Bristlenose pleco babies

[Ryan S.]

Hello all,

Had a nice surprise and discovered my plecos had bred and had babies that are now free swimming without me knowing about it.

Question for the group.  There are still some in the cave.  Should I try to relocate those to a breeding box within the tank to target feed or let them to be free and munch on a very established tank that I will heavy feed.

Tank mates include: bristlenose parents and an albino, pair of kribs and 10 day old fry, 5 red venezuelan cory cats, some cardinal tetras, a female apisto, and amano shrimp.

Any help appreciated. 

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Ryan S.

[KBOzzie59]

I just leave mine in the cave in the tank.

[Johannes]

I have two young l144 bristlenose but i do not know the sex of neither. I personnally leave the fry in the cave

[gardenman]

You may very well lose some to predation, but even young bristlenose plecos are not that easy for a fish to swallow whole.

[Wesley]

Leave them be, you'll most likely get another spawn sooner or later 😄 I dont think your current stock would predate on them.

[gardenman]

The apisto and the kribs could munch on a baby or two. My Neon Swordtails hunt, kill, and gulp down young pleco fry when given the chance. Amano shrimp will occasionally hunt down slow moving fry also. The cardinal tetras are not a threat and I wouldn't worry too much about the cory cats. but the rest of your fish might try to make a snack of a baby pleco or two. 

[Ryan S.]

Good points had by all!  Just to update.  I started out by doing nothing and letting them roam, but after awhile I noticed I was seeing less and less so I put the 5 I could catch (using a dennerle snail catcher of all things) into a breeder box.  Those 5 seem to be the only ones I see now, so I'm glad I got some into the breeder box.  

I had krib babies as well, but oddly enough after about 10 days of free swimming, they all just disappeared, which was disappointing as I thought at least some would make it.  I think some were getting picked off at night even though I tried to leave just a bit of light for the parents to guard.  Good lesson there as well, if I want to raise some up, probably need to get at least some into a breeder box as well or pull the parents into their own breeding tank. 

[Bru]

The Kribs should get better at taking care of their fry with each spawn, I have 2 pairs in a 30 gallon both protecting fry now, with other juvenile kribs as predators. It took awhile for my 2nd pair to figure it out but now they raise 4-6 fry successfully from each batch. I'm happy with that output as I'm not breeding for profit or anything.

[Ryan S.]

2 hours ago, Bru said:

The Kribs should get better at taking care of their fry with each spawn, I have 2 pairs in a 30 gallon both protecting fry now, with other juvenile kribs as predators. It took awhile for my 2nd pair to figure it out but now they raise 4-6 fry successfully from each batch. I'm happy with that output as I'm not breeding for profit or anything.

Good to hear!  I've got a 2nd batch of eggs now so we'll see what happens.