Breeding Bristlenoses

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Anyone try feeding frozen peas? Defrosted and cooked obviously! My pair have produced 2 spawns in the past 10 weeks and the little 'uns devour peas and rather like cooked broccoli too!
I also put some sinking pellets in and the odd bloodworm to see if they like 'em.
Growing well, all healthy and cute as hell! I can sit and watch them for ages.
BN dads are great parents, so keep him with the fry 'til they are free swimming and absorb their yolk sac. Then it's feeding time!

Good luck with the breeding project.


POST # 900!
 
Yup, I feed peas every now and then, as well. Foods, in general, are much healthier if they're raw, rather than cooked. You can certainly feed raw peas and broccoli to your fish. When I feed peas, I just put them in a bowl of water and let them defrost. I then squeeze the peas into the tank, removing the tougher outer layer. When I have broccoli for dinner, my plecos get the stems. I don't do anything to those...most of the time they'll sink on their own. If they do float, then I'll just impale them on a butter knife and let that sink to the bottom.
 
At what size is there is a visible difference between males and females? I saw some at 2 or so but couldn't tell since it wasn't fairly obvious.
 
At around 2.5", my males start to grow bristles. That doesn't mean that the ones that don't have bristles are female...some males don't grow as nice of a set of bristles as others and/or develop later. I also have some known females that have a pretty heft moustache. So presence or lack of bristles isn't 100%. But, in my experience, the early moustache developers are definitely male and will probably grow out to be the larger, more vigorous males.

My bristlenose ladies definitely prefer the extra bushy males. I have one tank of bristlenoses that has 2 dominant males and one smaller, sub-dominant with a lousy set of bristles. The two dominant males spawn regularly. The females pay no attention whatsoever to the subdominant.
 
Titania;1942633; said:
Yup, I feed peas every now and then, as well. Foods, in general, are much healthier if they're raw, rather than cooked. You can certainly feed raw peas and broccoli to your fish. When I feed peas, I just put them in a bowl of water and let them defrost. I then squeeze the peas into the tank, removing the tougher outer layer. When I have broccoli for dinner, my plecos get the stems. I don't do anything to those...most of the time they'll sink on their own. If they do float, then I'll just impale them on a butter knife and let that sink to the bottom.
Click to expand...

Interesting....the reason I blanche the peas is because that is what I'd read about and my lfs said to do the same. I'll try some raw then....
 
btw albino's are way more aggressive when breeding than common bn (brown).

they breed at around 7cm, and to tell the truth IME the smaller to medium size males breed better than the large guys, as they can get lazy or even kick the eggs out.

Longfins are awesome too, except ive never had them.
 
My planted tank has very powerful lighting and there is always more green algae than the plecos can keep under control. I have been feeding them a sinking wafer with alder wood and protein in it but Im leary of giving vegetarian fish meat in general. Even my Ruby Greens dont get much in the way of meaty foods. If that's the trick to rapid growth in my longfin albino bns though then I guess I'll have to feed more often.
 
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