What to put in BN pleco breeding tank?

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abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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My BN pleco's are spawning fairly regularly, and so I have pretty much decided to turn their tank into a breeding tank. Currently it is semi planted, has a bunch of driftwood, and some rocks, with a Turface substrate.

Would it make sense for me to remove the substrate if I am turning it into a breeding tank? I don't believe the pleco's are going to be worried about not having plants, and I can tie some java ferns onto the rocks / wood if need be.

I figure no substrate will make managing the fry much easier, and help to keep the tank clean as well. There are currently about 50 wrigglers in there, so obviously I am going to have to wait until they are out before I remove the substrate.

Is there anything else I should include in the tank? driftwood, slate caves, pvc pipe will already be in there. I know I also need something to cover the filter intake, but will take care of that sooner rather than later.
 
shaynablizard

shaynablizard

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Everything sounds good that you have planned. I have bushynose spawning about twice a month in a 20g long. I just put a sponge over my intake tube to my aquaclear. One thing I figured out by accident that is great - I took one of those clear plastic floating breeders and put it in my breeder tank a few months back, just to throw some plant snippings in I was saving for a friend... Well this breeder doesn't hold baby fish because I dropped it and a couple of the plastic spokes in the sides for ventilation busted out. The baby plecos figured out in no time that this was a really cool fun place to go. They could get in that open space on the side. I've since removed the plants and I regularly put spirulina discs or zucchini slices in that thing. Keeps them from their parents to eat, and it's easy for me to find and remove! Plus, I can just cover the opening they get in and easily remove the babies when they're big enough to come out. It was my best accidental invention so far!
 
RiVerfishgirl

RiVerfishgirl

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The only other suggestion I can think of is to take some white pvc and sit it in tank water in the sun, which is a good way to grow algae on it for the fry to eat. As the pvc in the tank gets algae eaten off of it you can switch it out for new pvc with algae.

Though they can subsist on pellets and veggies, I think it's also good to offer actual algae. Baby BN will go through algae like crazy, so you may not end up with much on the sides of the tank for them to eat.
 
abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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RiVerfishgirl said:
The only other suggestion I can think of is to take some white pvc and sit it in tank water in the sun, which is a good way to grow algae on it for the fry to eat. As the pvc in the tank gets algae eaten off of it you can switch it out for new pvc with algae.
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Thanks, that is a good idea, I have plenty of PVC sitting around. I have 1 survivor (first 2 batches of fry had neons eating them) from the first batch of fry who is now over an inch long, and is cleaning up a 10G quite nicely, so I know how they like to eat algae.
 
nc0gnet0

nc0gnet0

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Odd, I never had any issues with my neons in my spawning tank. What I did was to remove the gravel substrate and place slate tile in its place. I used silicone caulk sparing as tile grout to keep debris from underneath. If you have access to a tile saw you can also make some tile caves and planters..works great and looks cool. and my baby albino longfin's really show up well against it.
 
abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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nc0gnet0 said:
Odd, I never had any issues with my neons in my spawning tank.
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Any time I had fry in the BN tank with the neons, you could sit and watch the neons hunting the fry. They would see something moving along the gravel, and start pecking at it, out of the first couple batches of eggs I only managed to get 1 survivor out of each, unfortunately one of those survivors died in a filter accident.
 
aquanurse

aquanurse

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Dumb question....I heard if you keep more than one BN in a tank they will fight? I wanted to get another to help with the cleaning duties in mine, but was afraid they would fight too much. What are you thoughts on this?:coffee2:
 
abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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aquanurse said:
Dumb question....I heard if you keep more than one BN in a tank they will fight? I wanted to get another to help with the cleaning duties in mine, but was afraid they would fight too much. What are you thoughts on this?:coffee2:
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I think it depends on how much room you have in the tank, and if they are able to set up territories. I originally had 2 males and 2 females in the tank, the males fought, so I moved one into my 55G. Now I am left with 1 male and 2 females, sometimes I see the females chasing each other, but it looks more as though they are accidentally startling each other than actual fighting, and is usually only happening right before they spawn.
 
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