ABN's A new direction for me...

[jeep]

So I've had these long fin ABN's for a couple of years now. They've been in a basic gravel bottom tank with a few Cory's, a Featherfin Squeeker and a chunk of driftwood that they've hollowed out. I never see them much because they're always under the driftwood except for when they munch on some zucchini or wafers. I've always suspected that they had to have been spawning due to their close quarters and age but I've never seen any fry. A few days ago I found an old cave I had forgotten about, so i just tossed it in the tank and to my surprise a male and female moved in withing minutes. Unfortunately, when I dropped the cave in, it rested in a position that makes it hard to see inside.

As I've been told, the male kicked out the female and he stays in the cave 24/7, although from time to time it looks like she tries to go back inside. Every once in awhile I saw him fanning junk out of the cave opening, then I guess he got a little carried away and knocked some eggs out. I used a turkey baster and squirted the eggs back into the the cave. The eggs looked pinkish, not white. It's now day 5 since they moved into the cave, and day 2 since I squirted the eggs back into the cave. I read that it usually takes about 4 days to hatch and another 4 days to go free swimming.

This is all new to me, so any input and advise will be appreciated. I'm not sure how to care for them if they do survive, so at this point I plan to place a piece of zucchini at the mouth of the cave in a few days. Other than that, I'll keep things updated as time goes on.

Wish us luck!!!

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[danotaylor]

Cool mate, you ALFBN daddy! Nice pic, peek-a-boo ;D

[Sturiosoma]

heres what I feed brian

jeanne125860125861

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Brian. I've got my BN in with my shrimp. Taking advice from Adam, I feed canned French cut green beans to them. They love them, and cheap. I throw in some pellets about once week, too.

[jeep]

Thanks for all the info on foods.

Steve, do the beans sink or do you weigh them down?

[RogueDiscus]

They sink. I open a can a grab a bunch and spread them around.

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[jeep]

Cool! My mom always wonders why my tank has forks in it, lol...

[danotaylor]

Steve your shrimp have darkened up nicely...nice deep red now...
Brian just tell your mom it's because your fish don't have a fork of their own ;D

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks for all the info on foods.

Steve, do the beans sink or do you weigh them down?

Wow, that tank is too cool. I don't know why I didn't follow through with Adam's suggestion. I've been feeding nothing but Algae pellets to all my shimp, plecos, and Mystery snails.

[RogueDiscus]

Thanks Liz, I'm just about to do a cleaning and harvest of shrimp, BN, and maybe even assassin snails, but I'll try to post some more pics in my homestead thread. I've got so many shrimp and BN that I posted them on CL, 10 shrimp/$1 and BN for $1 each. I've got a list of folks now I have to catch them for.

[jeep]

Steve your shrimp have darkened up nicely...nice deep red now...
Brian just tell your mom it's because your fish don't have a fork of their own ;D

If you knew my mother, you would know she would believe me ;)

[Sturiosoma]

Hi Brian. I've got my BN in with my shrimp. Taking advice from Adam, I feed canned French cut green beans to them. They love them, and cheap. I throw in some pellets about once week, too.

Green beans are fine but if you use canned make sure you rinse them good they have a lot of salt, and who the heck is Adam

Jeanne

[danotaylor]

Adam is a member with a lot of knowledge, experience and success with pleco's & shrimp amongst other things. He hasn't been around much lately though...

[RogueDiscus]

I think they like the salt

[Sturiosoma]

If you knew my mother, you would know she would believe me ;)

I fully understand Mom as she discovered a Tupper ware container of blackworms in the fridge thinking we had leftovers thank goodness she didn't use them in a recipe, they have since been labeled

Jeanne

[danotaylor]

I fully understand Mom as she discovered a Tupper ware container of blackworms in the fridge thinking we had leftovers thank goodness she didn't use them in a recipe, they have since been labeled

Jeanne

That's funny stuff right there :D

[jeep]

So I have a 29g I'm not using at the moment so I'm thinking about turning it into a planted pleco/ram/shrimp tank. Some people here have been posting their shrimp and have me intrigued so I guess I better start studying up on shrimp :inquisitive:

[LizStreithorst]

The rams will scarf your shrimp. Plecos do well with shrimp. I'm raising shrimp, plecos, and purple striped Mystery snails in one of my shrimp tanks. Just plecos and snots in 2 others.

