Breeding tips for albino bristlenose pleco.

will5 · Post by **will5** » 12 Aug 2006, 21:31

Hi this is my first post. In the next couple of weeks i will be reciving 3 albino bristlenose pleco's (1 male , 2 females). They will go in my 29 gallon where the pH will be around 6.4. This tank will be an amazon bio-tope "ish" tank. With plants and everything. My question is would these guys breed in this tank?

Any and all tips and tricks will be a big help. Thank you.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 14 Aug 2006, 10:49

There's been any number of posts relating to breeding bristlenoses (albinos are no different from "normal" colour ones), and 29g is about right size tank... Do a forum search, read what you can find.

Also, Shane has written a couple of articles that you can find in "Shane's world", that have more info on both keeping and breeding these fish.

You'll need some suitable cave for "dad" to nest in, and you'll need some patience, as it may take a few weeks for them to settle and get happy with each other... Keep things stable, only change one thing at a time if you decide to change things, then wait a few weeks before changing anything else - many people seem to have no patience when it comes to breeding fish. If you read the successfull breeding reports, many of them don't start with "I bought the fish a week ago, and now they spawned"!

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Mats

elexis99 · Post by **elexis99** » 15 Aug 2006, 13:21

These guys are great!! They seem easy to spawn but take ages in between spawns. IMO. Frequent water changes are really important. I would love to get the albino type. Im uncertain whether they are just as hardy as the normal brown bristlenose. Ive been told their first spawn are usually all brown and then are albino after that. Has any one found this?
~~Shannon

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:05

If they take ages between spawns, you're probably doing something a bit wrong (unless you call 4-6 weeks ages - I don't).

Most likely cause of "not frequent spawns" is not enough/right food or some stress factor... If you click on "articles" below [at the "footer" of the post], you'll find my feeding pleco's article (also in Shane's world if you want to go that way to find it...)

Albino's should breed true - at least if they are genuine albino's. If you mix brown and albino's you will get brown's and carrying the albino gene, so the offspring might be albino - I've got a half-albino female in my breeding pair - so any further breeding of here offspring have a 25% chance of being albino.

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Mats

ginosanti · Post by **ginosanti** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:21

Depending on the genes of the male of course, you will only have 25% albino ofspring, if both parents are brown, but both have the albino gene.

will5 · Post by **will5** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:37

Im uncertain whether they are just as hardy as the normal brown bristlenose

Yes they are just as hardy as the brown bristlenose. The only thing that has changed is there color or as in this case there lack of color.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:38

ginosanti wrote:Depending on the genes of the male of course, you will only have 25% albino ofspring, if both parents are brown, but both have the albino gene.

Yes, I thought that's what I said...

so any further breeding of here offspring have a 25% chance of being albino

.

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Mats

elexis99 · Post by **elexis99** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:41

They are spawning about every 4 weeks, if they would spawn sooner it would be great. I thought that by having 2 males and three females the spawns may have been every two weeks but i forgot the alpha male factor. Barbie from this forum has said its best to have a male to 2-3 females per tank. that way he can call it his own. On firther research i have also found out that the males may spend more time fighting than trying to spawn if there is more than 1 male to a tank. I figure 1 spawn per male (with 2 females) a month is good. I just need to get more pairs and tanks set up lol. Thanks for the feeding advice!!
~~Shannon

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Aug 2006, 14:49

Spawning every 4 weeks is about as often as you can expect. The female's can't generate new eggs any faster, and the male needs a little bit of rest from one spawn to the next.

If you're doing "industrial scale breeding", you'll want multiple tanks with one male & 2-3 females per tank - that makes sense to me at least, I haven't actually tried it.

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Mats

elexis99 · Post by **elexis99** » 15 Aug 2006, 15:03

What size do tank in litres do you think would be adequate for a male and 2 females? The tank sizes vary on each page that i visit. So the females cant generate the eggs any faster. Thats ok its probably best for the male to take a rest anyway. They seem to be very good parents. well the males at least. Thanks for the advice, ill continue what im doing because it seems to be working for me.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 15 Aug 2006, 15:10

"If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it" works for me too...

It is my understanding that well-fed females will generate new eggs in about 4 weeks, so it's unfair to expect any quicker spawning than that. Egg generation is obviously diet-driven, but there's only so much you can affect it with the diet.

As to tank-size, any tank that is sufficently large - say around 100(25g) liter, would be fine. However, for growing out the babies, you'll need some more space. If you're breeding and growing in the same tank, I'd say 200-300(50-75g) liter is more like it, and bigger is better.

If you want minimal sizes, I'd say anything down to about 70 liters(18g) WILL WORK, but it's more work and more risky to keep them in small tanks...

Growing out one lot of babies (about 3 months before you can sell them, if you do it well with lots of food and water changing), one lot from two females is about 100 fry, so you'll be looking at 100 liters(25g) per set of fry, or more if you have the space...

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Mats

elexis99 · Post by **elexis99** » 15 Aug 2006, 15:28

Cool sounds like a lot of room then. Ill keep that in mind before buying any more females, and see how this lot goes. If i start small i can concentrate better on raising the fry. Ihave orders in from friends so this lot are probably all fostered out, but the LFS has said they will take all i can breed. Fingers crossed!!