# My bristlenose plecos bred



## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

I saw something yellow in the corner yesterday when the light turned on and wondered what the heck it was. Turns out the female laid a bunch of eggs near the water line and behind my filter output. The eggs are stuck to the glass and in the corner and the male is guarding them. Its pretty cool! I have read that it takes 10 day to be free swimming fry. Any advice on getting them to survive would be great!


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

that's so cool! Keep us updated! Pictures would be great too!


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Congrats! I don't know how long it takes as when mine bred I didn't see anything until they were free swimming and nearly an inch long! I'm sure they bred in the cave I made them.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

I guess the most important thing is to just make sure they don't get sucked into the filter I guess, even if it's a canister filter.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Mine made it just fine. One batch of eggs yielded about 60 fish and I didn't do anything with the Eheim since I didn't know they were there!


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

what did you do with the 60 plecs? that's a lot to make it out! and if you didn't notice them until they were an inch long, how did you miss 60 half inch plecos in your tank???


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Easy...they didn't come out of the plants!

I gave some away, traded some in, etc.


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

THEY HATCHED!!!! Pretty cool looking things, already sucking on the glass! The rummy nose look alot fatter I counted about 15-20 that I could find. I guess I see how well they do on there own for now. There are lots of hiding places in the tank and hopefully some will find those. Ill try to get some photos up.


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

congrats! when they are big enough, post pictures!


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## toddnbecka (Sep 20, 2006)

If they've done it once, they'll do it again. They actually prefer a cave of some sort for spawning. A suitable sized clay flowerpot would do, particularly if it were half-buried in the substrate.


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Here are some photos, I save a few and have them seperated for now, one of them is even albino!









And a full shot to see where his territory is, Wierd!!!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Congrats!

The thing I did in my big tank was to take some of the white plastic grid that's used for needlepoint (I think) and added a suction cup to each corner, then stuck it to the side wall. The other fish can't get under there, but the baby bristles instinctively go right behind it and stay there until they're big enough to fend for themselves. That also lets a little algae build up on the glass when the other fish can't get to it, so they have an instant meal.


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

A tangental question: are bristlenose plecos friendlier than common ones? I see a thread about having bristlenoses spawn without any prep, but when I had more than one common pleco in a tank, they'd destroy it fighting each other. Not that I have room for more fish at the moment


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Great idea Jan! I found a few swimming around today as well(few more albino too). I could only catch a few and seperate them. Im sure there are others. I'll clean the filter in a week or so and hope to find some more.


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## toddnbecka (Sep 20, 2006)

A pair of bristlenose will do fine together, but 2 males will fight if the tank isn't big enough for both to establish separate territories. Common pleco's are practically worthless for cleaning algae, and will outgrow most tanks.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

It's actually not a strange place for them to breed. They like a spot they can wedge themselves into. I think they prefer it on wood, but glass seems to work!


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## Stargazer53 (Oct 12, 2006)

Oooh....really neat. Thanks for the pics.


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