Pat's Black Ram tank has me thinking about giving my Dutch rams another go at it. This time I'll load them with BBS. God knows I have to keep myself amused some how until my Discus decide to get down and dirty.

[jeep]

That's good to know. I've never kept Rams either. Sorry, but what's a snot? lol...

[Second Hand Pat]

Baby BN lol.
Pat

[Sturiosoma]

So I have a 29g I'm not using at the moment so I'm thinking about turning it into a planted pleco/ram/shrimp tank. Some people here have been posting their shrimp and have me intrigued so I guess I better start studying up on shrimp :inquisitive:

Brian if you're as anal ,or diseases as I've been called I would save the depth of the 29 for your discus and go with a shallower tank for what your looking to do ,I'm sure you have a tank laying around, maybe a 20 long

Jeanne

[LizStreithorst]

Jeanne's right, but I use 29's because I bought the tanks in the fish room with Discus in mind. Never thought I'd get into other fish.

[jeep]

I don't know what happened to the first batch of eggs but the male and female have been spending some time together in the cave. He kicked her out again. Now he'splaying pee-a-boo, lol... 125915

[LizStreithorst]

What an exciting time for you! It's a beautiful pic of a very handsome fish. My fingers are crossed for you.

[jeep]

What an exciting time for you! It's a beautiful pic of a very handsome fish. My fingers are crossed for you.

What's really cool is that I saw the male and female both in the cave at the same time and then saw another male and female under the driftwood. I think there may be another one in there as well. Unfortunately, even though this tank is in my living room it has been severely neglected. There's only catfish in there and I've been spending my time on remodeling the discus fish room. The bristle noses have been 99% hidden under the driftwood and I didn't even know how many I had. Simply dropping a cave in there has changed the way I view this tank and I hope to treat them better from now on...

[danotaylor]

Shame on you Brian :p

[Mando]

I fully understand Mom as she discovered a Tupper ware container of blackworms in the fridge thinking we had leftovers thank goodness she didn't use them in a recipe, they have since been labeled

Jeanne

LOL, mine was discovered in a similar fashion, and when I got home, I had a mini fridge in my room! lol

Green beens seems like a simple meal! Good luck, Brian! Steve, that's one hell of a colony. Can't wait for mine to get like that.

[Mando]

So I have a 29g I'm not using at the moment so I'm thinking about turning it into a planted pleco/ram/shrimp tank. Some people here have been posting their shrimp and have me intrigued so I guess I better start studying up on shrimp :inquisitive:

That's how it started for me. Now Pat has me about to go the Ram route with her beautiful tank, Liz already got me in a shrimp tank, and I'm leaning towards a dutch style planted tank, strictly plants.

I'm also interested in a cube tank with a nice center piece such as Pantherlax's (Pat) tank. I guess both Pat's have a nice square tank with center pieces.

[Second Hand Pat]

Oh man Armando, we are twisting you all sorts of ways lol.
Pat

[jeep]

Yeah, I think I'm going the ram route only. Shrimp are out ;)

I tried the beans... they drug them to the back of the tank and left them there. They are fools for zucchini :D

Don't worry Danny, when I said neglected, I mean I haven't done anything with the tank to promote it. The fish all receive good care :p

[danotaylor]

No doubt mate ;)

[Willie]

I used to feed a lot of canned beans to my ABN colonies. But if you read the Nutrition Fact panel on the back, the protein content is extremely low, especially compared to algae wafers. Zucchini and cucumber are what I use now, along with algae wafers.

Willie

[jeep]

Just as I thought there was no hope, I walk by the tank this evening and see something strange behind the blue nighttime lights...

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[danotaylor]

Ah, that's a tadpole mate...ya dreamin! :p

[LizStreithorst]

Danny, you silly goose. Don't you know a sperm when you see one? ;) Have you found any more, Brian?

[jeep]

I haven't looked too closely yet. I just saw that one eyeing a piece of zucchini that was floating at the surface while I was on my way to bed. I did a deep cleaning on the gravel a few days ago so I hope I didn't suck any out by accident.

I have noticed that the zucchini has been disappearing at about 10x normal recently but I never saw any little ones...

[jeep]

I just turned on the lights and there are about 30 of the little buggers all over the glass!! This is exciting!!!

