Snow White Bristlenose Breeding

[Jack CO]

I recently learned about the Snow White bristlenose pleco and have fallen in love with them. I am planning on getting a group of them to grow out and breed, but I just have a few questions before I spend the money, especially since they’re not cheap. 
I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on them and it seems that some people claim they are more sensitive than regular bristle nose, so I’m wondering if anyone here has experience keeping the Snow White variant. 
As far as a group goes, would 4 or 5 be a good starting group to grow to get males and females? As a follow-up, what would be the best foods to give them to ensure they stay healthy? There are so many brands and foods out there, so I’d like to know what has worked in other people’s experiences.

My only other main question would be how old, or what size, do the plecos need to be to before they can start breeding?

I’ve bred other fish species in the past (goldfish, green ear sunfish, Ricefish) and am currently trying to breed my trio of African butterfly fish and group of CPDs, but have never bred plecos. I know bristlenose are some of the easier plecos to breed, with some saying all you really need is a cave and they’ll spawn, but I’d just like to get as much advice as possible. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated! 

Edited January 15 by Jack CO

[Fish Folk]

I have never kept the “Snow White” line, but I have bred others.

Be sure their aquarium is well-cycled. I have found that they sometimes acclimate poorly. Take time to slowly adjust temperature, and acclimate water chemistry. Many times, I have seen BNPs added to a tank, and then just melt away and die. I recommend lots of wood in the tank. Specially designed BNP Caves are very helpful. Add boiled, peeled zucchini along with algae wafers to their diet. Boil zucchini until it sinks. They need vegetable fiber in their diet to stay healthy. Keep up regular water changes. If you feed a lot, they’ll drop a lot of waste.

They take a long while to mature to spawning size. Buy large ones if you’re trying to set up a breeding project. If you’re buying juveniles, invest in 7x or so. You can sell extras off later for a good price if you know how.

[Jack CO]

On 1/16/2024 at 6:19 AM, Fish Folk said:

Be sure their aquarium is well-cycled. I have found that they sometimes acclimate poorly. Take time to slowly adjust temperature, and acclimate water chemistry. Many times, I have seen BNPs added to a tank, and then just melt away and die.

I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this in my research on BNPs because I pretty thoroughly researched, but I’ll be sure to drip acclimate them knowing this now. 

 

On 1/16/2024 at 6:19 AM, Fish Folk said:

I recommend lots of wood in the tank. Specially designed BNP Caves are very helpful.

Is there a specific cave you use? I’ll most likely get the aquarium co-op ones, but I know many people have varying preferences on pleco caves. 

 

On 1/16/2024 at 6:19 AM, Fish Folk said:

Add boiled, peeled zucchini along with algae wafers to their diet. Boil zucchini until it sinks. They need vegetable fiber in their diet to stay healthy.

Does the zucchini need to be organic or can it be just about any zucchini from the produce section? I assume boiling would remove most contaminates if there were any, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe. 

 

On 1/16/2024 at 6:19 AM, Fish Folk said:

They take a long while to mature to spawning size. Buy large ones if you’re trying to set up a breeding project. If you’re buying juveniles, invest in 7x or so. You can sell extras off later for a good price if you know how.

I definitely would have preferred to start off with larger ones, but the adults are quite difficult to come by. My lfs has a buy 5 get 1 free deal on all their fish, so I’ll likely get 6 of them to grow out to get a breeding group established. When selling the extra grow outs, do you normally sell them online or to a lfs? I know that generally you’ll make less money selling to a fish store because the store typically buys them for 25-30% of the full price of the fish. 
 

Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll make sure to follow them to ensure the health of my fish for the future. 

[Fish Folk]

On 1/16/2024 at 1:20 PM, Jack CO said:

I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this in my research on BNPs because I pretty thoroughly researched, but I’ll be sure to drip acclimate them knowing this now. 

 

Is there a specific cave you use? I’ll most likely get the aquarium co-op ones, but I know many people have varying preferences on pleco caves. 

