Breeding Ancistrus

Hello,

Ive had a male albino bristlenose in my aquarium for a few months now and last week I decided to buy him a mate. Im not 100% sure, but I think they were sold to the petshop as a breeding trio. I dont know what happened to the other female, but I took the male several months ago and then the female about a week ago. They havent seen each other for a long time and she has been fed well by the LFS, she is fat and I can see she is carrying eggs. Since I introduced her the male has been digging pits underneath the wood in the aquarium, other than this there has been no other chasing, displays etc. I find this weird because Ive never bred a fish that doesnt display to its mate. I also found this site giving tips to trigger spawning
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/ancistrus_breed.html
Should I try to trigger spawning or should I just leave them? Will I see any signs if they want to breed?
These fish are pretty scarce and expensive in EL, I want to be able to supply EL with them cheaply.

Thanks,
Mitch

 

The male will display on his chosen nest site, he has to attract his bird there in the first place! I have never tried to 'trigger spawning', actually the opposite ... having separated the main pair for several months at a time, so my abode is not over taken with too many tanks of BN fry at various stages of growth! Ironically this probably triggers spawning as soon as the long lost couple are reunited. Yes, I said couple, my pairs choose each other again and to date have not been tempted by other potential mates I introduce, good on them !

Don't know what your current tank set-up is, but I would recommend the breeding pair be separated from other fish for obvious reasons or another method which has worked very well, is to move the male (he does all the house work), his nests site (a mopane wood cave in my case) and the egg ball (often over 100 eggs) to another private maternity tank on about day four or before they become kamikaze wrigglers! Of course make sure the water is the same or pretty close to it. The fry can be raised with the parents if need be without any problems. I would recommend the spawning tank be already matured and established with a natural supply of algae, while baby marrow can be introduced within days. Foam fry filters are also a good source of food. I would suggest using no substrate and reduce the water level to say 200mm or less.

I certainly do not claim to be an expert breeder, but this has worked well for me in the past and I've found them a most rewarding fish to breed, let me know if you need more help..

Not sure if you saw my previous post - http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?6345-Pleco-Party-update-pics

 

I think they might have spawned today, the female has been hanging around the male's cave for the last 3 days and at the same time he hasnt left the cave for 3 days. Today I noticed she is extremely thin and her downstairs is red, she is still hanging around the cave though. They're in a 220L planted tank with 3 cardinals and 7 cories.

 

Sounds promising, I would suggest you remove the cardinals within the next few days and before the kamakaze wrigglers emerge !

 

The cardinals are quite young, will they eat the bristlenose fry or will they get eaten?

 

Yip. tetras in general are little predators in their own right, trust me they will certainly gobble up what live food they can..

Prior to the fry wiggling free, my cardinals even start to hover close to the male ancistrus guarding his nest..

Do you have another tank to put the cardinals for the next month or so ?

 

I'm sure he does. Hehehe

 

Yes, but those are such tragic cardinals, I had 15 (I got 3 more from another LPS) and those are the only 3 left, they have just settled in and my other aquarium is busy cycling.

 

So those 12 you bought all died? Man,I'm sorry.

 

Yes, as soon as I got them every night 2 or 3 would die, I thought it was the brislenoses until those 3 survived for 3 nights so far.

 

Their 1st spawn didnt survive, I moved the eggs, cave etc. to another tank with the same water and they fungused. Since then the male has always spent alot of time in his cave but I havent seen them spawn again.

 

You need strong water movement say from a external filter causing a current in the tank in order to stimulate them to spawn. Also you need to step up your water change regime. Your fishes are need to be fed very well to stimulate egg development in the female.

Kind regards,

Dirk