albino pleco eggs ...help

[toddnbecka]

I moved 116 BN fry into the 75 last Friday. None were over 1", though they were the larger fry. There are still more than that remaining in the 30 from the 2 more recent spawns. So far I'm not seeing any problems or losses from the move to the new tank. It was seeded with filter media and established with a couple dozen rosy reds, but the BN fry and 18 wee cichlids certainly increased the bioload.
Loaches may eat very small fry, but I wouldn't expect them to bother anything over 1.5". I just dump enough food into the tanks for everyone to grab some, and the snails help clean up the leftovers. If feeding veggies I put a series of thin slices on a skewer. That way there's more surface area available for the fry to eat w/out overcrowding.

[ClownMom]

So, how are the fry in the 75 as well as the fry in the 30 doing?  Have you introduced the cichlids yet?  I thought that I had a lot in my 20 with the 2 spawning.  I'm curious.  Did you get any ABN fry?  I've read that there's a chance of that happening even if both parents are BNs. 

I've had 10 fry in with my pair of sewalia loaches for 5 days now.  They all seem to be cohabitating peacefully.  The fry hang on the glass with the loaches or when the fry are chewing on the driftwood, the loaches are hiding under the wood.  Pics coming soon. Great idea with the skewers.  I'll have to try that this weekend!

How are the reds doing?

[toddnbecka]

From what I can tell they're all doing quite well. Every time I see one of the fry in the 75 on the front glass it has a fat belly.
I haven't moved the cichlids back in yet, probably will this weekend.
I do have about 25% albino fry. I'm thinking I'll move those out (from the 30) to the 38 after I get the substrate switched over to "sand" (actually a fine grade of gravel) and allow the cichlids to catch as many of the remaining brown fry as they can. I doubt they'll get them all, but they will certainly reduce their numbers to a sustainable level.
The reds are doing as well as the rest, eating and growing like weeds. BN's are realtively fast-growing fish. I have 6 L333's that have been around several months longer than the breeding BN's, and still aren't much larger than the single juvie from their earlier spawn. That juvie is about the same size the adults were when I got them about a year ago.
I didn't know you were referring to sewalia loaches. I was thinking of yoyo's as being a potential threat to small fry. Hillstream species are essentially as harmless as BN's, won't bother their own fry either.

[ClownMom]

It's interesting to see the differences in the growth pattern and rates of growth of the 2 types of plecos.  Mom is topping 5 inches now and her longest fry is 1 3/4 close to 2 monthes.  Hussy is still about 3 inches long.  Your L333s growth rate sounds similar to clown loach babies.  Cool!

Here are the pics...the zuchinni on the skewers is working great

[ClownMom]

  We're back with an update!  We took a count of Mom and Dad's kids and they produced a little more than 150 healthy ABN.  90 of them were taken to the LFS along with 10 of Hussy's BN's .  Hussy produced 30 BNs and 38 ABNs. The nursery tank still has Mom, Dad, Hussy, and Hussy's BN's.  The new addition to the group is a young ABN named Red...mostly because he's darker than Mom and Dad.  He seems to have more spotting.  We bought him a little before Christmas and around February, he started showing his bristles.  We had the straight spawning tube, but after watching Mom and Dad trying to squeeze in, I picked up a cone shaped tube with a larger opening.

  Dad still claims the smaller tube and Rec has taken the cone.  Yesterday, Dad and Hussy were together for a while/a couple of times.  Then Hussy posed as you will see below with eggs(?) still on her.  I checked the tube though and it was empty.  Mom has been hanging around Red and it appears that we have a small group of eggs.  Red is in there fanning away, but is very easily distracted at feeding time.  He'll pop his head out to check what's on the menu.

Here's a couple of pics of the 2nd spawning:

[Mollielover]

clownmom her is a link to the acronyms http://www.petfish.net/forum/index.php/topic,29842.0.html

Great pictures, congratulations with such sucess with the BN's !

[ClownMom]

  ty mollielover!  My kids always say i'm too wordy on my texts (among other things).   Great reference tool.

The breeding tank is within site of my desk.  Mom has entered the Red's tube multiple times (didn't notice this action the 1st go around).  Can Mom lay eggs multiple times?

Todd, how are the Reds doing?

[toddnbecka]

The reds are growing, I see some little bristles on one of the largest ones now.
I've been moving out juvie browns quite well, still have nearly all the albino's. The trio is still producing, though they did take a break for a while. Big daddy has a new load of juvies in the cave, though I think the cichlids have grown large enough to prey on the new tiny ones now. I haven't seen any albino fry roaming the tank from the last spawn, and not as many browns as I expected either.
I just got my computer back online, it was down for the last week. It cost me a little over $200 to have everything from windows on up reloaded after it got fried by a power outage during a thunderstorm last Friday.

[ClownMom]

  I'm concerned about Mom and Dad.  We exchanged Dad's spawning cave to a cone shaped cave.  Dad settled in nicely...but late July he and Mom spent a couple of days "frenzied", each trying to get in.  When Mom accessed she would spend up to 45 minutes facing outward in the tube, while dad tried everyway you can think of to get in with her.  Once Mom relinquished the tube, Dad would go in head first and shake erratically, then sit at the opening.  No eggs.

So here we are again, and they are at it again.  it's been 2 days of calisthenics.  They looked pooped, but determined.  I thought that Mom was supposed to lay the eggs, leave, then Dad goes in and fertilizes.  Am I wrong and they need to be in there together?  Here are some pics: