Bristlenose baby deaths

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J

jameski_88

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 24, 2009
16
0
0
Australia
Hey guys,

Recently my bristlenose had babies and ended up all getting eaten by my american eel (my fault) so the next time they had eggs ( month later ) I made sure I did something about it.

I waited till they hatched and ended up putting them all in a breeding net (same tank) and took the father out and left them. For the first few days they were doing great. Then just after they lost their yellow egg sacs they started to grow a furry looking fungus where the sac used to be.

To cut a long story short about 20% ended up surviving (20 or so) and the rest died with this funny looking fungus thing.

My main concern is that the father may play a vital role when the babies are young because I know they tend to hang around and never leave them after they hatch. Should I not have sperated them? Can anyone shed light on this issue?

I have since removed the eel from this tank and now they have a tank to themselves (yet to lay more eggs) so I will not disturb them this time and see what happens.

Jamie
 
Couldnt treat them as I was overseas. The tank has waterchanges fortnightly as per normal. Has been established for over a year with no issues, the fish are doing great, only the babies had the issue. And the survivors are still goin super strong
 
You could consider trying methylene blue next time, but it will kill your bio filter. Otherwise, you can always expect some fry loss (even with MB)--maybe next time you will experience less. At least you know the ones you have left are a strong batch. :)
It will be interesting to see if you experience less loss if you leave the fry in with the parents.
The "double edged sword" with species that care for their offspring is that they care for their offspring BUT they can do a poor job at it. Usually the first one or two spawns will not have a lot of surviving fry. They usually get better at it.
My corys I recently spawned did not have any viable fry with their first batch. But I have about two dozen month old fry from their second (most recent) batch. But, they don't care for their young, I was the "parent" in this case.
 
Yeah I suppose you always lose some and they are clearly the weaker ones but with so many fry (100+) I expected a better percentage to survive. I will see how they go with the next batch. I havent heard of cory's breeding before in aquariums at home. Are they easy to breed/sex? They are such a handy little addition to the tank!
 
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