I purchased a breeding trio of Albino BN Pleco's about 3 months ago and I was wondering what type of wood they should have in with them? Right now I have a large piece of mopani wood. From what I have been reading on some sites is that bogwood or lingus(spelling?) is the best type of wood for these fish. But for some reason it is hard to find in my area.
Is the mopani wood ok? I also have access to malaisian driftwood.
I have also had no luck in getting them to spawn. How long does it take to condition them? I have been doing 50% water changes every other week and droping the temp by 2degrees. I also feed them vegitables, sperolina & kelp flake every day. I give them frozen blood worms every 2-3 days.
My tank is a 20 gallon long, I have a maxi-jet 600 power head pushing out 160gph. My filer is a hydro IV sponge filter and an acua clear 300 that I will remove when and if I get the fri. For caves I have a 12" flower pot tray with some gravel inside on top of that I have a piece of flat slate that has 3 pieces of the black 1 1/4" PVC pipe that's closed at 1 end siliconed to it. My male either build's his own cave in the gravel or he uses the the PVC pipe, I guess he's sleeping.
Am I doing something wrong or just need to wait a little longer?
what type of wood for albino bn pleco?
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MatsP
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I have written a "Pleco feeding article", it's in Shane's world: Here.
Bristlenoses are Herbivore's with a bit of omnivore in them... Don't feed too many bloodworms, they may get "bloat" from that...
As to wood, I use a mixture of wood in my tanks, some from the garden (cherry-tree that had a few dead branches), a bit of mopani, and some curvy wood that I found in a pile at the neighbours... Most wood found in nature is fine - Ash and some types of cedar isn't.
What size are the fish?
Also, a drop of 2 degrees every week will just confuse the fish [not that you should need any seasonal changes to breed bristlenoses]. The normal seasonal change is that the water gets warm (summer-dry season) with lots of dirt in the water (high levels of dissolved solids, including higher nitrate values), followed by rainy season, where water is cleaner, higher levels of oxygen, and plenty of food suddenly available. This lasts, in nature, for several weeks, not just a day or so. Breeding, in nature, doesn't happen on the first day of rainy season - it happens after a few weeks...
However, if your fish aren't ready to breed, nothing will make them. The thing they need most is some "calm", not too much disturbance and change...
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Mats
Bristlenoses are Herbivore's with a bit of omnivore in them... Don't feed too many bloodworms, they may get "bloat" from that...
As to wood, I use a mixture of wood in my tanks, some from the garden (cherry-tree that had a few dead branches), a bit of mopani, and some curvy wood that I found in a pile at the neighbours... Most wood found in nature is fine - Ash and some types of cedar isn't.
What size are the fish?
Also, a drop of 2 degrees every week will just confuse the fish [not that you should need any seasonal changes to breed bristlenoses]. The normal seasonal change is that the water gets warm (summer-dry season) with lots of dirt in the water (high levels of dissolved solids, including higher nitrate values), followed by rainy season, where water is cleaner, higher levels of oxygen, and plenty of food suddenly available. This lasts, in nature, for several weeks, not just a day or so. Breeding, in nature, doesn't happen on the first day of rainy season - it happens after a few weeks...
However, if your fish aren't ready to breed, nothing will make them. The thing they need most is some "calm", not too much disturbance and change...
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Mats
Hi MatsP,
My females are about 4-5" and my male is slightly smaller.
I have read your article it was very informative. I also read that I should do a two week cycle of water changes. The first week I do a 25% water change droping the temp by two degrees every day. Then on the second week I should only change enough to keep the tank clean. Aperently they should spawn on the second week. But you are saying to leave the temprature alone and just do normal water changes maybe 1-2/ week, is that correct?
Do you think I am feeding to much frozen blood worms at every 2-3 days?
As for the wood I am scared to put anything natural from around the house but you are saying cherry wood is ok. What about the malaisian driftwood do you think thats a good type of wood? It is available at my LFS.
Thanks for the help.
My females are about 4-5" and my male is slightly smaller.
I have read your article it was very informative. I also read that I should do a two week cycle of water changes. The first week I do a 25% water change droping the temp by two degrees every day. Then on the second week I should only change enough to keep the tank clean. Aperently they should spawn on the second week. But you are saying to leave the temprature alone and just do normal water changes maybe 1-2/ week, is that correct?
Do you think I am feeding to much frozen blood worms at every 2-3 days?
As for the wood I am scared to put anything natural from around the house but you are saying cherry wood is ok. What about the malaisian driftwood do you think thats a good type of wood? It is available at my LFS.
Thanks for the help.
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MatsP
- Posts: 21038
- Joined: 06 Oct 2004, 13:58
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- My cats species list: 117 (i:33, k:0)
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- My BLogs: 4 (i:0, p:97)
- Spotted: 187
- Location 1: North of Cambridge
- Location 2: England.
Anything that grows natively in southern (or northern, for that matter) except for ash should be fine to use in your tank. Maple, oak or birch for example, are great woods for the tank. Avoid "needly" trees like pine or fir. Obviously any wood that has been treated (the green stuff you find at the timber-yard) wouldn't be good idea either, even if it's not pine or fir - natural wood is best.
4-5" size is definitely adult enough to spawn, so it's probably just a case of getting the fish settled and conditioned. Fish won't spawn, unless they are in the right condition. For conditioning the fish, it's fine to leave the temperature alone. Once the fish are in good condtion, a drop in temperature may cause them to spawn.
Does your females seem interested in the male? If not, they are probably not ready to spawn.... It takes several weeks (around 4-5 under really good conditions) to get the female gravid.
Feeding bloodworm 2-3 times may be OK, but make sure there's PLENTY of vegetable for them to eat too, that's the critical part - vegetable that contain fibres push the intestine content around, and there's little risk of bloat - bloat is caused by a combination of factors, but high protein diet is part of those factors - it's essentially a condition that is caused by "rotting" of part-digested protein in the intestine. If the food is pushed through "fast" like when the fish is eating lots of fibre, it's not likely to cause a problem.
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Mats
4-5" size is definitely adult enough to spawn, so it's probably just a case of getting the fish settled and conditioned. Fish won't spawn, unless they are in the right condition. For conditioning the fish, it's fine to leave the temperature alone. Once the fish are in good condtion, a drop in temperature may cause them to spawn.
Does your females seem interested in the male? If not, they are probably not ready to spawn.... It takes several weeks (around 4-5 under really good conditions) to get the female gravid.
Feeding bloodworm 2-3 times may be OK, but make sure there's PLENTY of vegetable for them to eat too, that's the critical part - vegetable that contain fibres push the intestine content around, and there's little risk of bloat - bloat is caused by a combination of factors, but high protein diet is part of those factors - it's essentially a condition that is caused by "rotting" of part-digested protein in the intestine. If the food is pushed through "fast" like when the fish is eating lots of fibre, it's not likely to cause a problem.
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Mats