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I have two long fin plecos. One is CLEARLY a bristlenose, and I thought was a male. The other nas no bristles whatsoever, so I thought at first it was a female (it was young when I got it but as it got older it never developed bristles, so I assumed it was just a long fin).

Anyhow - while cleaning my tank last night, I noticed that one of my long fins was missing (the one with the bristles). As I'm cleaning, I'm thinking I'm going to find a carcass in one of the tank decorations.

To my surprise....I found that bristlenose long fin - in a rock sculpture thing - WITH FRY! TONS OF THEM! The little wee guys are about one-third inches long. HOLY BUCKETS! To my relief - one of my favorite plecos isn't dead, but now what?

The tank has 6 other plecos in in (2 columbian sailfin, common, albino sailfin, the other long fin). The tank also has a variety of different tetras in it as well and about 6 female bettas.

I have a three gallon tank that was all set up that had a few blue tetras and a male betta in it. All my water in all my tanks is the same (temperature and everything). So I took the blue tetras and put them in the 72 gallon tank where the fry were found and put the male betta in a betta tank by himself. I then moved the bristlenose long fin and the fry to the 3 gallon tank so they are now alone.

This morning - I counted 22 fry! Do I need to do anything special as far as food for them now? How fast will they grow? I have never had fry (that survived). The only other time I had fry, the other fish in the tank ate them (I didn't realize at the time I had a male/female pleco).

Any help? I want to try to be sure this little guys make it.

Congratulations to your first Bristlenose spawn [They are called bristlenose even when they are "bald" females!].

There's probably a hundred posts on "How to bring up fry of Bristlenoses", and yours being the long-fin variation doesn't realy change anything other than they are a bit slower-moving because of the longer fins.

22 fry is a good count, but I expect you'll find more - unless your female is still quite young... It's not unusual for a large female to lay more than 50 eggs, and with a good father, most of those will make it.

When they start "swimming about" (which I take is how you counted them) you should start feeding them with courgette (zucchini) that has been lightly boiled (blanched) so that it just lost the toughness - it shouldn't be MUSH, just a little softness. A slice of about 1/4" (6mm) thickness would be suitable size - pierce with a spoon to make it sink to the bottom.

I'd suggest you start thinking about how you can get them to a bigger tank, they will need VERY frequent water changing in that small a tank. Definitely, once all the fry are out of the cave, you can move the male back into another tank, so you reduce the bioload in that small tank.

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Mats

Thanks!

The female is about 8 months old or so and I have had the male maybe 6 months. I would say she is young. She was only about 2.5" in body length (not counting those long fins) when I got her, but the male appears to be a mature adult. Maybe more next time!

All the little guys are out of the cave and swimming around the small tank I put them in. I moved the male and the cave (he was in it) back to my 72 gallon tank and put it back where it was. The female came right over and the two of them have been camped out in it since.

This morning I counted 28 fry! They are so hard to see - but the search is fun!

I'll do the frequent water changes - not a problem. I'm pretty good about changing 1/3 of the water in all my tanks every week or every other week anyway. Should I do it more often where the little guys are?

Now if they all make it - what am I going to do with 20+ more plecos?! Will they all be longfin or since the longfin are some type of weirdo variation could the fry be a mix of both normal and longfin?

That pleco that is in my avatar - that spotty guy - I have 2 of those. Does anyone know how to sex them? They both have taken to hanging out in one cave together all the time these days. The thought of more fry.....AHHAH!!!!

To start from the back: That's , right?

According to pleco-breder supreme Janne Ekstroem (username Janne on the forum), they are hard to tell apart, but if they are sharing a cave, you may be able to get them to breed - they are however a little harder to breed than common bristlenoses... They probably need triggering with a Dry-season/Wet-season transition. Search the forum for L75 breeding or something, and I'm sure you'll find a few posts.

They should all be longfin, as it's a recessive gene and both parents are long-fin, right? If one of them is "normal", you'll most likely not get any long-fin ones at all, but if you were to cross the children, on average 1 in 4 would be long-fin.

I would do water changes about every other day if not more often - more often reduces the nitrate levels so the fish will eat more -> grow quicker. Some Discus breeders do 80% water change per day (actually 40% twice a day, I think).

I know what you mean about them being hard to see... Been there, done that.

2.5" is nowhere near full length. My female is a good 3.5" SL. But I suspect they weren't "newborn" when you got them - at 2.5" I would say the female is more than 8 months old, probably just over a year - unless it's been fed really well...

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Mats