PlanetCatfish.com

Hi folks. I'm a cichlid guy, newby here. I just purchased a pair ( or at least a M&F ) at my lfs. Both are about 4", look healthy. They are acclimating right now into a 30"x12"x 20"(high). aquarium. They will be alone in that tank. My water is PH 6.8, GH and KH are about 2ppm. Temp 78F. I am moving a potted amazon sword covered with hair algae from an established tank. No other decorations and no sand or gravel.I purchased some NLS H2O Stable Wafers. I also have pure spirulina flakes. Filtration is with two large sponge filters. What have I missed? I would like to try to get this pair to spawn. What are my chances. Anything else I need to do??? Thanks much!

Did you provide something for the fish to spawn in (like a pot/cave)?

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/s_r_251.php

Not yet. I have some 2" PVC that I can cut into 6" pieces. Would that work? What is best? Clay flower pots?

They are not very demanding as to the type cave. Just make sure it's closed on one end and a little wider and longer than the males body. I used a clay breeder cave I found on Aquabid. About 6 inches long and 1.75 inches wide. Worked like a charm. I had my first spawn in about two weeks. Have had three spawns since mid December. A total of almost 200 fry. Make sure you have plenty of grow out space.

I switched their diet a bit while conditioning. I gave them a lot more seafood. Mostly chopped shrimp and little bay scallops along with fresh veggies. Not sure that's real important, but I got a ton of eggs from a 3.5 inch female. This is not a good diet to keep them on full time, but works for conditioning.

Don

Probably won't need that much encouraging to breed, if you have a male & female. At 4" they should definitely be adults that are at breeding age.

Unfortunately, they don't eat hair algae very well [if at all] in my experience (but that could well be that I'm feeding them too much other stuff).

Best of luck.

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Mats

Thanks folks. I will add a piece of driftwood and some caves. Do they form pairs like some cichlids? Or is it just "whatever is available" when the mood strikes?

If there were more than one female, the male could keep a number of spawns from different females at the same time if conditions are right.
Keep in mind, a group of young ancistrus can be quite messy.(understatement)

Check out this article on spawning techniques
http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/s_r_244.php

Birger

ronv wrote:Thanks folks. I will add a piece of driftwood and some caves. Do they form pairs like some c*****ds? Or is it just "whatever is available" when the mood strikes?

The males will fight for supremacy, and if you have more than one male, the dominant will probably be the one that mates the female(s).

One male will support several females, so instead of 30 young, you could get 60 or 90 from a set of two or three females. Just make sure that the females are all set up to breed at the same time (drop in water temps-> simulating heavy rains will make the females go "active"), otherwise the male may sit on eggs for a long time and get a bit starved.

Also, you need to have a plan for where to keep your young ones once they start getting big. Mine are about 6 weeks out of the cave, and the biggest ones about an inch long. I've only got a relatively small tank (about 25 US Gal), and I've got a second batch that has been out for 2 weeks. I'm working on moving some of them to my big tank, because I'm just not going to have enough space for about 60 bristlenoses growing to about 2 inches before I'll be able to sell them. My local shop isn't that keen on taking on small bristlenoses, but they will take them and give me some credit, just not a lot...

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Mats

Thanks everyone. I have only the one male and one female so I guess that will have to do for now. Is my tank OK ( size ). Grow out space is not a problem. I have a new fish room with 22 tanks cycling right now. And the lfs that got these for me says they will take all I can produce. The owner admits not knowing much about them and doesn't believe I can get them to spawn.

ronv wrote:Thanks everyone. I have only the one male and one female so I guess that will have to do for now. Is my tank OK ( size ). Grow out space is not a problem. I have a new fish room with 22 tanks cycling right now. And the lfs that got these for me says they will take all I can produce. The owner admits not knowing much about them and doesn't believe I can get them to spawn.

Your tank-size is fine. My pair is [1] in a 32" x 12" x 15" (l x w x h) and they do fine in there.

I shouldn't think that you'll have problem spawning them, but there's always the chance that one of the pair is sterile for one reason or another... Can't say until you've tried, right?

[1] At the moment, the female is relocated to another tank to give us all some "breething room", as the male was sitting on eggs when I decided to split them up, and I didn't want to spend two weeks being surrogate daddy...

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Mats

ronv wrote: And the lfs that got these for me says they will take all I can produce. The owner admits not knowing much about them and doesn't believe I can get them to spawn.

You didn't happen to pick that pair up on a trip to New Orleans did you? Just curious because I gave an LFS here a pair and noticed they were gone the last time I went in.

Clay, the pair came from a wholesaler in Atlanta. Before that, I don't know.

Barbie wrote:Hell I can't pull hair algae off leaves with my fingers, I dang sure wouldn't be wanting to try with my lips! ;) There are very few fish that are going to touch the hair algae in tanks. ...

FYI, Florida Flagfish takes care of hair algae very well if you ever need somone to eat it.

Does Synodontis petricola eat bristle algae?
Thanks.