I have 3 bushynose pleco in 120 Gal tank. For 2 days, I did not see this one. I thought something bad had happened to it. Today I looked carefully and I found it inside this big driftwood, and it's fanning the eggs. it did not come out to eat at all!! I have 7 fully grown SAE, 3 yoyo, 3 pleco (including this one), 5 neon tetra, 9 zebra, 3 dwarm gourami. Tank uses Eheim 2078, and has some plants in it. I just set up a 5 gal tank with cory catfish eggs in it. I want to save the pleco's eggs, but looks like "Dad" is guarding it well. Understand in 10 days the eggs will hatch...and I should remove the babies then. I was getting ready to do watch change today, guess i will put it off. please tell me what to do. I wish I could take that piece of wood out with the pleco and eggs. But it is simply too big and I might hurt the fish. I want to do something to save them, please advise. Thanks
My bushynose pleco just laid eggs... What do I do? HELP !
- Thread starter fishJJ
- Start date
Best thing is to remove them from the environment. I would say either remove the eggs and parent as gently as u can or wait till they hatch and get what u can. Hopefully u have another tank to put them in. Are they in a place u can get to them?
Thank you so much for your advice. I went ahead made partial water change. I tried not to disturb the fish and it stayed with the eggs all this time, did notcomeout to eat. I really want to help it to protect the babies. i just set up a 5 gal tank for cory's eggs yesterday. I can set up another 10 gal tank for the pleco. You don't think I can remove eggs only without the parent? When the babies hatch, do they stay right at the spot for a while with "dad"? I have two upside-down cat dwelling in the cave and under this giant driftwood, i am just afraid that they will eat the eggs, or babies if I leave them in the tank. The pleco is in a pretty tight spot. I will look at it again tonight tosee if I can safely remove the eggs. Instead of setting up another tank for the parents and eggs, I am thinking about order an in-tank refugium (12"x6"x8") from Dr. Forster&Smith, 2 days express to put everyone in to reduce any stress they might experience in a new tank. I am overly excited about this whole thing. I took a couple pictures with my iPhone. I will try to postit here. Any other suggestions and information you care to share will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your advice. I went ahead made partial water change. I tried not to disturb the fish and it stayed with the eggs all this time, did notcomeout to eat. I really want to help it to protect the babies. i just set up a 5 gal tank for cory's eggs yesterday. I can set up another 10 gal tank for the pleco. You don't think I can remove eggs only without the parent? When the babies hatch, do they stay right at the spot for a while with "dad"? I have two upside-down cat dwelling in the cave and under this giant driftwood, i am just afraid that they will eat the eggs, or babies if I leave them in the tank. The pleco is in a pretty tight spot. I will look at it again tonight tosee if I can safely remove the eggs. Instead of setting up another tank for the parents and eggs, I am thinking about order an in-tank refugium (12"x6"x8") from Dr. Forster&Smith, 2 days express to put everyone in to reduce any stress they might experience in a new tank. I am overly excited about this whole thing. I took a couple pictures with my iPhone. I will try to postit here. Any other suggestions and information you care to share will be greatly appreciated.polachecksaquatics;4407437;4407437 said:
They can be raised seperate from the father,but they often dont make it when seperated.The father herds them together when they are small and helps keep them feeding.They will often just hang on the side of the tank till they starve when seperated too early.
gomezladdams;4409004; said:
Thank you so much for the info. I am glad I did not do that. In fact, BABIES ARE HERE !! When I checked on the pleco again late last night, I saw a few eggs had drifted away from underneath pleco and tiny little tails wriggling!
But as I was watching and thinking what to do next, a zebradanio quickly swung by and ate one baby!!
I had no choice but to ,with the help of a friend, at 2 oclock in the morning, picked up this huge driftwood with pleco and babies/eggs in it and moved it to 60 gal tank. when the log went into the water, a couple of "stowed-away"(one yoyo, one upsidedown cat)fell into the water too . So everyone is ok, for now. Now I feel better, the babies will be with "dad" at least. I found an article , if anyone is as new as me in pleco breeding, might also find it helpful.
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/bristle.htm
another question I have now is: do the pleco babies swim around like guppies or just stay at the bottom ?, and how long will they stay with "dad" till? i will block the intake of HOB filter with a sponge to protect the babies. the pleco and eggs/babies are in this very narrow spot. I can barely stick my little pinky in it left alone to remove anyone. But i really don't need to do that now. Just wait and watch, protect and assist.
Any more suggestions and info at this time will be greatly apprecicted.
It sounds like u have a grasp of things. My babies swim everywhere in the tank as you will soon find out, as they get older and more brave. When breeding them I've always had the parents with the babies. For me, they have generally stayed by the father and as the days passed they were more adventureous. As my general rule, I only used sponge filters for the babies. For obvious reasons so they dont become part of the filtering system. I feed my pletcos a sinking pellet from Ken's that has helped me with the growth. I'm sure you'll do just fine with them. Hope that helps.
polachecksaquatics;4410518; said:
so the parents do not eat the babies at all ? no need to remove the parents at all, i guess. Tonight, I found the yoyo, and all 9 upside-down cat have movef into thid newly added driftwood where the pleco and babies are. To prevent them from harrasing the plecos, I had to chase them all away to their own driftwood and put a divider in the middle. It took me about one hour to get it done. Now I can sleep better knowing that they will all be safe. My biggest concern now is that the male has not come out to eat at all. Maybe I should deliver a small piece of algae pellet to it. I am afraid that it might snack on the babies if it gets too hungry, or not. Right now, i see just a few babies still inside the egg sac with tail showing, move around a little bit. Most others are still covered by father. with all the information I am getting here, I feel more relaxed. Thank you.
