Bristlenose breeding?

[Nooks]

After keeping a female bristlenose for a couple of years, I finally did the right thing and bought her a male companion, about the same size - 11cm.

They are both in a 4 x 2 x 2 with about 70 electric blue fry that are between 2 and 3 cm. For most of the day, they stay hidden behind some large latex rocks in the cavities in the back.

Yesterday I was watching the female come out for a bit of a graze on the algae and zuchini. About 5 mins later, I found a small pile of yellowy/orange eggs (about 15-20) sitting in the middle of the gravel.

Now I am sure these aren’t from the blues so they could only have come from the bristlenose.

So I would love the thoughts of experienced breeders on these questions:

Don’t they normally lay eggs in caves?

How does the male fertilise them (ie. Is there some sort of intercourse prior to laying or does he fertilize them after they are laid)?

Should I move the eggs into a fry saver or leave as is?

Thanks,

Nick.

[wormboy]

Sounds to me as though they have laid eggs behind your rocks and they havn't stuck very well to the latex. The male would have been fanning away and has unwittingly dislodged them. I havn't heard of a female dropping eggs in the open without a male around so I think this scenario unlikely.

If you want to save them then I would suggest sticking them in a fry saver near a power head outlet or even better, in an egg tumbler (I think there are DIY designs in this forum somewhere).

For next time:

There are also DIY designs (or mayby even for sale) BN caves made of terracotta pots. The eggs seem to stick to this surface much better than latex or plastic. I use sections of didgeridoo wood and my BN seem pretty happy with that situation.

Oh yeah, I am almost positive that these guys/gals use external fertilisation.

-Mat-

[Ged]

Here are some plans and instructions for a DIY Egg Tumbler

Plans

Ged

[wormboy]

cheers Ged, I knew I saw it somewhere

[Nooks]

Thanks guys, you've helped me a lot. Having got home, half the eggs have dissapeared but I will put the rest in a fry saver with good water flow through.

Cheers,

Nick.

[Colfish]

hi Nick

go easy on the flow of the water, i just sit mine in an old sieve[plastic]

and float it over a small airstone. you only need a slight water movement

sounds as though the e/bue juvs had a picnic, lucky to have any eggs left at all

HTH cheers

[Kimbo]

yer i agree with colfish, they only need slight water movement, theyd most likely pop in an egg tumbler

[D6C1]

I thought BN need very good water parameters? Being in a tank with that much fry would not give them that

[genie]

I also found a clump of bristlenose eggs in the middle of my tank a few weeks ago which must of accidently got knocked out of the log.

I didn't want to put them back in the log just in case they were bad and would contaminate the eggs still being guarded by the male. I was experimenting with crossing albino and common bristlenose to see what would happen. I was a bit concerned the male albino had rejected to eggs of the common female.

I used the tumbler mentioned before with excellent results (no fungus/white eggs in the batch). I was pleased it worked as I ended up with 40 extra albino fry from the tumbler and only common fry from the log being guarded by the male.

Keep the water flow very low, making sure the eggs just float and don't keep hitting the top and bottom.

Jeannie