# Baby bristle-nose plecs



## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Had a surprise this morning! A little in-flux of miniature albino bristle-nose plecs suddenly appeared. They are so small, are they likely to just get eaten?


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

what else is in the aquarium? if it's only the ancistrus parents, they will be fine, but if there are cichlids, polypertus, knife fish (anything that eats meat and has a mouth bigger than the babies) will eat them, you should rehome them, even into a little fry net for the time being if the later is the case


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Oh, worse than that, yo-yo and chain loach :gasp: . Have put them in some plastic steamers, not sure how long they will stay in, but at least loach can't get in. 

Is it common for them to breed? Unfortunately I think they are all first cousins as well as siblings :crazy: .

Just seen pops stick his head out and he was bristling with pride :whistling2: .


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

yeah.. if you have a male and a female, they will be guaranteed to breed.

loaches are a right pain for fry.. at least you've moved them. they grow quite fast and you should get a bit of money if you decide to sell them on to people/lfs's


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## spottymint (Oct 3, 2010)

They breed like mice. Mine get into the filter & breed there (jewul internal). They knock the lid off & flip in & out. Males gaurd the eggs, we have had a male with eggs on wood & nothing makes him let go.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

After some messing about, I managed to stick some netting to the bottom of a plastic steamer base and lodge it into the top of the fish tank lid. I managed to save about 8 fry in the end. The loach haven't been messing about with their free-for-all even in 24 hrs. The fish tank now resembles the same chaos that you get with a new baby in the house, probably much to the annoyance of the other fish and especially the loach.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Just managed to scoop up another two.

Here are some pics of pops and small one (sorry about smeary glass) and the nursery. Left the filter parts of other filter in there are there are still some in there plus it provides a bit of shelter for now. There are two layers as I added the second one later with the net.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

did you get any albino babies?
my convicts just bred, out of about 300 eggs and early fry, i have 9 left.. no albino's though


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Think they are all albinos, not unless they come out see-through! Both parents are albinos. I don't know anything about breeding except I'm not that happy about in-breeding, but it just happened so I hope they are okay.

It's becoming an obsession trying to catch them, spotted a load more behind the filter!


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Mr Loach is eating them faster than I can catch them. Finally just seen him in action :mrgreen:.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

that's quite strange since albino-ism is a ressesive (sp?) trait. in theory, only a quarter should be albino, using the punnet squares 
you might have a couple of domino albino's :/


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

At the rate the Mr Loach is beating me to them I don't think I'll be able to produce any stats. But don't mind if I get other colours. But then maybe they just are see-through anyway when hatched. Only time will tell what I've got :crazy: .


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

spinnin_tom said:


> that's quite strange since albino-ism is a ressesive (sp?) trait. in theory, only a quarter should be albino, using the punnet squares
> you might have a couple of domino albino's :/


Lol... both parents are albinos, so:

aa X aa = aa, aa, aa, aa. 

There's no "normal" gene's in there.


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

woops my mistake.
i'm working on one parent is albino 
thanks for correcting me ash 

on a side note.. personally, albino ancistrus are mank lol


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## JustJack (Apr 19, 2010)

WOW! Congratualtions! I am going to be getting a male BN pleco soon a breed them! :2thumb:


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

spinnin_tom said:


> woops my mistake.
> i'm working on one parent is albino
> thanks for correcting me ash
> 
> on a side note.. personally, albino ancistrus are mank lol


Lol no worries  If one is albino, and the other is completely normal, you get 100% hets. If one is albino and one is "normal" phenotype but het then you'd get 50% hets 50% visuals. 

What _you're_ thinking of is when you get two het (ie non-visuals, normal looking) albinos. Then you get, as you say, 1/4 albinos. 

I like albinos and normals


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

I quite like the normal ones too, have to see if I can swap for these if they grow up okay.

After searching for days I have finally found the net to catch them with, a lot easier than trying to syphon them :lol2:!


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## JustJack (Apr 19, 2010)

Viva said:


> I quite like the normal ones too, have to see if I can swap for these if they grow up okay.
> 
> After searching for days I have finally found the net to catch them with, a lot easier than trying to syphon them :lol2:!


