Breeding peppermint bristlenose

I bought some little 4cm peppermint bristlenoses a few years ago and 6 to 8cm they bred for me.
It was quite a surprise as this was a new tank I had just gotten set up for them.

Tank: 4ft x 18" x 18".
Filtration: Just an undergravel filter, no canister or internal power filter.
Tank furniture: round clay logs, and some anubias plants on driftwood.
Food: Hikari algae wafters, Sera Flora flake and cucumber.
Temperature: 26C

I didnt even know the fish were mature yet and I was greeted one night with loads of little peppermint fry all sitting up on the front glass.

Fry food: same as for the adults but crushed a little finer.

I eventually sold the peppermint colony to changeover to some L number plecos but just before they left, one pair left me a little present of eggs for me to hatch and raise so I photographed and catalogued their growth.

Adults

Male:

Female:

Hatched day one:

Two days old in egg tumbler:

Six days old and still with egg sacs:

First food soft cucumber

In frysaver:

50 fry at 33 days old

Moved out of frysaver into main tank at 33 days old

Wow. Nice. Thanks for posting the pics.

great pics

Excellent, very nice pictures Brengun.
At what age did they breed?
What was the water parameters TDS/PH..?

With me using rainwater, the ph would have been quite low at about 6.5. Gravel does buffer a little bit. The tds would have also been low at I would say 100 as it was quite a new set up tank i had put them in.

Age wise I estimate they would have been 20mths old.

It was also a tank on the bottom tier so it was kinda darkish and hidden away. Maybe the quiet area suited them?

The tank now has L201's I am growing up to breed. Man those things take forever to grow.

:coolphotos:

Hi there,

How did you collect the frys into the egg tumbler if they already came out of the log?
I'm new to this site and a beginner, but want to learn as much as I can :yes:

:thumbup:

Fabulous Log Brenda ...Well done...Great pics..:clap:

Great pictures!
What number does this fish have, as you tend to only call it Peppermint Pleco?
I have 4 L183. I can see the white lining on the fry of your pictures but not on the adults.

Ancistrus sp.: Peppermint BN..L181...aka....L071 and L249...
Very easily confused with L183 Ancistrus dolichopterus
Photos are of Australian Juveniles, Bred by Brengun.
They lose the white edging on tail and Dorsal fin...sometimes & only sometimes, they keep a small tail tip of white, & just a feint tip..
Here are some Brengun prepared earlier lol ;o)







How they look 18 months later






Hope that clears things up for you :yes:

Hubba Hubba Mooo! Those photos are fantastica! :thumbup:

Awesome thread again Brenda, Great pics too.

dislodge1 said:

Hi there,

How did you collect the frys into the egg tumbler if they already came out of the log?
I'm new to this site and a beginner, but want to learn as much as I can :yes:

:thumbup:

Click to expand...

The first lot were egg sacks all gone and fast as lighting.

I think the baby baby pics are from when I moved the adults out, they left me a cashe of eggs for me to raise all by myself.

I have some new pairs of peps now and one just kicked a huge mass of eggs out. Found it rolling all over the dirty floor in the gravel so its currently sitting in a cup suspended in the tank with an airstone and a drop of meth blue to try to stop them fungussing.
If ya lucky I might take a quick piccie of them so you see the size and mass of a spawn.

I might have over done it on the dose of meth blue lol. Big 3mm eggs though.

Ok I did a tank wc and rinsed the power head. Moved the spraybar to the back so I could add a frysaver and an eggtumbler in. Added Protozin to the tank rather than the heavy duty meth-blue as I want good bacteria to establish in the big frysaver sponge before they move in.


They look to be developing. I just hope the wc and change of antifungal med doesnt upset them but thought it easier to adapt while in an egg casing than later on when hatched.

I better keep an eye on their development as I have the airstone up full bore while a heavy egg mass is in there. Once they separate they might end up banging their heads on the top in the current lol.

AM


PM. Can't stop lookin at em lol.

awsome i have a proven pair of these from last owner but for me nothing lol
i have round caves but thinking of getting a plant pot cutting it into to and trying it this way as my male i huge

great pics brengun, we have some pep eggs at the same stage as yours now aswell

well done as usual and great photos and article and log. you are the best. cheers jk :thumbup:

Well its day 3 and these eggs don't even look close to being ready to hatch like a common bn would. Going to go the full 5 days methinks. Chuffed they aren't fungussed.

They must be Japanese peps with all the little eyes. lol.