Peppermint BN Breeders - paired or colonies?

[AquaTope]

Does anybody have experience breeding with peppermints both as separately tanked pair/trio sets and as grouped adults such as 5F/3M?

I have recently separately acquired 2 pairs and a trio,(11-15cm with larger males) all claimed to have previously bred, these would all be 3+ years old. Currently spread over 3 small tanks, im thinking of putting them all together(4F3M) in a 100x45cm (65 Tall @ ~270 Litres) tank with plenty of caves to make for easier care and maintenance + better filtration & water stability.

Not knowing which will breed im thinking mixed gives those willing to get it on a better chance to find a suitable partner, unsure how mature males might greet each other and if a mixed tank creates distractions from breeding that are known to have caused breeders issues?


Also, any experience in mixing pairs up if I choose too split them again later on and cant pick who started off with who?


Is there any wisdom out there on limits too how many could be productive together as a colony in such a size tank as above?


For reference of others pondering the same, there is some good related discussion here - http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22519

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

whether you have a pair trio or colony - if they have been grown up from fry the breeding potential is far greater IMO - they have grown up together and pecking order is well established and you find less agro...

mixing and matching adult fish can end in disaster... in your case you have 3 alpha males - and they have all been alpha male for some time and none of them will wish to relinquish that - so i can see some serious fighting and perhaps injury and death also.... i personally doubt by putting them all together you will get a productive outcome...

if you have isolated single adults for some time and then you put a single male and female together you generally get a good outcome... but if they have settled into a pair,trio or colony and you swap them around more times than not you dont get a good outcome....

good outcome is eggs/fry
bad outcome is no eggs/fry and or injury/death

this is what i have found in general with all bristlenose but pepps being bigger can cause more injury/death than smaller bristlenose....

you may get lucky and nothing nasty happens... but the odds are against that happening....

 

[AquaTope]

Thanks Johnno, the insightful response is very much appreciated.

If I were to put some together and found there was an aggression problem, would you expect time to pick up on and monitor this to see if it settles before re-separating if need be, or might they be aggressive enough to knock each other off over the first night?

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

b/n are armoured catfish and generally do take a beating and will heal and recover better than any other fish.... bu5 there will always be a time where the beating is continuous till one male dies... and if your really unlucky the other male dies from its injuries down the track...

if you have tank space leave a male in its own tank and swap females from tank to tank if you think this may help in achieving a better outcome than your getting now....

what makes peppermints breed? lots of people will tell you lots of different things - like rain water or RO water - big temp drops - lights off - adding some dither fish and the list goes on... pepps are like L-numbers they dont experience a lot of nitrates in their native environment or ammonia/nitrite as well... all you need to do is keep ammonia/nitrite = zero and keep nitrates as low as possible... how do you do this? add a denitrator if you have spare cash or nitrates are diluted with water changes.... its that simple... rain water / RO is no advantage - actually a disadvantage in my opinion... tap water contains a lot of minerals and electrolytes your fish need to thrive on... other most important thing is you have both sexes and they are mature enough to breed - have sufficient food and are left alone to do their thing... no torches