Hi,
I have a trio of common B/Nose and i'm not having much luck in breeding them can somebody give me any advice. The are currently in a two foot tank with lots of drift wood in it. It has a sponge filter and the water temp is around 24 deg c.
Thanks speedy
I have better luck breeding common Ancistrus sp 3 @ 80*F. I use two four inch clay pot drain pans like the one this Apistogramma borelli is using for her spawning cave but they will use most any cave they find or dig one out from underneath a rock.
I also condition my breeders on earthworm sticks and increase water changes. The actual water chemistry doesn't seem to matter very much to them. They do well within a wide range of conditions. I have had them spawn at only nine months and 2.5 inches. Their spawns were small(20 eggs) but a large female can produce up to 100 eggs.
Larry is correct with the minimum age for breeding, I was wondering if yours are younger than 9 months?
An increased level of protein will bring the females into condition, as Larry points out with the earthworm sticks. I always had cucumber available for the females to browse on as well and I think it actually brought down the time it took for the females to condition.
Also like Larry, I found that they will spawn in the majority of water parameters. The only deterimental parameter was nitrate (NO3). Adults would still spawn, but the fry are weaker, the higher the level. Always try to be under 50ppm. Over this and the fry die after a week or two.
The reason I asked for your details is just in case they are out of normal limits for some reason - a lot of wood in a small tank can drop the pH quite low and drop the KH. The nitrate level will depend on your water changing regime or the level that is in your water supply.
My record spawn was 228 from a 6 inch plus female who was around 8 years old. The male was the same age. They continued to spawn well into their 11th year.
Thanks guys for your info, greatly appreciated. As for my water perameters i,m not quite sure, i bought my female from someone who said that she had breed for him before and my males are 3 & 4 years old. I might try that little cave it looks pritty neat. THANKS SPEEDY
There are lots of things that can affect breeding of bristlenoses.
I would first of all suggest that you only keep ONE male in the breeding tank - multiple males may compete for the same cave too much to breed. [Not saying you can not get a spawn with multiple males, but if you want to do something to "improve the odds", then ensuring only one male is a good starting point] [1]
Your female also needs to be well fed and "happy" to spawn. This is normally not a problem, they eat most things, and the protein available in for example algae wafers is good enough to get them into breeding condition. They will also take many other foods, and having a constant supply of for example courgette, green beans or some other vegetables is probably not a bad idea. Make sure that the female gets access to the food and that a larger male isn't outcompeting her.
Increased water movement and cool-water changes are known to trigger spawns, but I don't think either is really necessary.
[1] I have had spawns in my big tank, which currently holds about 6 males and one female. So it's clearly possible - but that's in a fairly large RIO 400 tank.
My Bn sp3 have spawned for the first time recently.
I fed chopped up earth worms once or twice a week, for a couple of weeks before the spawning. I think that this conditioned the female. I also had fresh veggies in the tank everyday.
Lots of available food seems to get them in the mood.
The main trigger seemed to be when I added a clay cave that the male Bn liked right away. Within short while he was guarding eggs.
I always do my water changes with water that is cooler than the tank water.
My pair are both under a year old, and this is the first spawning. I have 60 fry, (maybe more that are hiding).
Another trigger might have been that we had big rain storms here. In fact my Corydoras Pygmaeus spawned at the same time as the Bn.
I am finding that it is very interesting and rewarding having the fry to raise.
artemis1 wrote:I beleive caves encourage them to breed.
Yes, it is one of the requirements. There are several other things that ALSO have to be there to allow the spawn to happen, and my first few spawns took place in a cave that the male "dug" himself, under a piece of slate on the bottom of the tank, so it's not absolutely necessary to PLACE a cave in the tank, but there needs to be some sort of cave that the male is "happy" with.
