Does it sound as though my Bristlies have laid eggs?

I have a male and what I now think is a female bristlenose. They were both small when I got them last year and in the last couple of months it’s become apparent the larger of the 2 is male with lots of bristles.

The male normally chases the female away if they happen to cross paths in the tank, but today I noticed the male in a small crevice of the driftwood and the female wiggled in beside him to my astonishment. He stayed at the entrance for about an hour ‘waving’ his fins about and then the female left. She didn’t look any thinner though.
He’s stayed put at the entrance ever since, with just his head sticking out. Have they laid eggs? The crevice in the wood is so small I can’t see inside to know for sure, but it seems suspect. Just wondering if I should put some veg by the entrance or will he likely not eat now until something happens?
I’ve read there may not be any fry first time around since they’re both very inexperienced at parenting (and young).

 

Hi Wonderingaloud
Young BN males can make the most reliable fathers, staying on the job of fanning the eggs. Young females have slightly less eggs but perhaps that’s a good thing?

It’s not recommended to shine a flashlight at the male of other species of Plecos, I personally think a BN deserves the same respect. So no flashlight.
What you describe sounds like a male on eggs ?
No need to feed him .
You don’t say what tank mates you have or how big the tank is. Do you have another tank?
If he is on eggs and they are fertile it will be only 4 or 5 days before they hatch.
No need to do anything special to feed the fry as the tank is 12 months old. The young can have zucchini and any other adult food you have.

 

Thanks so much for your reply. It’s about 170l, with cherry barbs, SAE, black phantom tetra. That’s all at the moment.
I do have another small 28l tank that has some pacific blue eyes in there.
the wood he’s using as his hideout is massive though so I don’t know how I’d go about relocating him/the eggs etc.
I might just wait and see what happens. Thanks so much for your reply.

 

Definitely guarding eggs. It’s been a week now and he hasn’t moved, will he be ok without food for this long? Once the fry hatch from my reading it’ll be afew days after that before I start to see them (if the other fish don’t get to them first). I have another tank I could move them to, or should I take my chances?
My instinct is to try and raise them but at the same time I don’t know what I’ll do with a heap of BN’s either ‍♀️ Maybe I should let nature take its course but then I feel bad for the male who has been so dedicated!

 

All adult fish can go a week without food. My fish have gone 10 days without no problem. A BN that’s on eggs is very unlikely to starve I would have thought?

A young female with have maybe 100 eggs and a more mature female can easily have 200 .

It’s your choice if you want to steal a few to raise in another tank etc.

If you try and save the lot it could be hundreds?
In my town there is a constant demand for BN . Chain stores sell tiny little things as that is all they can get from suppliers. A BN fry In Australia that’s 4 or 5 cm is worth $5 a cm / 1/2 inch but if you have a bag of 60 expect to only get $1 each. Most mum and dad shops will give store credit only.

You might consider separating the adults before the spawn again?

 

Just to round up this post, the fry hatched about 2 weeks after we first noticed the male guarding the eggs. We waited until they were free swimming and siphoned then out into a bucket. This is the only way we could catch them. We only managed to get about 12 and these are now doing well in a seperate smaller tank. There are still at least 10 left in our main tank, of which I have no clue how to remove. They are surviving purely off biofilm and other matter in the tank.
Whilst all this was going on it seems the two adults have been at it again and we now have even more tiny babies swimming around ‍♀️
So…… yep, might need to seperate them. My main tank has become a bristlenose kindy.
Really interesting to watch nature at work though.