Ancistrus Spawn

[Bainbridge Mike]

Hi all:

I keep a community tank in my office to relieve stress. I have a trio of albino bushy nose plecos in the tank to keep the algae under control. Without any encouragement from me, 2 of the ancistrus paired and spawned. There is a clump of about 15 or so large eggs in a small clay pot. I can see little dots within the eggs so I assume they are viable. Does anyone have any tips for successfully hatching and growing these little guys? Anyone know how long it takes for them to hatch?

The tank is 40 gallons. There are 6 silver dollar sized koi angels, a school of rummy nose tetras and 4 corries in the tank along with the ancistrus cats. The temp is 82, the water is fairly soft City of Seattle tap and the pH is around 7.5. I could take them home to hatch--but so far everyone is leaving them alone.

Thanks!

Mike

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Mike ~

How exciting for you! Below are two links that may be of some help! I think that Ardan is your man in this case!


hth ~



http://www.simplycichlids.com/forum/showthread.php?t=392&highlight=Ancistrus


http://fishroom.seaplace.org/BreedingAncistrusFeb61996.htm

Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_4_10.gif

[AmberC]

Very cool! Good luck with them!!
Amber

[Bainbridge Mike]

Thanks for the tips. I just checked and the eggs still look good--no fungus. The female is hanging out near the eggs keeping others at bay. Everyone in my office is stopping by to check it out.

Mike

[pcsb23]

Mike,

I know nothing 'bout ancistrus (other than what they look like :D) but I hope they hatch and you get to raise some! Must be quite cool!

[Alight]

From what I've read and heard from others, BNs are fairly easy to raise. Alot of people have ceramic "caves" that the BNs will spawn in, and take these out of their main tank with the parent in it and the eggs and put them in a tank alone to hatch and grow out.

[Greg Richardson]

Mike. Just started to read up on them in last few weeks.
Right now do nothing u be fine. If u need to have me take a few of those off your hands to reduce crowding later on let me know.

Here is a few links to sites I'm learning at.......

http://www.plecofanatics.com/
http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.php
http://www.fishaholics.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=23

[nightowl1250]

BN are very easy to raise. The eggs will take about 4 days to hatch into wigglers. If the male can keep them in the cave or pot they will come out in about 7-10 days and start eating at that point. They eat what ever the adults do (no special food required)

If the male can't keep the wigglers in the cave your fish will get a yummy snack. They can't move very well at this stage. If you have a cycled sponge filter, spare heater and a 10g tank you could remove the cave, Dad and eggs and place it in there. The temp for disucs is higher than BN need and may speed up the hatching.

I move my male brown every spawn as he and his 3 females are in with angels. either growing out ones or adults depending on what is in my 65g at the time. Once the wigglers are getting around I put Dad back in, but you can keep him with the fry till they are eating if you want.

Enjoy your baby BN....the wiggler stage are ugly IMO....look like maggots with suckers on them, but once they loose the egg sac they are very cute :)

[Bainbridge Mike]

Thanks for all the great tips! A few of the eggs are clear so I guess those were not fertilized. However, there are about a dozen healthy ones. I will keep you all posted. And if I have any extras--you are welcome to them Greg.

Take care,
Mike

[Greg Richardson]

And if I have any extras--you are welcome to them

That's my rent charge for those fish I took care of. LOL!

Be nice to see some pictures of those when u get a chance.

[Harriett]

I have garden variety brown spotted bristlenose. What I've seen is that once they start breeding, the spawns will get larger and they are pretty good parents until the kids are moving around--when there are babies in my tank, usually 50-60 make it. Once they are past wiggler stage, they are REALLY fast and as long as there is driftood / hiding places for them to dodge into, most avoid becoming fish snacks. No special care required. The only PITA part is trying to catch them and get them out of the big tank so it's not overrun with bristlenose. I trade them off to my local pet shop for plants and supplies as needed. If anyone needs some, I have a batch of 1+"ers right now. I'm in Chicago. I won't ship but if you contact me, we can deal.
Best regards
Harriett

[Moon]

I've had a couple of spawns from my pair. I was quite exited with the first spawn and fry running all over the tank. After a few days the number of fry kept on decreasing. One day I noted an Appistogramma male chewing on one of the fry. I lost the whole batch within a few days. I took all of the Apistos out of the tank. The next batch survived and are now abut 2in.
The point here is to watch your angels. They might snack on the fry.
Joe

[Bainbridge Mike]

Thanks Joe:

My little guys hatched yesterday and I have about 6 wigglers. It is lots of fun.

Mike

[Kindredspirit]

umm......Mike? Where are the pics?? We like them, ya know?




How exciting for you!



Marie ~ http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_1_18.gif

[pcsb23]

Mike,

Thats great, hope some of them make it through.

[Moon]

Good luck Mike. They are slow growers.
Joe

[Alan]

Very slow growers.

[Moose]

So whatever happened to them when you moved?