Hey guys,
I've recently embarked on what has been a fish keeping goal of mine for years now, and that is to breed Peppermint Bristlenose!! I started with a pair of pairs with 2 males and 2 females about 9-10 months ago.
Since getting them I've only had two egg clutches and both times they have been kicked out of the males caves. I think they are somewhat inexperienced so am hoping they soon learn the right way of doing things.
The first batch I found just after they were laid I'm guessing as they were still pretty close to the cave entrance so I quickly fashioned up an egg tumbler and got them in there as quickly as possible. It turned out that they were fertilised and had about 5 out of the clump of about 25 eggs progress on to hatch but due to the mould on some of them the others were killed so out of that clutch I got no successful ones...............until I went to clean the tank a few days later and saw what I though to be just another tiny snail on the glass but upon closer inspection I realised snails don't have little white tipped tails and tiny tiny orange bellies! I had found one single little fry on the glass and to this day it's now about 1.3cm long!!! He or she is going well and will move into a small 20L display planted tank I have in my lounge room in a week or so.
As I wasn't having much luck with my original 2 females that I now realise are actually still quite small so I decided to hunt down some more adults and yesterday I went to pick up a big boy and 3 big girls! These 4 fish have been proven breeders for the original owner and I'm hoping they will be good for me too.
Funny thing, on Sunday night I did a quick clean and check of the tank to make sure it was comfortable for the new additions I was going to put in on Monday morning after picking them up and when I got home from getting them I did another quick check of the tank to find my second clutch of kicked out eggs on the floor beside the cave again!!! Now this clutch is twice the size of the original clutch and it's now sitting happily in the makeshift egg tumbler looking good. Upon checking them this morning there are only 2 bad eggs out of about 50 or so and the good ones are looking really nice with a nice clear casing and bright Orange middle. The two bad eggs have just gone a solid yellow but luckily aren't collecting any fungus or anything on them as they are in a much cleaner tank with the same water only without Any visible poo of debris floating around which I think was the reason the previous eggs went bad.
If this second clutch goes well then they will be released directly into the same tank that the tumbler is in and they can stay in there to grow up till they are big enough to move to different tanks or to friends tanks.
Anyway, I started keeping fish in about 2002 so I'm a relative newby and after breeding a few different species of cichlids I was also breeding normal bristlenose and really really wanted to try my hand at the Peppermints but due to being constantly moving around with my old job (Army) I was never in one place long enough to have the time to dedicate to them but now since I've left that job 2 years ago I've been in the same bought house since then and don't see me moving for many many years and was finally able to get some going! I did have three peps just after I moved in and I grew them out from 2cm fry up to about 10cm fish but had a bad mishap with a tank and lost them! I was sad as I had grown them up from babies and was looking forward to eventually breeding them or just keeping them as treasured little pets, if they bred for me it would have been a great bonus but not expected of them.
Anyway, I thought I would join this forum as every time I do a Google search for some sort of Peppermint information I end up here!
Nice to meet you all and I'm sure you'll see me around the forums!
Cheers,
TS.
I've recently embarked on what has been a fish keeping goal of mine for years now, and that is to breed Peppermint Bristlenose!! I started with a pair of pairs with 2 males and 2 females about 9-10 months ago.
Since getting them I've only had two egg clutches and both times they have been kicked out of the males caves. I think they are somewhat inexperienced so am hoping they soon learn the right way of doing things.
The first batch I found just after they were laid I'm guessing as they were still pretty close to the cave entrance so I quickly fashioned up an egg tumbler and got them in there as quickly as possible. It turned out that they were fertilised and had about 5 out of the clump of about 25 eggs progress on to hatch but due to the mould on some of them the others were killed so out of that clutch I got no successful ones...............until I went to clean the tank a few days later and saw what I though to be just another tiny snail on the glass but upon closer inspection I realised snails don't have little white tipped tails and tiny tiny orange bellies! I had found one single little fry on the glass and to this day it's now about 1.3cm long!!! He or she is going well and will move into a small 20L display planted tank I have in my lounge room in a week or so.
As I wasn't having much luck with my original 2 females that I now realise are actually still quite small so I decided to hunt down some more adults and yesterday I went to pick up a big boy and 3 big girls! These 4 fish have been proven breeders for the original owner and I'm hoping they will be good for me too.
Funny thing, on Sunday night I did a quick clean and check of the tank to make sure it was comfortable for the new additions I was going to put in on Monday morning after picking them up and when I got home from getting them I did another quick check of the tank to find my second clutch of kicked out eggs on the floor beside the cave again!!! Now this clutch is twice the size of the original clutch and it's now sitting happily in the makeshift egg tumbler looking good. Upon checking them this morning there are only 2 bad eggs out of about 50 or so and the good ones are looking really nice with a nice clear casing and bright Orange middle. The two bad eggs have just gone a solid yellow but luckily aren't collecting any fungus or anything on them as they are in a much cleaner tank with the same water only without Any visible poo of debris floating around which I think was the reason the previous eggs went bad.
If this second clutch goes well then they will be released directly into the same tank that the tumbler is in and they can stay in there to grow up till they are big enough to move to different tanks or to friends tanks.
Anyway, I started keeping fish in about 2002 so I'm a relative newby and after breeding a few different species of cichlids I was also breeding normal bristlenose and really really wanted to try my hand at the Peppermints but due to being constantly moving around with my old job (Army) I was never in one place long enough to have the time to dedicate to them but now since I've left that job 2 years ago I've been in the same bought house since then and don't see me moving for many many years and was finally able to get some going! I did have three peps just after I moved in and I grew them out from 2cm fry up to about 10cm fish but had a bad mishap with a tank and lost them! I was sad as I had grown them up from babies and was looking forward to eventually breeding them or just keeping them as treasured little pets, if they bred for me it would have been a great bonus but not expected of them.
Anyway, I thought I would join this forum as every time I do a Google search for some sort of Peppermint information I end up here!
Nice to meet you all and I'm sure you'll see me around the forums!
Cheers,
TS.
