Bristlenose Pleco Spawn Tips

jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
I was fortunate enough to pick up the pair of BN plecos that Frank entered I the auction this past week. I put them in a 40 breeder with a few grow out acaras, added several pleco caves that I had laying around the house, and low and behold, they have spawned already. The male is diligently guarding the mouth of the cave, and I can see about a dozen orange eggs in the back of the cave.

I think I may be about the only person in the club that hasn't bred BN plecos before (or any catfish, for that matter), so I'm looking for a bit of advice. How long until the eggs hatch? It's been about 2 days since I noticed the eggs. I don't want to pull the cave too early, as I don't have an egg tumbler and I've had a hard time fighting fungus on cichlid eggs in the past.

Thanks in advance!
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
Thats funny, i was just talking to Christine about it at the meeting because mine did too. I only found out because i pulled a rock out and therr were large orange eggs. I seriously doubt any will survive. Mine are in a 125 with growout saggitae and hogas!

What acaras are they?

Congrats and good luck!
 
verbal

verbal

CCA Members
You may occassionally lose spawns, but in general the males are pretty good at taking care of the eggs/wrigglers.

The easiest method is to move the cave with male into a small tank - even a 5 would be fine or separated portion of a large tank could serve the same purpose.

If you have to raise them in a breeder box or similar, I would leave the cave in the tank until the eggs hatch. Then the wigglers can be dumped out of the cave into the breeder box. At the wiggler stage, you should get a pretty good survival rate.
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
spazmattik said:
Thats funny, i was just talking to Christine about it at the meeting because mine did too. I only found out because i pulled a rock out and therr were large orange eggs. I seriously doubt any will survive. Mine are in a 125 with growout saggitae and hogas!

What acaras are they?

Congrats and good luck!
Click to expand...

Yup - huge orange eggs! Way bigger than most cichlid eggs.

I have them in a tank with four w/c adinoacara coeruleopunctatus that I picked up from Zach before he moved to Florida.
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
Nice that you picked up those guys from Zach!

I'm no help on breeding plecos :)

Matt

jonclark96 said:
Yup - huge orange eggs! Way bigger than most cichlid eggs.

I have them in a tank with four w/c adinoacara coeruleopunctatus that I picked up from Zach before he moved to Florida.
Click to expand...
 
Frank Cowherd

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
I am not sure on timing either, but it always seems to me to be about 8 to 10 days before the BN are free swimming.

If you see eggs on the bottom not being protected, you can scoop them up and put them in a net. Place the net in a good flow of water from a filter or air stone. That mimics the male moving water over the eggs and most will hatch.

It does not work so well if there are cichlids under the net. They tend to see the wigglers and somehow eat them through the net.

You can also use a hang on the side fry keeper. The flow of water through the keeper is all the eggs and wigglers need to survive.

Once free swimming, move them to a tank with fish that are not likely to eat them and with a lot of surfaces. They will find enough to eat off the glass of an established tank to survive until they learn to eat the food you add. I just use the regular fish food, nothing special.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
I've always found that as long as you can sort-of see into the cave, you can keep an eye on them. They take their time leaving the cave and tend to hang out there for a while even after hatching. Once they're free swimming, I rinse the cave (usually with dad still inside) into another tank or breeder box. I usually have to rinse it several times and even come back later because dad will have blocked some of them from leaving.

Once you have them in the breeder box/grow out tank, make sure there's something for them to eat between the food you give them. Driftwood bits and twigs, oak leaves, banana leaves are good. for grazing during the day. I've lost several batches to starvation before I figured this out. If you have some wisteria or hornwort throw that in, too. If you have any plants or small rocks that have a nice layer of brown algae (diatoms) they'll appreciate that too.

Otherwise, they're good to go on zucchini, shrimp pellets, pleco tablets, repashy, or whatever else you have on hand.
 
Tangcollector

Tangcollector

Active Member
Staff member
That is what this club is all about. That is all some great information. Even though it is not my post, Thanks to all for the info.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
Ours usually start to come out of the cave in 10-14 days. If you can see the eggs in the cave, just check on them daily. When they start to look like little plecos with no yolk sac, pull the cave, dump the contents into a spec cup, and move them to a 5 or 10 gallon to start growing them out. I've found they like to eat dried banana leaves, cucumber, algae wafers, pretty much anything.

Sometimes I pull spawns and sometimes I don't. When I don't, a few of the brown ones always make it to adulthood, but the albinos never do. Mine are in a tank with a bunch of big "Raphael" cats, Discus, B. cupido, and an 8" L128. If they can be easily spotted, they get eaten.
 
zackcrack00

zackcrack00

Members
I've never had success with even getting these to spawn, let alone raise the babies. This was a great idea for a thread, especially when I see all of the different methods for raising them :)


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
hollyfish2000

hollyfish2000

Members
my wonderful bristly albino BN is a great father. He's almost always hatching a brood! I let him take care of them and leave them in the tank. I pull a few to raise separately and leave the rest to their fate. Some will live. I did find that I needed to keep zucchini or cucumber in the tank to feed them, though.
 
festaedan

festaedan

potamotrygon fan
zackcrack00 said:
I've never had success with even getting these to spawn, let alone raise the babies. This was a great idea for a thread, especially when I see all of the different methods for raising them :)


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Click to expand...

Haha, i thought I was the only one!
I've had plecos lay eggs 3 times in 2 years and only once rescued a few free swimmers from one of the spawns.
Still trying for spawn #4 though!
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
Update - The male must have wandered out of the cave and left the eggs unprotected, as they are gone. Oh well, I'm sure they will spawn again.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Bummer! I did have a pleco once that was a horrible father. He'd kick the eggs out of the cave after a few days. I tried to save them and put them into an egg tumbler on low (so that they weren't tumbling, but had some water flow on them). Some hatched, but most did not.

What kind of pleco is it? I may have a few spares if you want to try a different one to see if it's a tank thing or if he's just a dud.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
I've read that pleco eggs, if disrupted, can hatch early, which obviously causes problems. We keep our caves so we can shine a light in them and easily see what's going on in there so we know when the eggs have hatched. I think, really, it's safe to move fry when they're still wigglers, but we usually wait until the yolk sacs are gone.
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
Chris - the pair are common BN plecos (I think). They were the ones that Frank put in the last auction.

Becca - I've got the caves situated so that I can see in them with a flashlight. I probably just was too nosy and spooked the male. The only other thing I can think of is that there is a weberi pleco in the tank too. Maybe he bullied the male out of the way.

No big deal. I'm sure they'll get to it again soon.
 
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