I also thought that that the temperature was a bit too warm.

My bristlenose shut dawn in Summer when the water temp gets much above 26*C....They are most productive in Autum, Winter, and Spring.. I have no cooling in my fish room, just heating in Winter to 20*C. And this is when the bristle nose ...

:( The other thing about lettuce is that it has absolutely no nutritional value what so ever. Thus a great diet food !!!!

Not what we want to get fry up and on thier fins.

The fry will browse on any food that your adults will accept.

Blanched zuchinni, pumpkin, squash, is totally acceptable as ...

Beersnob,

Read all you can find on breeding 'hoplo' catfish. The method is the same.

I have spawmed Flagtail dianemas a couple of times and they are the same as 'hoplos'.

My water supply is soft neutral and I have found that I have to add salt and shell grit in the filters to harden the water to ...

NO !!!

Both salmon tails and tandanus grow big enough to eat all the goldfish !!!

Tandanas get to 2kg and Salmon tails to 5 kg and bigger.

I live at Caboolture, a long way South of Ravenhoe and bronze and pepper cories live outdoors all year no trouble.

I have had bristle nose live down to 11*C ...

For one the tank is a little small,,,,,just think, with a reasonable spawn of B/N you will have 50 + fish in that tank!!!

Secondly, 28C is just a bit warm for B/N to breed!! little wonder it took them so long. Mine spawn regularly between 18 and 24 C ( I have 4 colonies of 60 breeding females ...

The import sourses must be totally different for you guys over there !!

Captive bred L204 juviniles from Asia are pretty common here if you have the $$$$.

Alan.

Bred by the millions in Asia and marketed as "C julii". Cheap as chips here.

Very rarely are 'real' C julii available here and when they are they are as expensive as all get out !!

Alan.

I breed my bristle nose in colonies. 5 males and 15 females in 400 L tanks, and only keep the breeding fish till they are 5 years old then change them for yearlings.

Have more breeding caves than males so they have a choice and work out among themselves who owns what.

I can take two or three ...

Steph,

Was just flipping through the latest Aqualog on "L numbers" and they claim that L17 and L67 are the same fish.. Both collected in the same river and at the same place. The only difference being the colour intensity on the dorsal and caudal tips. Apparently this colour can vary from white to ...

I keep 15 females and 5 males in my Bristle nose tanks. 300 liters, what ever that is in US or Imp gallons (somewhere between 70 and 100).

With adequate breeding sites these tanks are wall to wall fish. Take out two to three hundred juvie B/N at a time.

Alan

You should have no problems Jan,

It is the middle of Winter here at the moment, the time of year I spawn a lot of my catfish that don't like the heat of Summer. The Bristle nose are spawning at 18*C, that is about 68*F.

Alan.

If there is PLENTY of cracks and crevises in your rock work where the cichlids can't get to, some of the bristle fry will survive with out any interferance from you. I have bristles in just about every tank in my fish room and young turn up in the most unexpected places.

If you are going to raise ...

I have a similar problem, but far too many tanks to use frozen bottles.

In summer I add heaps of air through air stones, 1 , 2, or even 3 air stones in some larger tanks. The increased evaporation can reduce the temperature by 3 degrees C below room tamperature In my fish room.

Remember, if you ...

Heaps of air and evaporation. It is just basic science. What do they teach in schools these days ????

A good active airstone in one corner of a tank will pull the temp down 3 or 4 degrees. Very easy but so often overlooked.

But then power heads and internal power filters heat the tank....not ...

Cories are pretty good at catching anything that wriggles on the bottom and is small enough to swallow

Alan

I still use U/G filters, there is nothing that comes anywhere near their performance if properly maintained.

But I avoid powerheads as they use the aquarium water to keep cool, thus heating the tank. This can be a real problem here, especially in Summer.

And if you are going to the expence of ...

There have been a few L144 showing up in spawns this part of the world with smaller or larger dark spots in the caudal fin. Not a large % and not every breeder is experiencing this, but there are a few showing up.

Alan.

Gee,
Those prices are bargain basement! Even the Australian and New Guinea natives are cheaper than we can get here in their homeland.

As for the plecos,,,,,,what can I say?????? 10% of what we would pay,,,,If they were available!!!

The Cories etc... yeah, pretty much on a par.


Alan

Darn, I just took all my big ugly guys to Nth Qld to help the guys up there to get B/N going in their region.

I got some real bushu guys still here, nothing like the ones I took north

Alan

Why turn your tank into a monastry/convent for just a single fish when it would be adiquate for a pair of bristle nose?? The addition of a suitable cave and you could witness and enjoy the B/N actually raising a family.

Alan

I spent years trying to spawn B britski. I was sure I had 3 males and two females, but no matter what I tried, they never looked like breeding in the conditions I provided.

Haveing other ideas for the 300 liters of water they were occupying,I finally gave them away in disgust to a mate who plonked ...

Well the same can be said of any fish ! The older they are the easier they are to sex.

After raising tens of thousands of B/N I am pretty confidant of picking a pair at 12 weeks old (3 - 4 cm)

Females the smallest with the shortest pectoral fins, males the largest with the longest more robust ...

Jenny,

If both parents are albino, you can only get albino offspring. It is only when you have hetrozygus parents that are normal colour but "split" for albino that you get a mixture of fry.

This link might be a bit closer to home.
http://ace.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=12686

Alan

You can bet your little cotton sox that the algae eater will gobble those eggs virtually as soon as they are laid

Alan

That is definately typical cory spawning attitude. There will be eggs somewhere. Cheack any spot in the tank where there is a little extra water movement. My triliniatus tend to places their eggs in the lower half of the tank they are in and often in fine plants, but often near a filter outlet or ...

I don't use terra cotta POTs for my bristle nose , but for the past thirty odd years I have used the terra cotta saucers that go under the pots as Ancistrus spawning sites/caves.

Bristles seem to like the tightest possible spots to hide their eggs, and their first choice seems to be impossibley ...

Just doing some conversions,,,,29 US Gal = 21.75 Imp Gal = about 98 liters.

Mmmmm I'd stick with the pair that have spawned give them another few months. See if you don't get another dozen or twenty zebs to grow on in there.

I would be reluctant to change anything in that tank for the time being ...

At around the three month mark I would have expected starbai to a lot bigger than that.

I can get most cory fry eating HBH Krill (Soft & Moist) at 3 to 4 weeks no problems.

Alan

For goodness sake !!!!!!don't ever consider introducing trumpt snails (Melanoiodies tuberculata}if you intend to breed fish. They are the bigest curse ever in a breeding set up using sand or gravel substrate. They are notorious egg raiders! they multiply at an unbelievable rate and are darn near ...

As a bit of a cook (ex chef) there is nothing a stock cube except flavour. (derived from the disgusting bits of fish you don't want to know about).

Your fish are better off chewing on a pealed prawn head or a bit of cod.

Alan