[LizStreithorst]

Success with a new type of fish is a rush. Congrats! Be careful vacuuming from now on. I've found mine easy to suck up.

[jeep]

Liz, do you recommend anything special for them? They are in a 46g tank with gravel, no plants, a piece of well seasoned driftwood, HOB filter, 3 cory's and a featherfin squeeker that is very docile and shows no aggression towards anything. I'm sure I will have to up the water changes with 30 extra mouths to feed. I've tried beans with no interest from the adults, and the BN's main food has been zucchini. I will pick up some wafers today as well, but the adults seem to be mostly interested in zucchini...

[LizStreithorst]

I can't think of anything, Brian. They're easy to keep fish. At least compared to the fish we're used to...Discus.

[Mando]

I have 5 baby BN's, or 4? can't remember now, and they are all doing great. I never see them eat but they are growing. I just throw in flakes for the tetras and shrimps. I'm sure they manage to get some food.

[danotaylor]

Danny, you silly goose. Don't you know a sperm when you see one? ;) Have you found any more, Brian?

Bahahhahahaha!! Good one Liz ;)

[jeep]

Another discovery... There are two distinctly different sizes of fry in the tank, one group about nearly 1" and another group at about 1/2", and from the behavior of the male inside the cave, there may be more there as well. What a difference a cave makes!! :elvis::elvis:

[Second Hand Pat]

Another discovery... There are two distinctly different sizes of fry in the tank, one group about nearly 1" and another group at about 1/2", and from the behavior of the male inside the cave, there may be more there as well. What a difference a cave makes!! :elvis::elvis:

Talk about finding the magic switch Brian lol
Pat

[jeep]

I wish my discus were this active... There appears to be another batch on the way. It's impossible to count them all, but I estimate there's about 75 squirming through the gravel and stuck to the sides and the male is guarding more inside the cave... All I'm doing at this point is tossing in zucchini and wafers and it all disappears overnight. The poo is overwhelming so I've upped water changes to daily... I'm going to have to set up another tank soon, lol...

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[Willie]

Definitely want to move them to a separate tank with all the poo. These days, I just tie an entire zucchini or cucumber to a piece of slate with a rubber band. You don't even have to peel it. One large zucchini/cucumber lasts about 6 days in the ABN tank.

Willie

[Second Hand Pat]

Brian, might be time to remove the cave lol
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

I got too many myself until I found out how prolific they are. These days when I see a daddy in cave with wigglers, I take the cave out and put it in one of my Discus tanks. The Discus find them to be the most delectable treat.

[jeep]

Dinner time 24/7!!
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[jeep]

I think there's another batch competing for food now. This is one of 6 wafers in the tank, not to mention the zucchini and leftovers scattered around. The first batch is around 1 1/8" now...

I'm doing some trading soon for some Super Reds....
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[LizStreithorst]

What a bunch of beauties!

[jeep]

They are awesome to watch, and so easy to care for. I think at least 50% are long fins...

[captainandy]

adorable. Look up screwcumber on ebay. Much cleaner look than a fork for keeping zucchini in one place on the bottom.

[LizStreithorst]

I wouldn't waste the money. A fork works fine. If the fish don't care how it looks neither do I.

[jeep]

I wouldn't waste the money. A fork works fine. If the fish don't care how it looks neither do I.

Plus that, it always makes my mother ask why there's a fork in my aquarium :evilgrin:

[Willie]

A fellow hobbyist used to put big screws into the zucchini to weigh them down. Every so often, he nets out a whole bunch of screws! :p

Willie

[jeep]

I'm being a bit overrun here. I think there is a 5th spawn and the parents are looking pretty cozy again...

I'm going to be offering them up to Simply members first at a pretty decent price within the next few weeks. Some are about 1 1/2" now and there is a mix of long fins and shorts.

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[LizStreithorst]

They're red eyed albinos, right?

[jeep]

Actually, they are blue eyed.

[LizStreithorst]

Thank God, even though I'm baby pleco poor I'd have had to get some of yours if they were red eyed. They're my favorites personal favorites and I'd love to add the long finned gene into my current stock.

[jeep]

I have a mix of long fin and short fin... all albinos. I will pay closer attention and if I see any red eyes consider them yours! I don't know their history, only that I have about 150 of them. Maybe there is a red eye in their genes somewhere???

[Second Hand Pat]

Actually, they are blue eyed.

