mcrudd Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Hi all. Well I thought my new male bristlenose was the one making mountains in the tank by digging under the bogwood, but it turns out that he was happily hiding under the little bridge and its my chocolate zebra's doing the digging Now that I did not expect. I am so new at this whole breeding thing. I think all the water changes must have edged them towards the breeding. I have googled and yahooed and still is not happy with the info I received. I read something about the male trapping the female for up to a week sometimes before she will let go of her eggs, is this true and if it is how on earth am I supposed to do waterchanges. I usually move half of the tank's caves and stuff so I can thoroughy gravel vac and then do the other side afterwards, but they have completely dug out under the large bogwood and also almost completely covered the front entrance of one of my stone caves. Should I not do a ten percent gravel vac this week, the water is clean except for some poop here and there. Oh my I am so stuck, wish I could find more info by googling. Hope you guys can help me out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Isn't your L270 under a year old? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrudd Posted August 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Isn't your L270 under a year old? I am not sure, they are about 6cm now, the one looks even a little bigger. They usually just hid and came out for food, they have never been so actively busy digging, I saw the one really sweeping with his tail, you just saw gravel everywhere. edited to add I have had a lot of waterchanges recently because of the sick fish, and also I introduced some frozen foods the last three weeks. Brine shrimp twice a week and bloodworms once a week. Most of my fish had super growth spurts because of that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrudd Posted August 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 should I do a waterchange or rather leave it, My tank is due for its 10% waterchange tomorrow :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 You don't have to use a gravel vac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrudd Posted August 13, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 You don't have to use a gravel vac How will I get rid of all the lovely stringy fish poop then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Real Plants. Lots and lots of real plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Real Plants. Lots and lots of real plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 You can use a hose to suck up detritus without vacuuming the gravel or disrupting the landscaping. Also, you can do larger water changes which can stir things up and can help compensate for excess poo sitting around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted August 15, 2010 Report Share Posted August 15, 2010 Keep the gravel vac on the surface of the substrate and dont push it in, i would avoid the local area they are in. My big tank you saw in the lounge only gets gravel vaced every 3rd or 4th time so mainly purely water changes without disturbing the gravel at all. Sounds like the boy is happy. Speaking of which im off to do water changes now LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted August 15, 2010 Report Share Posted August 15, 2010 Anything happened? This could be just natural everyday behaviour with the fish looking to find a more secluded spot. But never say never as your L270 is tank bred from W/C and both initial breeders of it have said the F1 will breed at an earlier age-although I would have though yours to young. Is your male always in the cave? Does his tail stick out waving? Is he wavingflaring pectorals and ventral fins? This is him enticing a female. Is the female camped outside his cave- is there a sheltered spot to hide outside cave? These are all pre-cursor behaviour to spawning. Have you a pair or is it two young fish of same sex having little skirmishes over the optimum territory and stirring up substrate in process. If this is happening I wouldn't do much more than only small water change with vacumn. If not I would go on as normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrudd Posted August 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2010 Hi all Thanks for everyones advice, sorry I had a very busy weekend so can only get back to you all today. I did a small surface waterchange since there was not that much poop and once I put the guppy fry in the tank most of the poop dissapeared, thos pleco poop is mostly pumpkin and zucchini LOL. I decided to give them lots of pirvacy and is not even putting the light on too much, next week I will do the gravelchange where I just suck around them not touching the actual gravel. One of them is in and out there the whole time while the other one is lying close by just looking and occasionally going in then out. My big bristlenose boy (thanks Snowman) is loving to hang out under the bridge in day time and coming out for a snack at night time, have not seen actual digging from him. I have no idea what sex my choccies are, they don't have bristles to give it away LOL, but when I got them from Hollywoods they said they were a bit young to be exactly sure, but it did look like it could be a male and female. Poor Hollywoods had about ten of them on the counter in individual jars checking them out from the top They really go the extra mile for a person Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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