Raising Bristlenose Fry - Help

[MissMinerva]

I just rec'd 18 Albino Bristlenose fry today. They are 1/2" long. I don't know their age. I've never raised fry before so, I need a little help.

They looked too small to put in a community tank so, they are in a 5 gallon tank now. I will be doing daily water changes and feeding zucchini, shrimp pellets, flakes and frozen brine shrimp. Temp 78-80. I have an airstone going but, no filter. Is that really bad?

Can anyone guesstimate their age by their size? How quickly do they normally grow? How soon can I put them in larger tanks? What else do I need to know to raise them nice & healthy?

Thanks so much!
Jan

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[Barbie]

They'll definitely need filtration. They'll be eating and putting off ammonia, just like any other fish. I've raised them in hang on net breeders in the main tanks in emergency situations, but it's far from ideal for them. They look just out of the yolk sac to me. Probably within a few weeks of that at least. It's hard to tell without something for size reference. Good luck with them! If you do a search of the forum, you should find dozens of posts with suggestions about raising ancistrus fry, also.

Barbie

[dancingdryad]

Hi,

I've raised hundred's and hundred's of bristlenoses and they are extremely hardy even at the size yours are. I found that the male would keep them in his wedge of bogwood until they were about 3/8 inch in size and had used up their yolk sacs. They'd fall out at various intervals though but would still survive even without the male fanning them.

I've never experienced any losses of bristlenose fry, that had used their yolk sacs, in the community tank, which also houses Angel Fish, Golden Wonder Panchax, Banjo catfish, Upside Down Catfish, Neons... That said it is a heavily planted tank with lots of bogwood for them to hide in. The very few wigglers on yolk sacs that fell out did unfortunately get eaten by the other fish. I've also had no losses of bristlenose fry when I was forced to put some in my Ornate Polypterus tank due to lack of space... They just don't stop breeding! The Polypterus was interested in them at first, all the jostling movements in the bogwood fascinated him, but he soon lost interest, they might be small but they can look after themselves.

Once they get breeding there is no stopping them! I don't know if this is common of bristlenoses but mine are brutal little critters who'll take on other fish many times their size, they'll squabble and push the other fish around, especially at feeding time, no injuries however. I found the females to be worse than males and their increase in aggression, a sort of fish PMT, was a good indicator that they were ready to spawn. They will go looking for trouble and chase other fish around, particulary other bottom feeding fish but also Angel Fish hold some sort of special irritation for them. Don't be fooled by them innocently wedging themselves into caves, dim the lights and wait for the fireworks... a small bristlenose squabbling over an algae wafer with a 12 inch Sailfin Plec and the Sailfin losing the battle is quite an amazing feat.

The fry grow fairly rapidly at first and mine ate just about anything offered but adore hikari alage wafers, amazon swords, tetra prima granules, veggies and the odd bloodworm. They weren't particularly impressed by flake foods or meaty foods. Mine like to make the nooks and crannies in the bogwood bigger and more comfy by munching on the bogwood which can make the tanks messy with sawdust.

Basically all they need is clean water conditons, I kept some without bogwood and they were slower growing than the ones with bogwood, I think they like the tannin tinted water. They will live in cooler water, I had a heater break in the winter and they were fine for a few days until I could replace the heater, it did stunt their growth however and I don't believe the lower temperatures are good for their long term health.

[MissMinerva]

Thanks Barbie! I did find some other posts here that were helpful.

dancingdryad: Thank you so much for the detailed information. It helped immensely. Especially with my worrying about how fragile they might be. I've got some nice driftwood in there for them and they seem very active. I'll wait till they get just a bit bigger before I put them in the larger tank. It's a 55 gallon, somewhat heavily planted. They should like it in there. Thanks again!

Jan

[MatsP]

They will live in cooler water, I had a heater break in the winter and they were fine for a few days until I could replace the heater, it did stunt their growth however and I don't believe the lower temperatures are good for their long term health.

Not sure what you define as cool water and bad for their health. When I first got "Gus" [misnamed due to lack of sexing features at time of purchase], the mother of my three batches of bristlenoses, I kept her in with my goldfish in an unheated tank. That was a bit too cool (Gus was laying upside down in a coma in the morning), so I added a heater at 22'C. We later on got a bigger tank, about 25G, still set for 22'C, and got a male to go with Gus. They spawned after a couple a few weeks, but unfortunately, the goldfish decided to make lunch, dinner and breakfast of the fry.

I've since moved the goldfish out to another tank, and the next two batches are growing nicely, with the bigger ones at about 1.25" (30mm) at the moment. Second batch is four weeks behind and about 3/4"(20mm). I've now moved Gus to the goldfish tank so that I would not overflow with bristlenose babies... I've also raised the temperature to 26'C [since there is no longer any goldfish in the tank], which they seem to be perfectly happy with. The bristlenoses are very adaptable, and can cope with most conditions.

I agree with Barbie, that you need a filter on the baby tank. A power-filter of some sort is ideal, as they don't mind the least bit with good circulation in the tank.

