Artificial Raising of Bristlenose/GBA eggs

[Faran]

So many times in the past have I heard the sage advice to place BN eggs in a container with an airstone that it only made sense to try it out after some dismal fatherly attempts by my GBAs. Eggs were laid, wrigglers hatched and dads... well, let's just say they were deadbeats. My first clutch had at least 30 wrigglers and a few days later I saw dad on the other side of the tank cruising around showing off to the other GBAs. To my dismay I saw a guppy in the cave and it looked like he was having lunch! I quickly jumped in and saved the remaining 4 GBA wrigglers and found a 5th a few days later behind a filter. Now when I saved the first 4 I placed them in a net breeding trap with pleco chips ready at hand. The size difference between the captive raised quartet and the wild brother was pretty phenominal for only a few days difference.

The second clutch went much the same as the first and I ended up saving 9 wrigglers which soon became 8 as one had a white yolk sac and I never expected it to make it. They're about a month old now.

This latest spawn I was ready for. I gave the male about a day to fertilize them and get comfy and then yanked the eggs. Was a bit surprised as I was told numerous times that GBA eggs aren't sticky.... wrong. I ended up popping a few removing them from the cave but hey, if I get even a 50% survival rate I'll be a happy camper.

So I popped them in one of those plastic floating breeding traps with an airstone secured next to them. I put a drop of meth blue in the container once a day for a quick anti-fungal wash as I couldn't even remove the popped eggs from the sticky clutch and don't want them fouling the whole group.

So here's pics from day 2. You can actually see the development of the spinal column and eyes with the aid of colour enhancement.

Without flash -

With flash - I believe that the opalescent eggs create a reflection that makes the contents of the eggs harder to see -

[LYNDYLOO]

Hi Blue,

Awesome Pikkys,

Keep up the good work. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Lynda

[Caryl]

Since I have seen them laid on the roof of a cave I am sure they are sticky!

Good luck with them. The airflow is the key.

[Billaney]

As you know Blue , i have these and some very nice size batches , i don't use the airstone but do make sure there is good water flow over the eggs /wriggers and as soon as the egg sacks are going always have food in front of them , either leco chips/ zuccini or both , what i think is the key is total removal of yesterdays food each day . and a new lot placed in there box/tank.

[Faran]

Paul - You've raised eggs artificially? I thought your experience was limited to wrigglers. As far as the removal of the previous days waste I pass on that in lieu of adding snails to the grow-out container to eat excess food and a healthy clump of java moss to soak up nitrates. This thread is more about the care of eggs than wrigglers, though.

Caryl - completely agree, but think water flow is a little more important than air flow

LL - thanks hun, I take these pics for my personal records but always happy to share a couple.

[Billaney]

Paul - You've raised eggs artificially? .

I've taken the eggs at the stage the tail is just showing, thats how i got this last batch with almost 100% survival rate.

This stage

[Faran]

Ah, I call that a wriggler. Eggs need much more water flow as they can't move themselves to supply oxygen.

Dosed the container with meth blue and watched for a little while. Can actually see the little red lines moving as the developing embryos move. Very cool.

[Faran]

Sorry, that wasn't supposed to sound snide. Just trying to prevent misleading information here. Eggs need an airstone, wrigglers do not.

[rcon021]

i've got a clump of them in a container aswell..hoping for the best... 2 days old!!!

[malawi_man]

yay! my Gba's bred the other day, i only found out just before when my male moved for the first time in 4 days. I brought 10 of them from kyle at about 2-3cm and it is very satisfying for them to now breed. Hoping for the best i will leave the first lot and then see what happens after that.

Daniel :bounce:

[Faran]

Well, I was out most of the day yesterday at Uni and mid-terms, etc. so didn't get a chance to check on them or take pictures. I did see that everything looked good during the morning and evening meth rinse (just a drop in the incubator to cleanse them) but didn't get a chance to take any pictures.

Went in this morning to find them hatching

Here's a pic of them fully developed in the egg and some had already busted out -

Empty eggs after being removed and discarded -

Half the breeding trap -

Full breeding trap -

With a 100% hatch rate my best count was 70(ish) wrigglers while waiting for the last two to break free. Really wish I could capture in pictures the detail that a magnifying glass shows of the underdeveloped eyes, beating heart and blood vessels.

So that's it - a how-to on how to raise those BN/GBA eggs artificially. Container with good flow of fresh water, an airstone and meth blue. You can always use a floating ice cream container with water changes but a breeding trap woeks just as well. Good luck!