Baby Bristlenoses

I bought four of these (Ancistrus sp.3 as Planet Catfish refers to them, and the name seems to have stuck) about six months ago, at around 2 cm total length. One unfortunately climbed out of the quarantine tank two days after I'd bought them; the other three have grown into a male about 10 cm, and two smaller females. Three days after giving them a home-made (though not by me!) slate cave the male started fanning at the entrance to the cave, and I started to hope they'd spawned. On Thursday I saw my first fry, and yesterday managed to see 10 babies. They're so cute!

I know they're considered to be really easy to breed, but I'm delighted they have obliged- the only catfish I've previously bred are Brochis splendens, which kind of did it without any input from me as they were still in quarantine (ironically in with these bristlenose).


blurred picture of the fry


father

leighasnana said:

The pleco and the cories bred in the quarantine tank together? Way to go!

Click to expand...

Not quite- the Brochis bred 10 days after I got them, the bristlenose were just babies then (over 6 months ago now, they were less than 1" long) but I bought them at the same time and they were in quarantine together.

Whoops trouble here- I've just cleaned out the filter (Fluval 2+ internal) and found 5 live and 2 dead babies inside the filter... so it's out with the power filter and in with the sponge filter. On the plus side, I've seen 23 live babies today. The 5 fry from the filter I've moved to another tank as an insurance policy against total loss.