 

Does the zucchini need to be organic or can it be just about any zucchini from the produce section? I assume boiling would remove most contaminates if there were any, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe. 

 

I definitely would have preferred to start off with larger ones, but the adults are quite difficult to come by. My lfs has a buy 5 get 1 free deal on all their fish, so I’ll likely get 6 of them to grow out to get a breeding group established. When selling the extra grow outs, do you normally sell them online or to a lfs? I know that generally you’ll make less money selling to a fish store because the store typically buys them for 25-30% of the full price of the fish. 
 

Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll make sure to follow them to ensure the health of my fish for the future. 

BNPs struggling on acclimation is just something I have experienced. I remember a batch of 10x super reds I added once… only to see them dead the next day. No idea why. Temperature, and water chemistry is something to try to be consistent with.

I like Greg Sage’s BNP cave from Select Aquatics. But the ACO Pleco Cave is excellent.

With zucchini, I cut discs, then cut off the skin, so no chems should remain a factor (vs. organics). Home-grown zucchs are huge and satisfying to use. My neighbor has oodles of them each year. Boiling helps slices sink, softens the fiber, and clears off any worries. I drop the slices into a hot-pot and boil. Very simple.

Fish Club auctions are vest for cash. Sell online via aquabid, etc. But the learning curve is steep.

Be advised … expect a long wait.

BTW, we tested between forum members: it is possible to ship BNP eggs to folks for hatching…

https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/28276-shipped-in-pleco-eggs-for-hatching/

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I bought 2 Bristlenose and was lucky enough to get a male and female. 
 

I wasn’t in a rush to try to breed them, so I just grew them out and gave them an environment they seemed to like. Before I knew it, they were breeding. 
 

Zucchini is awesome. You can also stab it to a fork and drop it in if you don’t want to boil it. The fork sinks. I take some thread and tie it to the fork so I can get the fork back out without having to reach into the tank. 
 

I also feed mine algae wafers and Xtreme bottom wafers, alternating days. 
 

My Bristlenose are almost like my Kribs in that they’ve been almost too easy to breed, and they’re difficult to get rid of. I’m still working on getting rid of that initial spawn, and have since thrown away all egg clutches that they’ve produced. I just gave ‘em good food, time, and an ACO pleco cave and I had babies before I knew it. Honestly long before I thought they were big enough/old enough to breed. 

[Colu]

Repashy super green and solient green Tropical pleco tablets with 36% spirulina and tropical hi-aglae discs with 52% algae from five species of algae  EBo veg sticks 50% pumpkin 50% pea fibra and EBo spirulina tabs with 30% spirulina cucumber blanched spinach and lettuce are all great quality foods for bristlenose mine breed every 3 weeks with out fail 

[Phirefase]

I've bred lots of bristlenose plecos and it's a fairly hands off breeding project. I keep anywhere from a pair to 6 adults in a 20 long and throw in ceramic water spikes so there is one more "cave" than the number of adults. I will also put tiles (3" x 12" ones) over the caves to create more space for them to hang out. The things that I have found to increase the chances of a spawn is to give them meaty foods for the females to make the eggs, lots of water changes(50% 1-2 times/week), and patience(they take about a year and some to go from fry to breeding size). I have used Hikary Vibra Bites but switched to Purina Aquamax 300 because they don't seem to care and supplement green beans to mix things up every 3-4 days.

The only thing that I have noticed that's different with my snow white plecos that is different is that their eggs are less resilient than other bristlenose varieties. Out of the 4 spawns that they have laid, only two have been successful, where every other variety of bristlenose I have done has had close to 100% success spawn to fry stage. The only thing I will caution is that they can spawn every month with 50-200 eggs per spawn(from my experience: Lemon blue eyed ~ 50 eggs/spawn, Super red & Snow white ~ 100eggs/spawn and albino & common color ~ 200 eggs/spawn) and have overrun my fish room when I was breeding them full tilt. 

