeding tank. I have about 40 I reckon and they are doing well. They are about 4 weeks old now and I reckon they're getting close to 2 cms.

I am feeding them zuccini skins that I boil for about 30 seconds and shelled peas. I also put in algae wafers and spirulina tabs, but i suspect some of this food is sucked through the bottom of the isolation tank by bigger fish. They also eat thinly sliced and boiled Broccoli stalks as well as finely chopped and lightly boiled spinach.

They literally jump on this food. They seem very healthy and feed all day. I'm pretty sure that none had died and been devoured by the rest. I use a vegetable peeler on the zuccini, and they go through one slice a day as well as about a dozen peas.

I'd like to know the following...

How I am going. Is 2cm at 4 weeks (since I discovered them) a good growth rate??

What other foods should I be looking at now and in coming weeks?

How much longer can they comfortably survive in the isolation tank, and should i consider separate tank?.


I only have normal strain females, but given that the male is albino, why do i have no albino babies?

The second albino male I mentioned is only just growing bristles, yet i got him at the same time as the breeding male. They were both identical size at the time. The smaller one seems healthy and active...perhaps more active..... yet his development just seems to be stunted. What could this be attributed to?? He is literally half the size!!

Finally, I was told that taking the babies away would not deter future breeding. Indeed I was told they would return to the same nest and try again. Admittedly, I have been shining the torch in the old nest daily for just a few seconds. Could I be putting them off by this?? I have noticed the male spends a lot of time in one spot of late. It is on the edge of a log but still quite exposed and not a spot I would have thought a good site for protecting his young. Would a breeding pair consider a site that was not ideal,,,,, yet one free from prying eyes.

Any advice appreciated. Sorry to have rambled on.

George

Firstly, welcome to bristlenose world


Secondly, massive congratulations on your breeding! I always do giggle a bit when some people spend months trying to breed them and others cant get the buggers to stop.

Now, moving on to your questions. All of these issues have been asked before so for a more in depth answer I would suggest a quick search of the old topics.

Growth rate is good, about average or even slightly above

They eat the same food as the adults, veges are best. they are more prone to bloat so avoid protein

as long as there is good movement in the water through the isolation chamber they will be fine for another while. but i would be looking at a separate tank soon.

the reason for your common coloured fry is to do with genetics, read my write up here
http://www.bristlenoseworld.com/t2500-crosses-interbreeding-bristlenose-updated

The smaller size of the other fish is to do with dominance. the smaller male would develop very quickly if you removed the alpha male.

yes, shining a torch will put off a male, especially a new or young male. it also depends on the conditions of the tank, the tank mates and a stack of other things.

have a read of this as well

www.keepingandbreedingbristlenose.com

Hi Doug

Thanks so much for answering all my questions. Good advice. I will also follow the links you suggested.

Cheers

George

you are welcome mate!

Piccys of your set up?

we always like piccys

Hi Dough

As far as I can work out, my babies were born on or about 18 August, and would have been about 5 days old when I put hem into the isolation tank.

How do I post photos and how large a file size can they be? Most of my photos are about 3 meg.

I will post the very first photos I took of them and I would be interested in your guess as to how old they were.

They continue to grow well. Indeed, better than the few that got away and are free swimming in the tank.

I haven't been able to resist shining the torch in from time to time, but he wasn't going back in there much.

Then, the other night, he was hanging around the opposite end of the tank and I noticed he and the female sucking on the glass quite close to each other. A bit later I went to shine the torch in his cave and the female was in there on her own, so I decided to leave it be.

Sure enough, the next morning (18th Sept) I peaked in to see him sitting on and fanning a fat cluster of yellow eggs. That was 2 days ago. On the date guesstimates, it;s looking like it's going t be a monthly thing. I use the torch to look in on as little as I can and he seems okay with it. I have even used the flash to take photos of the eggs, and he doesn't seem to mind. Well he probably isn't too keen on it, but undeterred..he's sticking to his task.

I'm possibly getting a 2 foot tank from a friend to put the babies in after they serve their time in the isolation tank. What do you think, and how many babies will a tank that size take at any one time. I'm hoping to sell or trade them so they won't get too big.

Finally..gee I go on a bit, I see you are in Adelaide. Me too. Are you able to suggest some shops I could sell or trade them to. My local, Seaview Aquariums says they take them but I'm not sure how many they will take.

Hi & congrats!

Bristlenose will spawn every 4ish weeks - so the monthly guess is about right.

You can end up with upto 100 babies at a time. So make sure you have plenty of space & great filtration for them to grow. A 4ft would be better to grow them out in. - my opinion there.

When moving the fry from one tank to another, wait until they are about 2 weeks out of the cave, catch them all & pop into a bucket with 2 inches of water. (from the current tank)
Slowly add 1 cup of new tank water (from the tank you are introducing them to) every 5 minutes until you have trippled the water volume.

Slowly tip the bucket into the new tank

You should have 0 losses but it could stress the weakest fry, which cant be helped.