Well, it's a good month for breeding fancy plecs in NZ. First my new years surprise from my A. Punctatus and now a late christmas pressie from my A. Claros.

Sad to say the cave may be on the large size as the eggs came flying out when poppa started flapping, but a quick rescue and a deposit into a DIY egg tumbler as my article here leaves me with 17 eggs.

Here's some more info on this species of Ancistrus, including the Planetcatfish link -

Gold Marbled Bristlenose (LDA08) - 1x 6cm adult (M), 3x 6cm adult (F)

and you're getting some use out of that new camera

Hope they all hatch and survive.

great suff mate. Hope all goes well for you.

Awsome mate! Those are ones that I never had any luck with at all! Congrats, and good luck with them!

Big thanks to Jammos for two females (not quite a pair, but oh well), kylefish02 for making the male and other female available, and a BIG thanks to rcon for letting me buy kyle's fishies, even though he had first dibs!

That said, there's a LONG way to go, but thanks for the best wishes.

LOL Caryl, yup, just need a macro lens for it!

Its all good bro. Happy you got them to spawn.

good to see they are finally doing it.

congrats!

ouh no way nice one blue i love these little guys.

more pics please

LOL fishboi, I was gonna PM you and a few others specifically when it happened, but figured a post on here would get the news out faster. Seems to have worked!

Honestly didn't believe it when I saw it, guys. I had a feeling that they were at it in the comm tank in the past, but never caught poppa with a clutch. If he's a "bad father" and blew out the eggs every time, they would have had a VERY short life span in a tank full of corys

At least I know why the pandas were always so fat now...

something that i have read is that when you have new fathers or young plecos spawning it is always good to put a stone or something under the entrance of the cave.Even if the eggs were to get blown out it should fall back in. Just 1-2cm lift seems to work well. Also this problem is mosly common in hypancistrus and peckoltias and not Ancistrus due to the eggs clumping. Hope you get an idea of what i am trying to say. Do another waterchange and the other females may follow the lead :lol:

yeah i was surprised to see the eggs been so individual in that first pic, if that makes any sense.

so both ur ansistrus spawns have been in bamboo?

yeah i was surprised to see the eggs been so individual in that first pic, if that makes any sense.

so both ur ansistrus spawns have been in bamboo?

So was I. I read that they lay only semi adhesive clutches of 20-35 eggs so was keeping an eye on them carefully "just in case" and I'm glad I did!

something that i have read is that when you have new fathers or young plecos spawning it is always good to put a stone or something under the entrance of the cave.Even if the eggs were to get blown out it should fall back in. Just 1-2cm lift seems to work well. Also this problem is mosly common in hypancistrus and peckoltias and not Ancistrus due to the eggs clumping. Hope you get an idea of what i am trying to say. Do another waterchange and the other females may follow the lead :lol:

I think I'll try and raise one end of the cave like recommended, makes a lot of sense. I've found that daddies are easily fussed when their homes get played with though. Hope if I do it doesn't cause another 6 months wait like the Starlights!

K, back to fussing over the new additions to the family!

Well, no more worrying about poppa kicking the eggs out of the cave. Did my rounds this morning and found him bloated to an extreme degree. Did everything I could to try and save him in his final hours but I was way behind and couldn't catch up. Gutted.

Only 12 of the original 17 eggs remain. Can see eyes developing now, but just too sad to even blog the progess at the mo. Will update when/if they hatch...

So sorry to hear you lost your boy Faran :(

Thanks hun, been a long sad morning with the death of Kim's grandfather as well.

Sorry to hear of the family loss aswell And yeah I can only imagine the frustration and sadness of losing the male..

Some things are so testing in life aren't they, especially with the effort you put into your Plecs.. I hope you get a nice male out of the lot you are yet to raise

sorry to hear about you loss mate

sorry to bout ur loss mate hope u fine another one or geta male from ur babys

My momma always told me not to count my male golden marble bristlenose before they hatched... k, not those exact words, but close

Sincere condolences

At least you'll have tank raised stock to breed in the future though.

sorry to hear that mate

So sorry to hear about your family's loss

Hope you find some joy in raising the little wrigglers

Thanks for all the support everyone, some days you just want to walk away when you lose something... well, priceless/irreplaceable, actually. Kim lost her grandfather and I lost the only male breeding GMB in NZ, and it all happened within a hour.

Did my rounds in a pretty somber mood, wondering what dead or sick fish lurked in the next tank....

But it's a good day in the fishroom, as little GMBs were hatching out.

With my "above average" temps this is a day before schedule (or perhaps the eggs were laid a day before I came across them) but I'm not complaining.

Day 4 - Hatch

Very cute, sending you heaps of good luck vibes with this lot Faran.. so you can replace that male with one of his own

Faran: sorry for hijacking your thread but you appear to be the expert

how does a Golden Marble Bristlenose differ from "normal" bristlenose as your pic of your breeding male looks exactly like mine?

secondly, can most BN crossbreed with other BN of the same size/family type (I wouldnt have expected so but thought i read somewhere that they would)

Thirdly, If mine is a GBN, how much for a sexually mature female? (If u have any)

Thanks in advance