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I am having trouble with the survival rate of my baby bristle nose pleco's I have had a few batches that have over a period of about 2 months have all died. Typically I get about 30-40 fri per batch and slowly but surely they are all gone. What am I doing wrong? I am feeding them sperolina flakes every day and I’ll throw in some peas and NLS h2o wafers and doing at least a 25% water change ever 2-3 days. I noticed my albino batch died off faster for some reason. I need some suggestions before I sell all of them.

I once took a bucket of small Ancistrus fry to the lfs, and a month later heard they were surprised none of them had died.

Mine camwe from a dirty tank with lots of algae, inf fact, I naver ever fed them

It's only a suggestion, but could you provide algae? take a fwew stones, an old aquarium and tank water - combine them (the most natural way will suffice )and put the whole in a sunny place

After 2 weeks you should be able to have greenish stones.

1st off. What are the fine details of the setup? What does your tank look like, what filteration are you using, are you keeping them with the parents or do you have a rearing tank?
These are all important.
Its nearly winter if your tank is unheated and drops below 50 deg. your fish will die. If you have a filter box, and the flow is too strong, they will also die.Have you seen them eating the spirulina? Have you tried organic blanced peas, spinach or cucumbers, weighted down by rocks? If you are changing water are you taking the new water from the parents tank?

1st off. What are the fine details of the setup? What does your tank look like, what filteration are you using, are you keeping them with the parents or do you have a rearing tank?
These are all important.
Its nearly winter if your tank is unheated and drops below 50 deg. your fish will die. If you have a filter box, and the flow is too strong, they will also die.Have you seen them eating the spirulina? Have you tried organic blanced peas, spinach or cucumbers, weighted down by rocks? If you are changing water are you taking the new water from the parents tank?

Once they are wigglers I move them to a 5 gallon tank (on their own) with a sponge filter and a heater the temp is 80deg. When I change the water (every 2-3 days) I use r/o water that has been sitting for at least a day. At that time the water temp drops a bit maybe down to 65-70 but quickly warms up. My tank has a bare bottom and the only things in the tank are a small cave and some driftwood. I have seen them eating the flakes and the zucchini but the peas and the walfers they don't really touch to much.

From what I understand it is normal for a high percentage of fri to die. Am I correct or should there be a nearly 100% survival rate?

It may be just me, but I have found that common seem to prefer hard water, rather than soft. So if you are using RO water, that may actually be "not such a good thing" - this is just my experience, but it may account for something.

And yes, you should have a pretty good survival rate, near 100%.

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Mats

BARBIE
Unfortunatly I took apart my setup the other day and put the few that I had left back in the tank with the parents so I cant test the water. But next batch I get I will monitor it more closely and post the information you require. I'll even post a picture. Hopefully we can figure out what I am doing wrong.

I have moderately hard and alkaline water. About the same as Barbie's since we both live on the Columbia basin Plateau geological formation. I also have 100% survival rates.
I have two large sponge filters in 20 Long tanks. One is air driven and the other by a MaxiJet 600 Power Head. I find a strong current is beneficial. I feed mine almost nothing but earthworm sticks.
They are so prolific I have begun calling them, Guppyostomus.