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I purchased 4 juvs last October at 1.25 inches. It's been over 6 months since then and they have grown nicely. 3 of them turned out to be females and only one of them has shown the bristles. For some reason, only one of the female started to grow alot faster than the rest (inc. male) and she still remains to be the largest of the group. The male has developed bristles and now is as large as the largest female but it took some time to catch up. I would say the largest female and the male is about 2.5 to 3 inches in size. They absoltely don't think about spawning in my community tank which is somewhat crowded with other species as well.

Currently, I only have a 5.5g tank as a spare - would this be good enough for the breeding purpose? (The common size seems to be 10g). I would be using a large capacity sponge pump and some PVC pipes. Only the largest female and the male will go into this tank. Am I wasting time trying this setup in 5.5g? Should I get a 10g from the start?

I plan to go bare bottom (from what I have read so far, sand doesn't seem to help, but I would do it if someone can confirm that sand indeed does help).

Thanks for any feedback!

Barbie wrote:Where do you intend to raise the fry? Even a 10 gallon tank makes feeding a spawn of ancistrus quite challenging without doing daily water changes. The fry MUST have food in front of them most of the time or you will have constant losses. There just isn't enough water volume in the smaller tanks to support the bacteria colonies it's required for you to have with that much waste, and keep enough oxygen for the fish also, IME. A 10 or even 20 gallon tank is relatively inexpensive, and a rubbermaid tub that holds 18 gallons is cheaper yet. You can probably get them to spawn in a 5 gallon tank, but IMO it's not a good idea, and will put not only the new fry, but the adults at risk.

Barbie

Thanks for the advice... I guess I should re-think of this strategy... I do breed other species in 5.5g tanks, but I tend to over-use java moss by filling roughtly half of the tank with the moss, which seems to help maintain a good water condition and decent levels of O2. (Also provides infusoria so I don't have to worry about feeding super-small fries). Of course, I always over-filter - at least 10x.

Loosing adults is not something I want to risk, so looks like I will need to get, say, a 15g long (24x12x12).

I am struggling to control the total number of tanks in the house - I currently have 6 already, and I didn't want to add yet another tank.

I have just one question - do you know if it hurts to have a large quantity of java moss in the breeding tank of Ancistrus? (Or java fern - I also have large quantities of that as well)

Thank you!

BN plecos don't eat infusoria, so they wouldn't benefit much from java moss. Adding a bit is okay, but not so much that its hard to keep track of them. With tank size into the picturer, I would laos add a large filter.

nonamethefish wrote:BN pl*cos don't eat infusoria, so they wouldn't benefit much from java moss. Adding a bit is okay, but not so much that its hard to keep track of them. With tank size into the picturer, I would add a large filter.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, the filter will need to be bumped up as well. I tend to use AquaClear200 with 15g tanks (at least for grow-up tanks) along with another sponge filter. Is this enough for the Ancistrus breeder setup?

One of the reason I try to keep the tank size small is because all my breeder setup is in the basement, far away from the tap. I currently water change them using buckets which is pain in the <you know what>.

My bristlenoses spawn in my community tank. I have a piece of driftwood with a cave that the male guards. When they are big enough to leave the cave to look for food, I catch them and put them in another tank before my gouramis and tetras can eat them. I feed them hikari sinking wafers and the green spot algae that grows in the tank.