Ages ago we bought some tiny little GBA babies, so tiny, fed them up on courgette and watched them grow originally in a 20 litre tank with a sponge filter. Well to cut a long story short, they just laid their first egg cluster :bounce: I'm one very proud almost-daddy.

Now generally when it comes to first time eggs, I have the preference to remove the eggs so I can raise the fry in a specialist tank rather than trying to catch them later, they can show off their parenting skills at a later date. So I was going to run out and buy one of those so called guppy breeder hatcheries :roll: and do the artifical parenting thing. However three questions:

Does the guppy breeder thing work, and will it keep the new borns inside and the 30 or so young curious kribensis outside?

Will pulling up the week old cave, stealing the eggs, pointing and laughing, give my male GBA emotional problems that may lead to problems in the future with him not wanting to breed again?

The eggs are in a cluster (as usual), do I use a net, my hand or some other method of retreival? I've only done cichlids before and they normally lay it a handy removable oranament so I dont have to manhandle anything.

congrats, buddy. I'll PM about what to do.

I would like to know too.

BlueandKim, please use the forum instead of PMing as I'm sure others would like to know too.

Thanks

I would (if you can) remove the eggs and male bristlenose to a seperate tank or trap in the tank.. Its what ive done out of my african tanks and its been fine none of the big africans have got in for a feed..

Does the guppy breeder thing work, and will it keep the newborns inside and the 30 or so young curious kribensis outside?

yes but some breeding traps have large gaps so the kribs are able to suck them from the out side.

Will pulling up the week old cave, stealing the eggs, pointing and laughing, give my male GBA emotional problems that may lead to problems in the future with him not wanting to breed again?

haven't for me but i am more concerned that they still haven't hatched after a week.

The eggs are in a cluster (as usual), do I use a net, my hand or some other method of retrieval?

i only ever remove the ones not sticking to the sides of the cave which is usually the cast. i use hand for the large clutch and very carefully with planting tweezers for the strays

Use a syphon pipe of a big enough bore not to damage the roe.

congrats, buddy. I'll PM about what to do.

And why are the other 1000 members not allowed to know what you and "the buddy" are knowing?

I feel quite a dislike coming up after reading some of your postings BlueandKim - unfortunately.

Is there an exclusive club or are we going to share - I wonder...

fishboi, cheers for answering the questions but its the cave thats a week old, not the eggs :lol: they're a day or so old max. I was happy to read they take 5-6 days to hatch, gives me some time.

Thanks everyone for the replies. What I've learned mostly is that the father will do a much better job of maintaing/cleaning the eggs, so I will likely leave him to it or move him and his eggs to another tank as suggested above.

I have another male/female combo in another tank of the same age which would probably be breeding now as well if their caves weren't full of clown loaches :roll:

I'll get some photos of this guy though, the cave has a hole in the end which you can see his head and sometimes the eggs (he moves the big cluster around). Young ancistrus are awesome at algae removal, so I'm stoked to have a GBA arsenal on the way

And why are the other 1000 members not allowed to know what you and "the buddy" are knowing?

I wrote a whole article about it on here almost a year ago. Understandably, the search function is bung, so here you go.

I feel quite a dislike coming up after reading some of your postings BlueandKim - unfortunately.

Some of my postings? If you get upset over me telling someone that I'm PMing them, perhaps there are other issues involved? People that get emotionally involved about things on the forums is exactly why I choose to PM people most of the time rather than post. Sorry Alan, I hope you understand.

Is there an exclusive club or are we going to share - I wonder...

Sure is, it's called the FNZAS. Are you a member? If not, please support it by joining your local fish club.

so if we would like to learn more about our fish we need to be in the FNZAS, not so easy when there is no fish club here. maybe if members feel they wont share with everyone on here then you guys need your own locked forum us commoners cant get in.

I was being sarcastic. Try reading the article instead of getting moody.

And by the way, many clubs HAVE locked forums that you can't get into that are part of these forums.

There used to be a club in Palmerston North shadowfax. Perhaps you would like to ressurect it?

I assure you that you can learn plenty here, without belonging to the FNZAS. We merely encourage people to join as it all helps the hobby. If we were exclusive, non FNZAS members wouldn't be here in the first place!

Our aim is to improve the hobby and help people keep fish to the best of their ability.

You all enjoy the information you gain from here but how many of you help pay for it? That is what the FNZAS does.

Thanks for the link to the old article Blue. It was a very helpful one too.

Carla, I suggest if you dislike someone's postings so much then don't read them.

there are some members trying to set up a club but so far without much success, i was just stating its a poor atittude if you are only will to share information with FNZAS members.

It was a misunderstanding though as it was not a case of only sharing with FNZAS members.

What have you done re starting the club and what is the problem?

we had a meeting last month, seem to go well but haven't heard back when the next one is, im happy to have it at my place & do leg work but would prefer if someone with abit more knowledge would actually take the meetings, if you get what i mean.

& i meant to say well done spider & good luck with your babies.

Thanks shadowfax

Back on the note of the GBAs..... the male jumped out for some flakes this morning, 14 days without food..... not my boy, 3 days :roll: I got close to the cave and he flew back though.

He's rearranged his cave a bit, can't see inside anymore, big pile of java moss right in the way now.

our boy stays in the cave for weeks, he may come out at nite but i doubt it, he's only about 5cm but is an excellent dad!

Thanks for the topic split (whichever mod it was) Should have done it myself really :oops:

EDIT - Alan did it

Anywho back on topic, dad left the cave AGAIN, (useless male eh ladies?) so when he wasnt looking I stole his eggs, both the cave and underlying gravel were securely attached to the single egg cluster.

I've got an air stone keeping them tidy in a matured tank (30L), and unlike most fish they dont mind current so the tank has a HOB filter with a sponge filter jammed over the intake.

All seem to have hatched this morning, and are all over the place wiggling their tails and sticking to things. They've gone in all different directions and the tank has sand, rocks, plants etc so chances of counting them are going to be slim. I'll have to remove some of the decorations tonight though because we're off on holiday for a week :oops:

Will leave required instructions for fish-sitters but it's not ideal at all. Also will have sev eggs hatching at the same time :-?