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I am wondering if some of you guys stopped having BN plecos alltogether because of the fact that they take over the tanks/caves preventing other sp of catfish/plecos from breeding?

I'm starting to think of them as a nuisance and am starting to consider just selling them all off as I got rid of them but left with 4 and now I'm back to like 100s again. I just can't get rid of the fry as to do that I have to tear apart the tanks just to get every one of them out and today I just pulled out a cave with wrigglers and the temp was at 68 degrees as it's unheated tank.


I have to take pictures of the males as their tail tips tend to be more white than most BN plecos I've seen.

Yes, they are great at breeding, which tends to flood your system - and mine even expands to other tanks by swimming into the outlet pipes of the centralized filtration/sump system.

I currently have ONE breeding pair. I've got the odd male scattered in other places, but I've recently got rid of about 70 fish.

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Mats

It's interesting that you started this topic. About 5 years ago, it was very expensive to buy BNPs, but lately, because the local breeders have flooded the markets, people are selling for $3 each for 1.5" - 2", and very few people are buying. I personally have not tried to breed them for the reason that it seems like they breed like guppies. Now if some of my L129 and L201's would cooperate like that....

2wheelsx2 wrote: .....for the reason that it seems like they breed like guppies. ....

Just like this ?

Wow, you have BNP's as substrate!

Just find a few LFS that will take them in trade. Not that you can expect much but I just recently added to my L 200 group trading some.

i sold off my breeding colony last fall i think. Master breeders that get better at it each time. love the BNs just couldn't keep up with them and work a job!

I started out with one female



she got nice and gravid so I got her a male...and well.. you know...



soon as i had many





love them tho, great fish, great experience! Just keep them singly now.

I did get alot of food and supplies and other fish thru selling them to a LFS tho.

Maybe I'll just keep them in one tank just for themselves and just keep my favorite males/females if I can find a LFS locally that's willing to do a deal with me. I think I live in an area with many breeders.



Thanks guys!

I just started breeding them and havent found to much of a problem getting selling them my lfs are taking 50 for £2 each and i still have a few more places to try.

Yeah, the problem with selling fish to your LFS is that other people buy them, breed them, and then bring them back to your LFS (or a close-by LFS), and eventually, the market for fish like this is not small, but it is not endless either.

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Mats

This lfs never buy fish of people but because ive been up there so much and they all know me they said they will buy them. But there are still other lfs that buy them so that could happen. I want to try some breeding some diffrent types but noy sure what type yet.

MatsP wrote:Yeah, the problem with selling fish to your LFS is that other people buy them, breed them, and then bring them back to your LFS (or a close-by LFS), and eventually, the market for fish like this is not small, but it is not endless either.

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Mats

This is what happened with 'Geophagus' iporangensis in the Midlands/North of England- a few wild-caught fish were brought in around about 2006, and they breed like convicts, so within about a year the area was flooded with juveniles.

I'm still quite taken with bristlenose- they're very slow-growing compared with cichlids, but easy to raise and (so far) I've always managed to move them on. Some people must kill a lot, though- I've no idea how the fish trade continues with as many LFS as there are, for a reasonably limited number of hobbyists- I suspect some people must renew their fish every few months. I'm far from a proficient hobbyist, and even with 9 tanks I've only bought 6 (small) fish in the last 18 months.

I use one Bushy Nose in most of my tanks to help control the algae but I do not breed them on purpose, I have some normal fin which are heterozygous carrying the recessive gene so I get both normal and albino phenotypes.
I also have some albino long finned breeders and I may raise one brood sometime. I raised their parents and it would be mainly to just keep them going and not to sell.

It took me some time to isolate the sexes to prevent unwanted fry and those fry I did get I fed to my wild Discus before the larvae absorbed all their yolk. So yes, I consider "Guppyostomus" to be a nuisance but I value individuals as around the fish room algae eaters. The prices of long finned albinos has renained fairly high in my areas but short fins are in good supply from many hobbyist breeders, My experience with albino lonh fin BN seems to indicate they require more care and are more sensitive to poor water conditions. I think this may be genearally the case since the prices for albino long fins have not dropped ober the past few years locally while short fin type prices have become very low,
The common Bushy Nose does get larger than I would like but they are a very utilitarian species at different sizes for different tanks.
I would like to replace them all with Ancistrus claro since those remain small.

there have been no bristlenose here since i stopped. None in any store. I had quite the market but not very lucrative, good thing I didn't need money. It was nice to get free food and product tho. but not worth the effot required. cool pl*co though. Love them. Alone in tanks. One per tank, lol

You guys have BN substrate, too?????
Amanda

Every month, one large trio of albino BN would produce about 200 fry month after month. The two females were spawning consecutively with the male in a synchronized way. I could possibly use this many albino bushy nose so I began to harvest the tender larvae to use as conditioning food for my breeding pairs of Discus. Here area couple photos of one of these combined spawns. Try to count them to figure out how many I would get from this typical sized dual spawn.

Damn, the male's back in the cave and the female's headed that way. He must sneak out to eat. One pair, 55 gallon tank. And I was worried about breeding them.
Amanda