Ant Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 hey ive thrown in (not litteraly) about 8 brisle nose in my 3.5ft tank of which there are 2 males and 6 females. Are there too many in there for them to breed? or should i have fry before i know it ? Anthony PS: No other fish in tank, PH is 6.8, doing water changes with rain water, Fish been in tank for 3 days sofar (obviously it wont happen straight away) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.apps Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I'd be going for more males than females, as the males look after the eggs, once the females lys em she can go off to another male and lay again soon! But only my opinion CHEERS DANIEL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I agree with Daniel, you need more males than females with this fish. I've had over 20 in a 2 foot tank and they were all happy and breding like crazy so long as I had enough surface area for them. I got more surface area for them by adding wood. (The tank looked like it was for soaking wood but when you moved near it they soon moved about.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noyd Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I also have a question on this topic, if a female BN is about 13cm, and male only about 9cm, would they breed? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 Yes they would Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 Goodness me, there is some nonsence sprouted about Bristlenose breeding. Male Ancistrus catfish are harem spawners, that is they will mate with as many ripe females as they can entice into their cave. The maximum I have personally seen is one male spawn with 7 females over two days and he cared for the whole lot. For a single male to spawn 2 or 3 females at the same time is quite common. According to my breeding logs female bristle nose only spawn every 40 to 45 days so only expect each female to breed eight or nine times a year maximum. The older and larger the fish the less frequently they breed but they do have larger broods. My first spawn of bristle nose Ancistrus was in October 1970 at which stage I had had the fish for 2 years and 7 months, so it can be safely assumed that they were at least three years old before I managed to spawn them. These days I can get BN to spawn at 8 or 9 months old. IMO you have got the numbers just about right Anthony. My breeding colonies are in 4x2x2 tanks, 15 or 16 females to 4 or 5 males. (4 tanks, 61 females & 18 males) Feed them plenty, give them time and it will happen. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted March 1, 2004 Author Share Posted March 1, 2004 Thats what thaught, i thaught the more females the better??? Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 That has not been my experience with these guy's Alan (I do not profess to be expert here) My experience has been that when they breed the male looks after the clutch of eggs while the female goes about her business eating and when ready mating again with another partner. I have had times where I have had to go looking for my males because they were all looking after eggs. Based on that I continued to add males until I could see some at any time I chose to look. When I got to what I felt was a balance they were breeding so prolifically that I had to continually remove fry. (I mean that it was becoming hard to keep up with the amount of fish I had to get rid of.) So I got a marked increase in fry by adding males only and not increasing the number of females. My females tended to breed again before the 1st male had left his duties with the eggs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I also used to breed more females per males, as the males would coax and spawn with several females if they were all ready at the same time.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 OMG, I need some of those females who breed again before the first batch is free swimming. In my expereience a male can cover three batches of eggs before the first female is even ready to spawn again. The people I sell to want a minimum of 1,000 3cm SL bristlenose a month. Some months I can supply them, some times I can't fill the order. I need some of those "battery hen" females. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 In my expereience a male can cover three batches of eggs before the first female is even ready to spawn again. Wow. Are you saying that the males covered 3 clutches from different females in the one location in the tank? Or are the males going from clutch to clutch?The people I sell to want a minimum of 1,000 3cm SL bristlenose a month. Some months I can supply them, some times I can't fill the order. I guess that's why Marty is doing so well with them in Melbourne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 I'm darned if I know where they all go to. You can't kill them with a hammer, but the market soaks them up like blotting paper. With out going through my journals I would guess I have sold 100,000 or more over the past thirty years ! I don't know if I am putting the info across in an understandable form, but a male bristlenose can brood three concecutive clutches of eggs from different females in his own favourite cave before the first female he spawned with is even ready to lay again. The figures are there. The maths is there. Eggs take 5 days to hatch on average. The fry leave the cave 5 or 6 days later. The male then spawns with one, two, three or however many ripe females will come with him and he has fathered a couple