Well, my bristlenosed catfish have been busy and today at least 7 - 12 babies scuttled out of the nest (in a false log where Dad has been keeping them) and quickly hid around the uplift u/g filter and other places like that.

I have heavily planted the corners of the tank and weighted the plants with slate to stop the geophagus from up rooting them. This gives the babies more places to hide. They would be 1/4 - 1/2 inch long already and I am thrilled to pieces.

A neighbour and I have been watching them for the past hour or two. The only other fish in the tank I would worry about are the clown loaches and hopefully the extra plants and rocks will afford extra hiding places. I am now worrying that there will be enough algae for the babies to feed on.

I just had to share the news with ya'all

Congrats Goldie I can't get my pair to even lay eggs :

Hey, congrats, so exciting, i have 2 males at the mo, must go and get a couple of females so i can have some babies 2 :lol:

How long does it take for Bristlenose to become mature enough to lay eggs !?

TY TY .........Big smiles here. awww I thought they would never reproduce.......

The males I bought at the Napier Auction a year ago (I think it was) and the females were about the same age (a year or so). I have guessed it is around two - three years ............. I have the feeling that these ones have breed before and the clown loaches had live food in the other tank. Since changing them to this tank (the original leaked) they just settled down and claimed this hollow log ....... three weeks later ............babies. To me the babies are a bonus for I just strive to have happy, healthy fish.

congratulations Goldie - to you and your little finned ones does this mean you'll be spending the night cooking courgettes :lol:

Well done! Don't forget to register them when they are a month old. If you have more than 10 at that time, get the neighbour to confirm the numbers and we will believe her/him.

Congratulations Goldie

First time?

Thanks for the warm support ya'all. <--------bad Texan accent.

Will do Caryl - hopefully there will be more than 10 survive. Oh sue they just get raw veges LOL.

Wok - yes the first bristlenoses that have breed for me. Chris and NZtrudy I am sure your bristlenoses will in time. My tank is a little on the acidic side (6.6 - 6.8 ) due to the extra wood in there and around 27 - 28 degrees because of the discus in there. I am not even sure that these minor changes have had anything to do with the spawning. Also the water changes were around 4 - 5 days apart. That is the only differences from the other tank ........... oh and the new place of course. (the ceramic log).

Sure hope your bristlenoses start producing for the fry are just amazing and so quick . zipping along munching invisible algae.

the wood will help i been told they love wood

Congrats! I noticed little babies come out from under the log in my 4 ft on the 27th of September, from what I have read they would have been between a week or 2 old. I noticed my female and male both under the log on the evening of the 27th October. I saw their second lot of babies on the 5th November. Mine only have about 10 at a time. My female is only about 5cm long, I thought she was too small to breed. So far I have found the babies to be quite hardy, changing them into another tank when they were about a month old. I took the babies out because I had read that it they would be more inclined to breed again. Hope you have a great time with your babies they are so cute and tiny. Such a joy at watch!

Happy Days Goldie

Always great to see something different in the fry line swimming in the tanks

Hi Goldie,

congrats indeed. Well done !

Do the babies keep you awake at night ??

hahahahaha :lol: :lol: :lol:

Any pix at a later date ?

Cheers

Robbo

thanks dennis, Pegasus, robbo and northland chic. they are surviving ........ I have counted eleven and that is all I see. The plants and wood sure do help them hide. They love the uplift tubes and filter out put nozzle.

Congratulation to you northland chic........ they sure are time wasters .I can hardly stop watching them. So wonderful

I did a small water change tonight and they seemed happy with it all. Ahhhhh now if I had tried to breed them I probably would still be waiting. My other tank is being tested for leaks now. It should be up and running in a few weeks. Hubby is putting a cupboard onto the stand for me.

I am relying on Caryl and Grant to take pics next time they travel this way and if the fry survive. Thanks C & G

We have just counted (by shifting them into another tank) and there are 17 so far, with at least another 5 sighted in the big tank. This is the first time they have bred after being in the tank for about 8 months now. Very exciting! We now have a baby tank with baby guppies, baby cories and baby bristlers including 3 surviving paradise babies.

Why do we need to have them registered Caryl?

The registering refers to FNZAS members only carla. The FNZAS has a breeding scheme and competition to encourage people to breed their fish. When fry reach 1 month, and they have at least 10 of them, the club breeding coordinator will verify the numbers then send off to the FNZAS for a certificate for that member. The member gets different points depending on whether they have bred the species before or not. At the end of the year the points are tallied and the member with the most points wins the breeding trophy.

Do you get more points for a re-breed or for a first time spawning?

You only get a certificate the first time you breed something and a permanent record is only kept of initial breeds. The re-breed record is 'zeroed' at the end of the breeding year (1 April - 31 March). There are seperate trophies for the most new breedings and the most re-breedings in a year. Also both new breedings and re-breeds contribute to points for your club to determine which club receives the club breeding trophy, re-breeds contribute less points. The FNZAS system doesn't use different points values for perceived difficulty of breeding - it only acknowledges that you have successfully bred a particular species of fish.

Well put young fella

Alan

sounds like our cactus club trophies and competitions. Ah well being clubless up here means no trophies and no nights out. Not sure if I am happy about that or not

Although i must say the fish club secretaries and presidents have rallied around us at the molly hunt to get us to join "their" club. Not sure which one is going to give us the best deal....

Thanks for the explanation Rob. Very clear and even this thicko got it. :lol:

We didn't make him the national breeding coordinator for nothing now did we?

ummmm.....just wondering .....do you get points for breeding guppies? :-? - sue

Oh yes Sue

LOL reclaiming the thread..................have a look at the pics in the catfish section of the babies which have grown well.