How big is your fish tank? And what other fish are in there? :2thumb:


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

It's only a 90 gallon tank and I have 2 yoyo loach, 4 dwarf chain loach, 2 corys, five danios and 8 tetras and the two plecs. The steamer/nursery sits quite neatly in the top corner, think there are about 11 in there now.


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## JustJack (Apr 19, 2010)

Aww cool! Your tank is quite alot bigger than mine!!! lol


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

It's got loads of plants, bits of wood and hidy holes for them. Which means I hardly ever see them most of the time, but whatever makes them happy. They always scoot off when they see me - think the cat hasn't helped by pawing at the glass - until he gets scooted away by the dog!


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Just done a head count, up to about 20, blighters to catch, full time obsession!


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

More keep appearing, do they hatch out at the same time? Don't worry I have checked, they aren't escaping!


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

Viva said:


> I quite like the normal ones too, have to see if I can swap for these if they grow up okay.
> 
> After searching for days I have finally found the net to catch them with, a lot easier than trying to syphon them :lol2:!


if you do have an decor, you need to take out, really check itwell, they are stubborn as muck and don't let go


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

Can I just ask. I bought a bristlenose a few weeks ago and they told me it was female. "She" has bristles on her lip and a line up between her eyes. I thought females just had them round their lips.:?:


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

I've far too much stuff to take out, I just catch them when I can, but they are trickey as they stick on to the glass and you're afraid of squishing them.

I'm not sure if the female has any whiskers, as she hides, certainly nothing like his though!


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Got a peek and I don't think she does.


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## JustJack (Apr 19, 2010)

Females dont have any!! LOL
CAn you breed BN plecs in a 30gallon with other tropical fish?


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

This is the female, I wouldn't say she had bristles as such, just tiny ones.










And the fry


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## JustJack (Apr 19, 2010)

Awwwwwwwww! :flrt: How big are the fry? Could you get a comparison to a penny of sorts? :2thumb:


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

That's a PlecoMin tablet









From the side









And hopefully protecting as Mr Loach is trying to work out how to get in :mf_dribble: ... and trying not to get caught!


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

This is the allegeded female










There were no bristles 2 weeks ago apart from on the lower lip

I also have this one which I'm unsure as to what they are.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

:lol2: That's one moustachy girl! I think that's a boy and at a guess, the other is the female.


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

Viva said:


> :lol2: That's one moustachy girl! I think that's a boy and at a guess, the other is the female.


From this experience I'm not sure the second one is either yet :whistling2:


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

My boy got quite bristly quite soon on, I have some old photos somewhere, prob on here about a year ago.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Here's my smooth girl


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

This is the first morning and about 18hrs since I last had to try and catch a fry. Hopefully I have got all that there is to be got. I bunged some blood worms in yesterday to comfort the loach with, they seemed very happy with the compromise.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

I've been away for a couple of days. They grow quickly don't they!


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

Viva said:


> I've been away for a couple of days. They grow quickly don't they!



Piccies..... Ive been inundated with baby convicts while you were away:bash::bash:


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## spinnin_tom (Apr 20, 2011)

Eroom said:


> Piccies..... Ive been inundated with baby convicts while you were away:bash::bash:


 
SNAP
mine are about an inch long now


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

One of mine managed to die between the netting and the base of steamer  . But it did look like it had a damaged tail, so who knows. So I moved them all from the inner original steamer to the one with the more secure effect. Hopefully they are now too big to go through the little holes like the other one - which I gave a sea-burial to.

Pics tomorrow, later today I mean. Is that the time!!!


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## Eroom (Apr 5, 2011)

spinnin_tom said:


> SNAP
> mine are about an inch long now


Mine are diddy










:blush:


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

You can see how big it is by the dribble of water!

















Excuse dirty plant, got stuff growing on it and then it got dusty when I moved a plant









Before I removed one layer


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

I love watching their little wispy tails doing the odd flick, they seem to be happily sucking away today. They've sussed what cucumber is too, clever things.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

The other handy thing is that there are some tiny snails in there too, so Mr Loach will have a new supply of something tasty :mf_dribble: .


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Same but bigger!










Have a grand total of 21 which isn't bad.


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