BN breeding questions- overlapping clutches in same cave?

[PaperDoves]

Shelby Watters
2 hrs · Bandon
I have a couple of questions. It's just about bns, but this is a new situation for me so I hope someone will have some help for me.

I have a trio of bns in a tank. Last week, I discovered that the male was on eggs. I got a picture, which I will post.

I took the angels and the cories out, so it's just the bns in there now, along with a L200 and a L047.

I did a large water change on Saturday, using cooler water to refill.

On Sunday morning, I peeked in and saw wiggling tails!

The next day, I looked again and discovered what I think is a new clutch of eggs.

Will he let the first babies out before the second ones hatch? What happens in a case like this? Are the two batches of eggs definitely from two different females, or could one female have spawned twice in a week and a half or less?

How long do the fry normally stay in the cave before he lets them out?

I would also appreciate any other info, answers to questions that I may have forgotten to ask or not thought about. I've had two previous bn spawns, but they just sort of happened, I didn't know until I saw fry.

The first picture is the oldest one, from last week. The second two are of the new batch of eggs that I'm 99% sure that I see in there. Unless this forum put the pics in reverse order- the first picture is the one without Repashy next to the cave, the second two have Repashy next to the cave and are virtually identical.

[bekateen]

Hi PaperDoves,

Congratulations!

It could have been the same mom or the other female. No way to know for sure unless you saw the mom in cave each time.

My male spawned with one female every 18-19 days for 3-4 months. I've also had a female L201 big spot which spawned 8 days apart, and then a third spawn two weeks later, and a fourth time about three weeks after that. So it is possible that one female spawned twice in a row.

I've had lots of plecos spawn with babies already in the cave. Dad will take care of them and the older fry will leave the cave when they are hungry. It can easily take 10 days for the yolk to be fully consumed for some species, so little or no feeding needed during that time. Some babies will leave the cave sooner than others. But I've had some fry stay in the cave for up to three weeks.

Cheers, Eric

[Joren56]

I would not worry about the fry that were already in there before the eggs nor would I worry about the new eggs. If the male had some experience he will do fine to carry for the both of them.
Regarding the rest of your questions there is a nice 2 part article in the Shane's world section also linked on the bottom of the ancistrus cf. Cirrhosus species page.

[stuby]

Like the rest..... the dad should do just fine with both batches of eggs. I've had them do double spawns before and the do fine. Just wanted to point out that fry are easier stressed than the adults so be careful doing large cooler water changes..... though common BN's tend to be able to deal with this better than some plecs do you can still hurt the fry if you overdo cooler water changes.

Congratulations,
Chuck