more broods of brats before the first female even feels like doing it again. Can you blame her ? they are bloody big eggs! You don't put ten bulls in a paddock with one cow ! All you end up with is bull fights and no calf. You put one bull in a paddock with ten cows and end up with ten calves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinh Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 My breeding colonies are in 4x2x2 tanks, 15 or 16 females to 4 or 5 males. (4 tanks, 61 females & 18 males) 61 females between 4 tanks.. You must really get alot of spawns, do you sell them private or only to local fish shops?? Vinh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlids_au Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 Thanx for that Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noyd Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 I have a male about 8cm and female about 9 to 10cm in a standard 3' by them selves with a few chunks of driftwood... what water parameters are best for breeding them? I heard temp. 24-26c, pH 7.3 to 7.6 Can anyone add to this? Also, what are the chances of breeding both BN & E.Yellow's in the 3'? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Well these days bristle nose seem to breed on a wet saucer. pH etc does not seem to deter them. ..... But I don't fancy the chances of any BN fry with the yellows around unless there is massive amounts of cover in the way of Java moss, rocks, caves etc.. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serial-Cichlid Posted March 7, 2004 Share Posted March 7, 2004 Hey guys speaking of breeding bristlenose. I discovered my bristlenose bred a few days ago so I took some pics to share. I have no idea how that huge male fits in there but he manages. Direct link to Bristlenose pics My Fish Gallery Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 7, 2004 Share Posted March 7, 2004 They get themselves into some rediculously tight spots don't they. I hate logs with holes in them but bristle nose love them and it is impossible to move a whopping great log to a brood tank, so you are stuck with catching out the young at 2 cm + because they don't take kindly to netting at a smaller size. Ton of fun that is too ! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappy Posted March 7, 2004 Share Posted March 7, 2004 You can use a 5-6mm clear plastic hose and suck them out into a bucket when they are small. And then transfer them to the grow out tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Fancy that .............. 2 different lines of thought and both work Obviously someone forgot to tell the fish exactly what they should be doing I have always gone with the 1M to 2-3F theory as I found too many males tend to fight and just disrupt things I think its difficult to over filter a Bristlenose tank especially when feeding heavy and if things are under filtered or vegies left in the tank too long it will go cloudy Alan we'll have to see if Mark has any spare "fast ripening" Bristenose battery hens L2H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 an easy way to catch the baby bns if you cut a 600 mL coke bottle in about 1/3 from the top. invert it and place into the bottom half, put some cucumber inside and leave overnight the babies will somehow find their way inside of the inverted bottle and eat the cucumber but wont be able to escape. simple pick up the bottle and voila! lots of babies without even trying to catch them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 OMG, NO!!!! I have tried them all over the years, even commercial bait traps, and come to grief quite spectacularly a couple or times. How long do you think it would take for 50 or more baby bristlenose to totally exhaust the oxygen supply in an unairated space like a coke bottle and all end up dead ???? Less than an hour I can tell you !!! Even ventilated, commercially produced bait traps are a failure. I like to get the babies out alive. I have killed more that just a few hundred trying all sorts of fancy gadgets. Still nothing beats a net and TLC. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted March 15, 2004 Author Share Posted March 15, 2004 I believe that soft water and slightly acidic water (6.8) is the ideal conditions for Breeding BN's. Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamsherman Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 So how big do the B/N cats have to be before they can start to breed? And are my cats dissadvantaged due to me not having any wood in the tanks that they are in? cheers, Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Alan, Your B/N should be breeding age at 9 to 12 months old. Size dosn't seem to come into the equation. It is generally accepted that bog wood is an essential part of BN 'diet?' It may be that it is just an aid to digestion, but they definately eat it. Some years go I had some small BN go dowm the 25mm air lifts on a growing tank. I thought to myself, to hell with it they can stay under the filter plate till they decide to come out on thier own. Needless to say they didn't get a lot to eat under there and they didn't have the brains to get out again so they were pretty stunted. Believe it or not they even bred under there and were not more than 5 or 6 cm at breeding age. Note:- the U/G filter was made from sawn and drilled ansolite roofing material supported on 18mm pvc conduit, so they had enough room, just couldn't feed them Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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