have a new litter of bristlenose

jimmyB · Post by **jimmyB** » 03 Oct 2004, 21:21

I happened to inherit a litter of a dozen 1" long albino bristlenose and am not sure how to grow them so they can graduate into my larger tank. I have them in a 15 gallon at the moment. I have been feeding algae tablets, some green peas, and I have a few small Platys in that tank which are being fed spirulina flake and multi-flake, as well as 1-2 a week frozen brine shrimp or blood worms. Any suggestions on keeping them? I change the water about 2-3 gallons every 2 days and vacuum the tank floor.

davidkozak · Post by **davidkozak** » 03 Oct 2004, 21:57

What you're doing sounds good...A wide variety of food and regular water changes...you might want to do larger water changes if you notice the water quality suffereing, and start thinking about a bigger tank for them as they grow..
David

jimmyB · Post by **jimmyB** » 04 Oct 2004, 23:21

Don't worry, I have a larger tank in mind for them!! Do they prefer any sort of specific substrate? And how long before I will see the bristle whiskers?

davidkozak · Post by **davidkozak** » 04 Oct 2004, 23:30

You're talking to the wrong person about substrate-I have over 20 tanks, and not one of them has any substrate--bare-bottom for me...

I've been raising some albino bristlenose that I received early in the summer...they were all around 1 inch in size when I got them...some are now over three inches...you'll probably start to notice differences shortly after 2-2.5 inches...at 3-3.5 inches it's become totally obvious which ones are males and which are females..
David

csf · Post by **csf** » 14 Oct 2004, 20:54

Zuchini (sp?), cucumber, broccoli, lettuce, spinach - basically any green veggie will work. Some people have used other, non-green veggies, but I have no idea what kinds.

Your water changes are probably alright, it puts you at about a 50% change weekly (3x a week, 3 gallons, actual tank volume of less than 15 gallons). If you feed a lot of have a lot of platies, go up from there, but you are probably okay.

Make sure you have some driftwood in the tank. Some plecs will die w/o driftwood in their diet.