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Pep breeding help needed


gianniz

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Here is a pic of the latest fry I were able to save after the eggs that were kicked out of the cave for the second time started getting attacked by dreaded fungus even after treating with Methylene Blue and adding Black Alder Cones to the tumbler and tank.

Baby%20Peppermints_zps6xu6dun6.jpg

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I've got two rectangular ceramic caves, one D shaped cave and a home made cave made out of a small ceramic pottery cut in half and joined together at the bigger end with a small entrance cut out at one end.

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Have you ever tried bamboo for bristlenose?

The good thing about them is you can get the smaller, narrower ones that are of the size that will snugly fit the fish.

They are long too so they tend to feel safer. they get harassed less and harder for them to kick the eggs out.

You will need to replace bamboo a couple times a year though as they love to graze on it and usually the end gets nailed first.

Its cheap enough to buy at bunnings though and you get 6 or 8 caves per length.

Maybe throw a couple pieces in and just watch how they respond to it..they may prefer it or they may prefer their current home.

Options are always good though.

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Hmm, I might give the bamboo a try!

I'm guessing it will be best to boil it first and soak it for a while before putting it in the tank yeah? Just in case there are any chemicals or baddies in it?

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I don't bother with boiling it. The stuff from bunnings looks like it has been sealed in the factory with a clear coat (or bamboo is naturally shiney - dont know) but it has never bothered any of my grazers.

It may take a few days to get water logged and sink. I throw mine in my sump until they sink but if you don't have a sump you can soak them in a bucket.

When setting them up you can also just press the back end slightly deeper into your gravel so you have a slight angle running back.

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I'm not using any substrate in my tank and from most accounts it seems the best way to have the tank but what's your opinion on it?

I'll get some bamboo this week and see how it goes.

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Glass bottom tanks are a personal choice. They usually stay cleaner.

For me I dont like bare tanks. Glass bottoms reflect the fish back at them and isn't really an ideal setup for them.

When I've gone bare tanks I've still put in just enough gravel to scatter over the glass to remove the reflection.

I understand the bare bottom though with how messy bristlenose can be.

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  • 1 month later...

So, I went away on holidays for a week and just left them to it without food or disturbance but did clean the filter and tank before I left and when I got home Friday afternoon I found a male and female in the only D cave in there (the others are normal rectangular caves) and on a closer inspection they were both huddled up on a mound of eggs! So far today he is still in there and the eggs are all fine and dandy!

I did however notice another male in one of the other caves but because his tail is poking out I didn't think much of it but again on a better inspection I noticed him also on a huge mound of eggs, probably twice the amount of eggs than the D cave lot!! I've been out all day and came home to him still in there and the D cave guy still in his cave too so the disturbance didn't bother him too much. I've left them alone and will keep checking daily just to make sure the males are still in the caves without disturbing them.

As a test run I have placed the D cave in a separate internal area ( a plastic hospital tank with those mesh removable lids with big sections cut out of each side and mesh siliconed in place) just to make sure that he and the eggs stay safe in case he kicks them out or another male wants to try to kick him and his treasure out of the cave. Atleast that way I have one good batch protected and can see how it goes. The other cave I'm leaving as is cause he is a pretty big fella and I doubt any of the others will bother him.

I'm curious to know what to do once I notice any of them free swimming in the separated cave cause I'm undecided whether to steal the fry out of the caves to put into separate fry tanks within the main tank to watch them develop and or supp,y them with food ect? I know from the previous few fry I have grown out that they will take a further week or so to absorb their egg yolks and don't need food in that time but I just want to make sure I collect them at the right stage in growth so I don't lose them to the filter or throughout the tank.

Would you guys just leave them alone and allow them to free swim throughout the tank or collect them all and raise them in a separate area so you can keep an eye on their progress?