Even better :D
Pat

[jeep]

Like I said. These are a new direction for me and I have no idea which is more desirable. I've heard albinos can throw back some browns so I'm at least happy they are 100% albino...

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks, Brian. I don't know a lot about plecos but it seems logical that in Discus red eye is recessive to everything. I do have some blue eyed as well and know that they are also special, but I still prefer the red eye. It's just a matter of taste.

[Sturiosoma]

Like I said. These are a new direction for me and I have no idea which is more desirable. I've heard albinos can throw back some browns so I'm at least happy they are 100% albino...

Brian me being a pleco nut I can tell you that what's least available is the most desirable, any that have been banned or rare in the wild, probably the easiest thing to do would be to go to aqua bid and search what you have and see what comes up the least, just an idea

Jeanne

[jeep]

Thanks. I will check that out

[Sturiosoma]

And one more thing Brian if you have blue eyes those are Lemon BN and LF are more desirable, albinos would have red eyes

Jeanne

[jeep]

Interesting because I've noticed that one of the adults is noticeably more yellow recently. Although they hide so much that I may have only noticed it now,

[jeep]

Jack Taylor just came over and took about 50 of them and we estimate there are another 200 in there, including a new spawn :sun:

Good news Liz. There are many red eyes in there!!

[jeep]

They're still cranking out new eggs. Here's the yellowish one. He always has an interest in the cave even though the male inside never leaves...

127107

[LizStreithorst]

Mine are still going at. I had too dang many so I took about 30 to the LPS Monday. I moved my good male albino to a tank without a female but there is a male albino in the Rainbow fish tank sitting on eggs. I think that he's turning them loos because there are a bunch of Rainbows hanging around the cave. A few always manage to survive. These BN are fun to breed and extremely entertaining.

[jeep]

More, more, more... They just won't stop!!! :grin:

They won't touch that nasty algae on the sides and it's really hard to scrub off.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORezOYuu4k

[Second Hand Pat]

I can only image the babies we don't see in the vid Brian :D Time to give the cave a rest!
Pat

[jeep]

There are many more you can't see. I'm guessing well over 200...

[LizStreithorst]

It seems that once they get started they never stop. Aquabid will be your friend.

[jeep]

Hey Liz, here is a photo with and without flash. With flash the eyes turn white, without they do look a little red...
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[LizStreithorst]

Thanks Brian

[jeep]

They love their zucchini!

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[peewee1]

Hey, Jeep! Beep Beep! When I first saw the thread title I wondered what ANB was. I looked today on page three and now see it is Alvino and either bottle nose or bristle nose and they are pleco. Huh, mystery solved.

[Shan_Evolved]

Wow they've gotten big

[LizStreithorst]

I love mine. You have no idea...I love them so much that I can't wait until he officially offers them for sale. I want MORE! There is nothing more entertaining that watching a group of little snots attacking a piece of zucchini all together in a bundle.

[jeep]

I'm planning to move the larger ones to their own tank in the coming week. Then I can get a count on how many larger ones I still have. Your excitement places you at the top of the list, lol... If I do offer them for sale, I'll donate a portion to the forum...

[above design]

Hey Brian,

I would love to get some to if you decide to sell. Maybe I can be #2 on your list. Lol..Would want 6-8. They look great!

Thanks,

Mark

[jeep]

Got got it Mark!

I have to admit, I'm one of those discus perfectionists. I don't really know anything specific about ABN's, although I have seen some people point out flaws in others that I would not have thought to look for. I don't see any flaws in these. All I know is they seem to be very hardy... I've haven't lost a single one so far...

[LizStreithorst]

All I know is that I like them...A LOT! And that's all that matters to me. I would have no clue how to fault them and don't particularly want to find out.

[above design]

Hello all,

I was very fortunate to receive some of these plecos from Brian and am very happy with them. The USPS decided to deliver them a day late so I taught my daughter how to acclimate them over the phone while I was at work. Brian did an excellent job packaging them and they are very happy in qt. The longfins definitely have a ghost like appearance swimming around and are very cool to watch. Very happy to have them! Thanks Brian!

-Mark

[jeep]

Thank you for your kind words Mark! I'm glad they survived their extended tour of the USA courtesy of the USPS. The other shipment sent on the same day arrived 2 days after yours and they all survived as well. :D