trying to breed peppermints

[-simon-]

Hi guys I have 10 peppermint bristlenoses and only have two 70L tanks spare so I got all of them out of one tank and seperated two which I think are male and female and put them in their own tank, what I need help with is do these two look like male and female and what are somethings which can help trigger spawning, also what age do they generally spawn. They are about 6-7cm long.

I think this is a female

Im sure this is a male

 

[Brengun]

Do the bristles go up the bridge of the nose on the male and not on the female as that is correct. The male looks young yet with none of the bristles making forks with two prongs.

 

[-simon-]

I thought they might have been too young, at what age normally do they breed?

 

[Brengun]

I have noticed as soon as you see a little forking in those male bristles he's fertile. The female looks pretty close so they shouldn't be much longer.

 

[AusPleco]

Nice looking pepps , you can see tips for getting them to spawn in the breeding logs section of the forum which are useful and a good read

 

[-simon-]

I have been reading those tips, I was more interested in the age and size of the fish effecting my attempts at breeding, they are about 10 months old and after reading a few things I can tell it depends on when they want to breed and not their age.

 

[Brengun]

Nicely developed for 10 mths.

 

[-simon-]

I will get them out tomorrow and take alot of pictures from different angles and get a exact measurment.

 

[Brengun]

Do you have a little fighting fish tank? I find one fish in one of those little tanks like 15cm x 15cm x 15cm and you can get shots on all angles.

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

rule of thumb for pepps has been 2 years old to reach maturity for breeding...
although this has been becoming less and less lately... but 18 mths old is what i'd tend to say nowadays....

at 6 and 8cm too young to tell if they are definite females... males sometimes hold back on their bristles till 10cm+.....

 

[Kangus]

agree with bigjohnno, around the 2 year old mark

 

[-simon-]

Ok I didnt take them out because I didnt want to stress them, I measured them and the male is 9cm and the other one which im unsure about is 7cm, since the tank can hold more I added one from the other tank which is only 6cm, and since they are all about the same age I gather that it has grown slower because it could be a female, I have noticed that since I put the two in this tank they have started growing faster and bigger then the ones in the other tank. I also got the age wrong, they are closer to 14 months. So here are the pictures

Male with what looks like a bridge forming on his nose

And the unknown, sorry I couldnt get a excellent picture of her/him

 

[axle]

Very good chance you have a pair I reckon.

 

[-simon-]

Thanks for the news, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[-simon-]

Ok pleco fans, I was cleaning my peppermints out today and decided to put them in a container and tank some pics see if you guys and gals can sex them for me, also while I was doing the water change the smallest one shot off into the males cave and the male started vibrating, I have never seen him do this before, his fins were stretched out and he looked like he was vibrating at it, dont know if that means anything, the male measured up to 9cm, the next one was 8cm and the other one was 7cm.

 

[-simon-]

anyone?

 

[AusPleco]

I am not sure as i dont have pepps,
I like your big bits of wood and was wondering what type it is and where you got it ?

 

[-simon-]

these bits of wood are my smallest bits, I have some 10X the size of this stuff, the pet shops sell it down here as drift wood.

 

[-simon-]

Could someone please sex them for me Im so eager to know what they are, I think they are 1 male and 2 female but im not a expert.

 

[flame angel]

Big one looks like a male, middle one looks like a female, smallest could be a male but not sure...don't take my word for it - not overly confident. If I had to I would say the biggest two would be your pair.