Tank Talk Magazine December 2009 | Page 8

8
TopAz © 2009

Discovery
Conditioning the female and letting her grow was what I thought
would be best, however the female had other plans.
Before I knew it the two fish were spawning in the artificial tree
stump in the tank.

TopAz © 2009

The eggs were kicked out of this artificial tree stump
every time. I tried to return the eggs via the top, but
he inevitably kicked them out again. I decided to
remove the eggs and hatch them myself as I do for
my other Ancistrus species, without much success.

TopAz © 2009
After watching a few batches of eggs go to waste, and only managing to save 1 baby, it
was decided that a breeding log would be a logical thing to try and assist the male at being
successful at looking after the eggs for himself.
Unfortunately he still managed to knock them out, forcing me to consider hatching them
myself again.
TopAz © 2009

TopAz © 2009

In the meantime I asked a few questions about raising albino bristlenose, to figure out why
mine were not surviving while I was hovering around a CDAS meeting.
I was reminded that creatures that consume a primarily vegetable diet, may need to take part
in coprophagy (eating of faeces) in order to gain the necessary gut bacteria, so that food can
be digested properly, which explained why in a sterile environment the newly developed
albino offspring I hatch cant last long past the yolk absorption, it is a theory I had not
thought of applying to fish before it was mentioned to me.