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Personally myself I used to get the log, in my case bamboo ends, and put the whole lot in one of those ice cream floatys that I have a vid on here somewhere. They are quite large. That way I could just flush the logs and bristlenose into the floaty when he's done and pop him back into the tank with the log. You have to make sure you put things back as close to exactly as you can though. If they were happy before then why change the setup !! They are handy because you are not changing water or water parameters for the fish unlike transferring them into another tank.

You could leave them in there until they have just about lost their egg sacks and then flush them out or you could set up a little fry tank for them if you have a little filter going.

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As for the ice-cream containers, are they just a normal container with mesh windows cut like my tank in a tank and foam glued to the sides to keep it floating around the tank?

I've currently got the D cave that sits on its own at one end in my tank in a tank setup as seen in the first pic, but the other cave is one of three that are at the other end of the 4 foot tank as seen in the second pic.

image.jpg1_zpswcifnrom.jpg

The egg cave is the bottom left one.

image.jpg2_zpsizf4xbac.jpg

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yeah, that will do the trick. Anything that has mesh and you can basically quarantine the fish away in safety. Yours looks large. the good thing with the icecream version is you can use 3 or 4 of them in the same tank.

Are those logs siliconed together?

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Nope, the logs are separate just stacked like that.

That hospital tank I originally made to sit over the top of a yabbys cave in my turtle tank that was ripe with babies. The night she decided to dump the babies off from under her tail was the night before I put the tank over her cave!

I might make a smaller one for the other cave or should I just leave it?

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so that tank hasn't got a bottom. You just place it around the log?

I'd rather have them in a contained floaty myself as you know that your not going to wake up with a bunch of escaped bristlenose to deal with later down the track. May as well make things easy for yourself imo.

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I made another one from a similar plastic tank but this one is floating and I've put the second cave in this one.

If these guys do well I'll know that separating them works but if I get good results next few batches I may just leave them alone in the tank to build stock in there. I just want to play with these batches now to see what works and what doesn't.

I also found a few eggs yesterday just floating free and they are in the tumbler doing well with their little black eyes and tails slowly developing.

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when i was breeding peps my setup was like this:

LOTS of driftwood (malaysian bogwood)

LOTs of different shaped and sized caves

high current over the face of caves (some more than others so the fish can choose its prferred current)

regular water changes

good quality foods (hikari etc)

Zuchini, brocoli stalks (peeled)

2 females for every male

older males, younger females

no need to shine a light into caves to check for eggs. if the male is sitting inside the cave facing out and his fins are going up and down you have eggs.

on about day 7 i would pour the wrigglers into floating fry savers and raise them to about 2cm in fry saver. Make sure an air stone is placed underneath (and slightly to the side) the fry saver to promote the movement of fresh water into the fry saver. feed daily with fresh zuchini or pumpkin.

I found that at about 2 cm they did better in a tank with some adult peps. i think they eat the poop of the older peps. If i didn't do this i lost a lot of them at 3cm for no known reason.

Hope that helps

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The whole facing out thing confused me as both these two males have been facing in the caves with their tales hanging out the whole time they've been sitting on the eggs. The two eggs I found stray are now awesome looking little fry in the tumbler and swimming around like crazy. I'm about to flush the cave that had the smaller batch of eggs to check to see how they are going as that is the cave the tumbled eggs came out of so wish me luck that there is a whole bunch of similar babies within!!!

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Woohoo!

My first real batch of Peppermints!

The first cave was empty but I have a feeling the babies escaped the tank they were in through the gaps in the lid and the second cave was like hitting gold! Full of healthy little 1cm babies with small yolk sacs still attached so I'll add in some zucchini later on! I've got some driftwood in there for them and an air stone near by but the way the saver is set up there is pretty good water flow through it to keep fresh water running through.

Photos I'll put up a bit later.

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Congratulations on the peps. How many did you finally end up with?

Hey Ged,

I've got atleast 60+ in there growing really well! They're starting to colour up nicely too! I'll put up a pic shortly.

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