Bristlenose Fry

[Aubrey]

So I've had a pair of bristlenose pleco for over a year. I bought a trio as juveniles and eventually after about four months two of them started growing bristles. The third one stayed much smaller and never developed any bristles, I figured it was a female. I separated the largest one from the other two. The larger of the two would always chase and charge the female so I put a cave in the tank and the male soon claimed it as his and left the small female alone. Months later now and I hadn't seen the male out in several days during feeding. I could see his tail in the cave and checked to see if he was alive in there and I found fry.

The fry were huddled up and some were swimming around in the cave. They still have visible yolk sacs. I put them in a hang on breeder box.I really have no idea what I'm doing. How long do they feed from their yolk sac? Can they fungus while their sac is exposed? Will algae wafers work for food? I put some spider wood twigs with them because I think I saw in some fishroom tour that someone was doing that so they could feed on that. Advice?

[StephenP2003]

They'll feed on the yolk sac for up to a week. I kept mine in a breeder box almost a month. Feeding repashy, blanched zucchini, and canned green beans. They hatched around August 26, and now some of them are an inch and a half. They're all living in a 29 gallon grow out full of drift wood, floating plants, anubias, etc. 

They need food. A lot of it, and frequent cleaning of leftover veggies and poop, if you want them to grow quickly. 

I had a second spawn before I could remove  the male in time, so now there's 140 babies at least.

My first spawn last year, I lost all but 1 fry because I just let them be in the 20tall they were born in, and I didn't feed nearly enough. 

Good luck to ya! 

 

Edited October 13, 2020 by StephenP2003