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I had posted a while back that my longfin bristlenose had their first fry! Out of the 36 - 17 are still alive and doing well. They are about 1 1/4" long now. When do they no longer need to be in an isolation tank and go back in the big tanks?

AND THEN....last night my longfin male bristlenose was missing....so I was overturning rocks....and found him...with MORE NEW FRY!!! Should I move him and the new fry to the isolation tank where the other larger fry are? Or should I leave him? The fry he has with him now are TINY - but it looks like there are a billion of them!

Technically, they never _NEED_ to be isolated - the only reason to isolate the fry from other fish is if the other fish are considered predatory towards the fry, or there's a problem feeding the fry and the bigger fish in the tank at the same time.

At 1.25" they are about ready to be sold - but growing them a bit bigger may help their value a little bit.

What other fish do you have with the bristlenose pair? The mum and dad will not eat the fry, but other fishes may...

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Mats

THat new guy that I'm trying to identify is in there (what was told to me was an adontis). Also a chocolate albino plec, albino plec, and 2 columbian sailfin plecs. Other fishies are various rainbows (turquoise, red, bosnia, etc), few blue tetras, and a few cardinal tetras. There are 3 corys still in that tank. Nothing REALLY predatory - the male has them in a small cave that only the smaller tetras can fit in. My rainbows and other plecs are too big and won't fit in that cave (which is why he probably chose that one).

Rainbows are probably big enough to eat bristlenose fry when they start getting released, so I'd say you're better off isolating in that case.

"bosnia" = M. bosemanni?

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Mats

Oh, and Silurus answered about your "adontis". Hope you have a _BIG_ tank for that one...

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Mats

When I get home from work then I'll go move them....should I leave the male with them until they start coming out of the cave on their own?

When I last moved some babies, I just siponed the babies out of the tank into a bucket, and then from the bucket into a baby net hanging in the same tank [I don't have enough tanks set up at the moment].

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Mats

I don't need to take the male with? Last time I loved the others, I moved the babies in the rock with the male still in it. Put everyone in the isolation tank and then got babies all out and put the rock back in the big tank and the male in the big tank and put the rock right back where it was before. That seemed to be ok. The fry last time were twice the size of these though....

3bdesigns wrote:The fry last time were twice the size of these though....

Are you entirely sure about that? In my experience, memory plays a trick when it comes to remembering the babies size because they grow quickly the first few days...

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Mats

The last time I moved the fry (my first group) they were already starting to wander around inside the cave. These little guys are still in a little pile way in the top of the cave where they were hatched. I'll get a picture of them tonight....maybe they aren't even all hatched? I just saw one little wee one when the male came out and I put the cave right back (and the male went right back up to it). I can't believe I have fry again so soon! I think I have a pair that REALLY like each other!

If they are brown, they're hatched. But they may not be "free-swimming", as in they may still have yolk-sac...

I haven't looked at when you last had babies, but a good female will be ready to spawn around 4-5 weeks from the last spawn.

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Mats

If they are still with yolk sacks - should I wait to move them?

You can move them with yolk-sack, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference - as long as you have somewhere for them to live where you have reasonable water movement.

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Mats

I usually move my Bristlenose fry(cave, dad and all) when they become wigglers. The reason I do this is so the fry don't have to compete with other fish for food. When they are all free swimming dad goes back into the tank. With daily water changes and fresh food every day there are hardly ever any losses and they grow faster. I keep them isolated for two to three weeks then they are moved to a friends fish house to huge tanks
Carol

thanks for the tips butterfly.

When I get home tonight I'm going to set up a 10 gallon tank (which I know I can't put anyone in it for a bit) to have on "stand by" because it seems I have a very active mating pair - so this whole fry thing will be ongoing unless I separate them.

I have only 16 or 17 of the original 30-something group of fry, which I lost a bunch due to my own stupidity. When they were still pretty tiny, I was traveling and my house sitter didn't do the water changes and such - they thought the tank was empty because the little guys were so small and they blended in with the rocks on the bottom of the tank. My mistake - should have told them and gave instructions.....but that won't happen again!

I'm going to set up the 10 gallon with white sand - so I can see them this time and anyone else who may be watching my fishies.

I'll post pictures of this latest batch of fry (and my Adontis) and older fry when I get home!

As promised - here are pictures!

First...the new guys....this is in a bucket (used to transport them to the isolation tank) with the cave thing they were in. There were only 12 fry....and they are little wigglers - so that means the other fish obviously ate them....



And here are two pictures of the first fry I discovered....

Such pretty babies!! I feed mine heavily on zucchini for the two to three weeks they are in isolation. What do you feed yours?
Carol

I have been feeding mine kelp discs, veggie discs, fresh zuchini, and a few frozen peas in there from time to time (if I happen to be given them to the other fish in my tanks).

They are all thriving quite well - so far!