Bloated bristle nose pleco

[Luis]

Hey everyone,

does anyone have experience with successfully keeping young bristlenose plecs (3-8months old)? 
 

I took this picture about 30 minutes ago and now the little ones dead. 
 

My parameters are all in check nothing out of the norm.

I don’t know how this one has somehow managed to get super bloated which I’m assuming was the cause of its death as it kept turning upside down. 
 

I have two other females in there (was a total of  3 females), so i doubt it was a pregnancy issue. 

Does anyone have some knowledge on what this could be? and if someone with experience could point out some key points to keeping a happy group of BN plecs, I’d highly appreciate if you shared some tips.
 

everywhere I look it’s the same information which I’m keeping up with.
 

(my tank is 550 litres, planted, a bunch of driftwood and a good 3  inches of substrate. I keep it at 24 Celsius and do weekly 30% water changes. ) 

 

Thanks,

luis. 

[Fish Folk]

Sorry to hear. I do not see a photo attached. Maybe retry uploading that.

How long have you had these? My only bad experience was a year or so ago I bought 9x “red” BNPs. They all refused to eat, and died in several days. Maybe sometimes, if they don’t get exactly what they’re expecting, they crash.

But everything you’ve described sounds excellent. Keeping driftwood in their tanks really helps.

We breed them, and find them very easy to keep and raise.

[Luis]

Thank you for that. 
I appreciate it, here’s the image to see if it uploads and you see something you recognise,

luis.

[Fish Folk]

Ok. My first instinct is she’s egg-bound. Maybe “bloat” but I’m not sure.

Here are two older threads from other forums. Maybe not helpful here, but I’d recommend getting a Pleco cave and a mature male to start these girls spawning. Female egg-bearing fish NEED to spawn to stay healthy.

https://plecoplanet.com/forum/threads/egg-bound.7537/

https://www.qldaf.com/topic/79540-bloat-bristlenose-help-and-egg-bound/

[Guppysnail]

Im so sorry for your loss. I’m with @Fish Folk  she looks very full of eggs. My mom spawned at 8-9 months old the first time. Here is a decent pic of her just minutes before laying her 3rd clutch. The second is seconds after she emerged from the cave after laying. I do not want more spawns but I will not remove her from dad. I fear egg binding. I remove the eggs after a day of letting dad fan to prevent more babies if you wish to avoid babies they lay between 50-upwards of 150 as they mature. 

They don’t need males to develop eggs only for fertilization 

[Luis]

Mine looked very similar to yours in the picture. 
When I first noticed her with the full belly, she was gently gripping on to the front glass where I took the picture. Shortly after like 5 minutes, she started laying on her back and then one of my loaches tapped her and she didn’t move. 
Seeing that she was reacting I put her in a breeder box where she moved for the first few seconds and then went belly up again and I just left her for about 15 minutes and she was still in the same position. 
so I turned her upright with my hand and she wasn’t moving/breathing, but I still left her in there for an extra 30 minutes just in case. 
Wasn’t moving or breathing so I removed her from the tank. 
 

From the previous reply with the links, I see someone mentioned that it’s somewhat common for BN plecs to have difficulty laying the eggs and then die with a full belly. 
Do you guys have any advice on how to handle the next time one of my plecs look like that? 
 

I would love for them to breed, just hasn’t happened yet since I don’t have a male. 
 

Many thanks for the advice 🙏,

luis

On 1/6/2022 at 10:58 PM, Fish Folk said:

Ok. My first instinct is she’s egg-bound. Maybe “bloat” but I’m not sure.

Here are two older threads from other forums. Maybe not helpful here, but I’d recommend getting a Pleco cave and a mature male to start these girls spawning. Female egg-bearing fish NEED to spawn to stay healthy.

https://plecoplanet.com/forum/threads/egg-bound.7537/

https://www.qldaf.com/topic/79540-bloat-bristlenose-help-and-egg-bound/

Those links were very helpful to see that I’m not the only one. 
It’s always stressful when you’re excited about caring well for your fish and then get a sudden death :(.

Thank you,

luis

[Guppysnail]

The only thing I know to help is a mature male with a claimed cave. The females don’t want to lay if there is no male to fan the eggs. She may have been with males that hit sexual maturity before you got her inducing her to start producing eggs.