Albino Bristle Nose not Breeding

[the_K]

i have 2 pairs of ABN plecos that i have in a 115gal tank. they are about 1.5 to 2 years old now. sometime last year (around 7 months ago) i had some eggs from a pair but they somehow got knocked out from the wooden cave that they bred in and where eaten by my discus and they ever bred since then. right now they are in a 115gal tank with sand bottom some drift wood some with holes drilled in them, a bunch of wood from a dead cholla cactus (added about 2 months ago), some 2" pvc pipes, and some terracotta dices(i think thats what there called) flipped upside down and a peace broken off so they can go in and use it as a cave. i used to change the water every other day for my discus but since they died i cut back on the water changes. what do you guys do to make your plecos spawn?? i have access to hard water and soft water.

[MatsP]

Soft water shouldn't be needed. Cool water may help a fair bit - below mid 70's F would be preferred.

What else is in the tank? Sometimes I find that mine won't breed if there are too many other fish in the tank...

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Mats

[the_K]

right now i have 7 fancy goldfishes (1 Ryukin and the rest or orandas) with him. 2 are about 7 inches and the others are about 3-4inches. if it is the number of fishes in the water i have other tanks that i could probably move them to. i was thinking about putting 1 male and 2 females in a different tank. i also herd that the more oxygen in the water the better

[MatsP]

Hard to say. Clearly, the goldfish would eat the fry if there ever was any - a 2" goldfish ate all of mine when I first got a spawn.

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Mats

[the_K]

yea thats true... i guess i'll have to move them into a different tank then. do you know any more tricks to help me trigger a spawn

[MatsP]

It's difficult to say - mine seem to breed pretty regularly as long as I keep up with water changes and remove the fry. My problem is to make them stop - as soon as I remove all of the larger fry, I end up with another batch of babies... And since I don't actually do anything "special" to make them breed, I don't really know what needs to be done to make it happen. But I can certainly say that hard water is not a blocking issue - in fact, if the water gets too soft, it may cause problems - I lost some fish when I moved to really soft water way back.

I should add that my fish aren't albino, but I doubt very much that they are any different just because they don't have brown colour - and you did have them breed once...

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Mats

[pleco_breeder]

IMO, move them to another tank away from the goldfish and you should seen better results. The only way I can shut mine off is to stop water changes and let the water get old. Do a couple water changes and they start right back. BTW, your tap water will work just fine for spawning them. I use very similar on most of my tanks with exception of the blackwater stuff.

Larry

[plecomanpat]

I also have a few breeding longfin bn trios. I also believe that the goldfish aren't good tankmates which could be a factor. My bn's stopped spawning for a while and with some trials and experiments I figured out in the 1 tank I took away all the hideouts with exception of the breeding cave and they spawned a couple days later.In another tank it was more frequent water changes that inspired them to spawn,and in the third tank I cant get them to stop,so IMO there are different factors for different individuals, you just need to find the right combinations and parameters.

[Taratron]

For my L144s, the blue eyed bristlenose, I found if I largely ignored the tank (a 55 with driftwood, left the lights off during some days, sponge filtered, and fed once every few days or so), a spawn would happen pretty quickly. Two males and three adult females, as well as some farlowellas, whiptail cats, and two lonely male rams. I have super hard water out here Phoenix way too.

[the_K]

yea i was just asking around and i found out that it could just be the goldfish and that i just need more air in the water. so ill be moving them in a smaller tank and adding a few extra sponge filters. thanks for the help everyone

[Hmong_xiong]

Move them into a smaller tank and maybe use a different cave. I have less luck in a big tank because they barely see each other but in a small tank it's easier to see each other