# breeding bristlenose



## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

heyall, im interested in breeding brislenose catfish as african cichlids have lost their market over here in ireland, i have a juwel rekord 60 that at the moment houses cichlid fry, it isnt furnished with anything but a gravel substrate. when the cichlids are gone i would like to get a pair of bn's, what hardscape should i get (wood, pots etc.)? and would plants be necessary as would they not remove nitrates which could go toward algae for the fish? also would it be possible to keep growing fry with the parents? thanks in advance for any and all replies :fish:


----------



## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

Bristlenose cats are easy to breed and very prolific. The main need is a good pad for Mr. Bristlenose to attract his lady into to lay her eggs. Give them a variety of caves to choose from. Dad won't eat for many days while he watches over his clutch. Once dad lets them out of the cave, they like to hang out on the glass sides of the aquarium. You can attach clips with romaine lettuce that is softened by blanching to the glass. Blanched squash and minced bloodworms are also good in their diet.

As they get older, they like to hide amongst the plants and decorations and get more difficult to catch. I think a planted tank is a great environment for them but many that breed bristlenose find it too difficult to find and catch them amongst the plants. Perhaps a compromise would be plants attached to driftwood (it is also said they need driftwood in their diet) and potted plants that can be removed when you want to catch them.

You can keep many generations of bristlenose in the same tank and you can even keep them with some small tetras.


----------



## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

ok so if i had two half flower pots on the gravel, one or two pieces of medium sized driftwood with some anubias and java fern attached and maybe a slate cave or two would that work? would it be ok to just get 1 male and 1 female bristlenose and maybe add some peat to the filter to mimick blackwater conditions? how long would it take to grow fry to a saleable size?


----------



## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

The reason that bristlenose are hard to find in many of our fish stores is because they are slow growers compared to most other plecos. As I remember, a pair will breed every couple months and have over 70 fry. I gave away many fry when they reached the size of an otocinclus since they went to homes with small guppies and platies. It seems like it took several months to a year for them to be large enough that they wouldn't be eaten by medium sized fish.


----------



## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

:roll: typical!! anyway i work at the lfs where i would sell on these fry and most people in my town keep just bread and butter fish, in fact im the only cichlid keeper and theres one guy that keeps koi in a 55g, everyone else just has guppies platies etc. so the bn fry would go to these people. the species im thinking of getting is ancistrus sp. L71, its apparently easy enough to induce to breed in medium hard water and neutral ph and is attractive as around here there is a demand for attractive algae eaters. i would sooner try these fish in neutral conditions as they will go to neutral homes


----------



## toddnbecka (Oct 23, 2004)

Common BN pleco's don't need any special water treatments, just clean water and a good diet. Mine breed quite well in hard, alkaline water. I use Najas to absorb nitrates between water changes. Duckweed is also good if you have limited light for growing live plants. A standard FL hood will work quite well duckweed. Either way, floating plants aren't much trouble when netting fish, and fast-growing types are helpful for maintaining water quality.


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

I've bred them in a tank with a pile of very textured driftwood. Some of it was old beams from a shipwreck that had tunnels made by shipworms thoughout it. Many years ago a pet shop a few hours drive from here bought of pallet of this tunneled wood. I didn't buy any of it then but have picked up a piece at a time since as people sold out of the hobby or moved away. The other tank mates were galaxy danios and a very small red rasbora species.


----------



## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

toddnbecka: unfortunatly floating plants arent an option as the filter is dependant on the water line 

mcdaphnia: i am gonig to get some mopani wood for rasping and a reptile style cave for the male, at the other end of the tank i am hoping to build some type of cave formation, maybe i can put some java moss and fern on this instead of floating plants as mentioned by toddnbecka?


----------



## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Hey *padlock 08*,

Try checking out this site: http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/


----------



## padlock 08 (Jul 31, 2008)

thanks for that link im registering now and am going to look around the site :thumb: but iv pretty much got all the info. i need to start now and im just gonna pick up any other hints or tips as i go along. i am going to go witha bare bottom tank with just one breeder cave, im building up a slate formation on the other end of the tank to protect the fish from excess light as i plan on running the lights for extended periods of time to encourage algae, i will do a wc every other day and feed blanched cucumber. im going to grow the fry to 1" with the pair of adults before bringing them to the lfs where they will go to homes with small fish and the few that grow large will go into larger tanks


----------



## toddnbecka (Oct 23, 2004)

Zucchini is generally preferred over cucumber, and it may be better to have several caves so the male has some choice. If using a hob filter position the caves near the water flow from the outlet.


----------



## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

padlock 08 said:


> ...im just gonna pick up any other hints or tips as i go along. i am going to go witha bare bottom tank with just one breeder cave, im building up a slate formation on the other end of the tank to protect the fish from excess light as i plan on running the lights for extended periods of time to encourage algae, i will do a wc every other day and feed blanched cucumber. im going to grow the fry to 1" with the pair of adults...


 i currently breed long fin albino and long fin calico bn. mine breed easily in a 4" long 1 1/2" abs with a 90 elbow at the entrance and an end cap to close the other end. do not glue it together, or you might have difficulty removing all fry. if you like to build something more esthetically pleasing, dark caves do best. tank lighting has little to do with my results. when i see the male has positioned himself at the entrance, for any extended period of time (2 days), i relocate him (in tube) to a Q tank that is algae overgrown. when the fry have hatched (another week or so), and start to migrate out of the cave to snack off the glass, i return the male to the other tank. i do not return the cave immediately, or the male may fight with other pleco in that tank. if i leave the nesting male in the breeder tank, my results are very poor.
i keep two male with two female in each breeder. only one cave per tank. tank mates include dwarf shrimp and ramshorn snails. temperature is kept at 78-80. water changes are 20-30% every 3-4 days. feed is grinded herbivore pellet, with a raw zuchini slice each week. HTH.


----------