When you can put them in another tank depends on what you have in the tank. As soon as they are big enough not to fit in the mouth of anything trying to eat them, they should be fine. I moved some of mine at about 3/4" to another tank, and they are doing just fine in there. But I'm not going to put them in with my Pim Pictus just yet... If you have a tank with some smaller fish (guppies, mollies, tetras, babies of some sort, etc), you could put them in there now...

You can feed them with just about anything veggie. Mine definitely likes Hikari Algae wafers, but also destroy Broccoli, Zuchini, Sweet Potato and Melon very quickly. Just remove what's not eaten within 24 hours.

Oh, and aboout the age: They are probably just released by the father, which means that it's about two weeks since the eggs were laid. They would be about 3/8"-1/2" (10-13mm) when they are released by the father, and grow quite quickly in the first week.

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Mats

[dancingdryad]

Not sure what you define as cool water and bad for their health. When I first got "Gus" [misnamed due to lack of sexing features at time of purchase], the mother of my three batches of bristlenoses, I kept her in with my goldfish in an unheated tank. That was a bit too cool (Gus was laying upside down in a coma in the morning), so I added a heater at 22'C.

The fry were in a 3 foot x 12" x 15" tank, the heater broke in October so it was fairly chilly. That volume of water would take a fair amount of time to cool down to room temperature and they seemed to adjust perfectly well to this. They didn't go into a coma which suggests to me some sort of shock? How fast did you acclimatise your fish to the new water temperature, bearing in mind that the volume of water in a bag is very small and will come down quickly if the water in the tank is cold...

I think the lower temperatures, especially winter temperatures in this country, are a bit too cool for the long term health of a fish designed to live in more tropical temperatures. In the wild they would obviously have some seasonal variations in water temperature but these would be short term (a few months perhaps?) not constant (ie the lifetime of the fish). Like I said the lower temperature for a few days stunted the fry's growth (in comparison to the other fry kept in another tank, I don't keep all the fry in the one tank as I find I get better quality fish by raising them in smaller batches) As a goldfish owner you know that it is not good for goldfish to be fed during winter months (if out in a pond at lower temps) because it slows their digestion down with obvious results. I would imagine that the reason for the fry's stunted growth was the reduction in efficiency of digesting their food and the readjustment time back to their original warmer temperature.

[MatsP]

Not sure what you define as cool water and bad for their health. When I first got "Gus" [misnamed due to lack of sexing features at time of purchase], the mother of my three batches of bristlenoses, I kept her in with my goldfish in an unheated tank. That was a bit too cool (Gus was laying upside down in a coma in the morning), so I added a heater at 22'C.

The fry were in a 3 foot x 12" x 15" tank, the heater broke in October so it was fairly chilly. That volume of water would take a fair amount of time to cool down to room temperature and they seemed to adjust perfectly well to this. They didn't go into a coma which suggests to me some sort of shock? How fast did you acclimatise your fish to the new water temperature, bearing in mind that the volume of water in a bag is very small and will come down quickly if the water in the tank is cold...

I think the lower temperatures, especially winter temperatures in this country, are a bit too cool for the long term health of a fish designed to live in more tropical temperatures.

I'm sure they are. Room temperature is probably OK if you have it fairly constant. Unfortunately, a windowsill in your average English home may not satisfy that quite adequately, and it was a small tank to make problems worse. It wasn't right when it came into the tank, but rather when the weather got a bit chilly after a couple of weeks she had the "coma" problems. Went back to "OK" after I put the heater in the tank, so I'm pretty sure that's what was the problem.

Too hot or too cold is no good for any fish, it's just different ranges to come into play. For bristlenoses, anything much below 20'C would be considered cold, I suspect. I don't think they would be entirely happy in a Discus tank with 28-30'C either... Somewhere around 24-26'C is probably ideal. [Sorry, haven't got my C-to-F calculator engaged in brain at the moment, but I think 75'F is about the right corresponding temperature].

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Mats

[dancingdryad]

Room temperature is probably OK if you have it fairly constant. Unfortunately, a windowsill in your average English home may not satisfy that quite adequately, and it was a small tank to make problems worse. It wasn't right when it came into the tank, but rather when the weather got a bit chilly after a couple of weeks she had the "coma" problems. Went back to "OK" after I put the heater in the tank, so I'm pretty sure that's what was the problem.

Too hot or too cold is no good for any fish, it's just different ranges to come into play. For bristlenoses, anything much below 20'C would be considered cold, I suspect. I don't think they would be entirely happy in a Discus tank with 28-30'C either... Somewhere around 24-26'C is probably ideal. [Sorry, haven't got my C-to-F calculator engaged in brain at the moment, but I think 75'F is about the right corresponding temperature.

Totally agree with all that, extremes of temperature for prolonged periods or even short periods at that rate would have a damaging effect. I think that temperatures in the cooler end of the temperature range would slow the bodily functions down and therefore the growth rate, if the differences in growth between the broken heater tank and the heated tank are anything to go by. I think that at the hotter end the fish would start suffering from a kind of fishy heat stroke and also their gills are probably not designed to be as efficient at that range as the disolved oxygen levels in hotter water are less.

I think it's amazing how most fish can adapt to a range of different water conditions, from temperature through pH to water hardness, etc. Having said that I also think that the fish will show the best colours, be more healthy and have the most natural behaviour in water conditions that are close to their natural conditions.