Feeding the fry once you get them is easy, as they eat the same foods as the parents. Vibra Bites, and Aquamax 300 with some green beans mixed in works for me. The only change I make for the fry is that they don't like the skin of the green beans as much so I will split them before I put them in. Also they are the most hassle of fry that I keep because they eat so much I will change 50% water twice a week, though part of that may be because I keep ~100 fry in a 10 gallon tank...

TLDR Caves+Food+Water Changes+Time=Bristlenose Fry

[Jack CO]

On 1/18/2024 at 8:26 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Zucchini is awesome. You can also stab it to a fork and drop it in if you don’t want to boil it. The fork sinks. I take some thread and tie it to the fork so I can get the fork back out without having to reach into the tank.

I think I’ve seen Dan’s fish using that method for his plecos. Do you do anything specific with the zucchini before adding it in? Washing or anything like that? I just worry about possible contaminants on store bought zucchini.

 

On 1/18/2024 at 8:26 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

My Bristlenose are almost like my Kribs in that they’ve been almost too easy to breed, and they’re difficult to get rid of. I’m still working on getting rid of that initial spawn, and have since thrown away all egg clutches that they’ve produced.

There are quite a few lfs around me that have never had the snow whites in as far as I can tell, so I should be able to sell them there. I also plan on getting into some online sales, like aquabid. Sounds like I’ll have about a year to figure that out, just waiting on my group to arrive. 

[Jack CO]

On 1/25/2024 at 10:09 AM, Phirefase said:

I keep anywhere from a pair to 6 adults in a 20 long and throw in ceramic water spikes so there is one more "cave" than the number of adults.

Have you had any issues with the males fighting? I’ve seen many people saying that the males will often fight once they’re mature enough to spawn. 

On 1/25/2024 at 10:09 AM, Phirefase said:

The things that I have found to increase the chances of a spawn is to give them meaty foods for the females to make the eggs, lots of water changes(50% 1-2 times/week), and patience(they take about a year and some to go from fry to breeding size). I have used Hikary Vibra Bites but switched to Purina Aquamax 300 because they don't seem to care

I’ll probably use the vibra bites because I already use them for a lot of my fish, especially my African butterfly fish and petricola cats. 
 

I’m definitely ready for the long haul with these plecos. I just love the whitish pink coloration on the snow whites, so I won’t mind having them growing up in my tanks before breeding. 

On 1/25/2024 at 10:09 AM, Phirefase said:

Also they are the most hassle of fry that I keep because they eat so much I will change 50% water twice a week, though part of that may be because I keep ~100 fry in a 10 gallon tank...

Do you know if they eat susswassertang? My fry grow out is full of the stuff, which helps with the water quality, but I don’t want to fill it with fry and watch my susswassertang disappear, especially with how hard it is to find it available. 
 

I appreciate the advice. I’ll update again once I get my group of 6, which should hopefully be in the next few weeks. 

[Phirefase]

On 1/30/2024 at 3:47 PM, Jack CO said:

Have you had any issues with the males fighting? I’ve seen many people saying that the males will often fight once they’re mature enough to spawn. 

I’ll probably use the vibra bites because I already use them for a lot of my fish, especially my African butterfly fish and petricola cats. 
 

I’m definitely ready for the long haul with these plecos. I just love the whitish pink coloration on the snow whites, so I won’t mind having them growing up in my tanks before breeding. 

Do you know if they eat susswassertang? My fry grow out is full of the stuff, which helps with the water quality, but I don’t want to fill it with fry and watch my susswassertang disappear, especially with how hard it is to find it available. 
 

I appreciate the advice. I’ll update again once I get my group of 6, which should hopefully be in the next few weeks. 

I have had males fight but I haven't found any lasting damage on the fish.

I threw some susswassertang in a tank a fry a couple days ago and haven't seen any go missing. The only plant I have heard plecos eat is sword plants.