Adam,

I have a fluval 4 plus and a 3 plus in my 26 gallon breeding tank, and never lost a fish yet.

If you wanna play safe then put a ladies stocking over the inlet on the fluval and that should work ok.
We used to do this on our pond when we were breeding koi and other fish and it worked ok...

Some other may have a better suggestion, alternatively you could reduce the power on the fluval with the blue flow adjuster until they are a couple of weeks old...

good luck...

Fry are super senstive to ammonia so the more filtration the better. This is esspecially true with BN babies as they will begin to eat for themselves at about 15-20 days old. They will eat a lot! and they will poo a lot! so a good filter is essential to take care of this increase in bioload. If you are setiign up tubs then make sure they can cycle before you move the fry across. I used to use a 120ltr tub with a big canister filter, but with a sponge over the intake, to both protect the young fry and increase the filtration capasity

That said, i dont move mine before they are about 2cms and at they size they can normally deal with the flow from the intake. My growout tank now doenst have any protection apart from the standard cage over the intake and the fish love cleaning it, and the tuft of xmas moss that has taken hold on it.

I would also suggest getting some small little internal filters for the tubs as they provide a bit of extra filteration as well as create current which BN love and the current forces the poo into a pile for quick removal win win win if you ask me

Adam ive reared fry in floating tubs in the main tank. i also know a lot of people do this with L NUMBERS.
Here's a couple of pics of how you can go about setting them up only mine is with a fry trap
.

Hmm....Decisions, decisions!

LFS guy said he'll take them off me after they're about an inch. I'm not even sure how many I've got

If (and I think it will very soon) a second batch comes along, will the parents be fine sharing the tank with this batch?

i leave mine with the parents without any probs

I leave mine with the parents until they are about 2cms long and then move them into a grow out tank. I do this for two main reasons. Firstly, when the fry are young they tend to be sensitive to tank changes so i like to give them a bit of time before i start shifting their world. Secondly, the parents are less likely to spawn again with fry in the tank. Now, i know that sounds a bit counter productive for a breeder to stop his fish from breeding but if they breed too often the fish can become malnourished and/or stressed and that leads to poor paternal skills in terms of booting the eggs, low numbers of offspring and in the worst, but not least common case, death of the breeders

There is no issue leaving them in there longer either, as long as they dont get so big as they begin to overload the tank or worse, begin to mature and start fighting. but if you are selling them at 1 inch then you will have no worries

Good luck

I'll probably leave them in with the parents then, gotta get rid of them danios first though...

Some of them have nearly finished their egg sacks and started to grey up a bit.

Oh they sound fine then, I wouldn't worry, Just keep the water clean, they grow fast...

100% success rate

Must be over run with fry.

I've got at a guess 60 fry, at least 40 which have almost finished the egg sacs, one death.

Some of them are looking more active, going to drop a little bit of courgette in tonight.

Seeing as though the egg sacs finished - I think all have coloured up FEW ALBINOS IT LOOKS LIKE!!!

Went to pick some up courgette today (after reading its better than cucumber) and well, I picked up what I thought was a courgette...

just an oblong cumber - maybe next time 'eh? :roll:

So anyway, I cut some of my 'courgette' left it in some boiling water for a bit, put it on a spoon and dumped it in for the fry. They didn't touch it for a couple hours. All over it now.


Took a peak in the males cave, I count about 6 fry - not sure though, he was blocking the entrance.

The other females been trying to get in

Not uncommon behaviour. the second female has seen the male do a good job and now want is on the deal too. The male will let her in when and if she is ready, which normally wont take too long.

I often get double spawns with my breeders as both females will be gravid, i trigger the spawn, and they both lay, often within a day or two of each other.

once both batches are done, make sure you give the male a rest, he will need it

How long would you say it'll take to get them to about an inch?

they're about 5mm at the moment.

Adam, how long is a piece of string I have about 10 which are 9 weeks old and are one inch long while the rest of that batch are about 3/4inch..... and then I have another batch which is 5 weeks which is about 1cm......

my 26gallon looks like a pleco city right now....lol....

have around 120 which are between 7-10 weeks...

and I have another 30-40 currently ready to turn to egg sacs... arghhhhh......

and still need to source a couple of LFS to take some off my hands shortly....

Thanks for all the help guys, this batch are growing really really well, they're nearly 1cm now!!!

I've been suspecting the male had another batch of eggs in the cave, I can barely see in there the way he's blocked it but one of the wrigglers managed to sneak into the picture. (bottom right of the cave)



the first batch of fry in their trap







The tank as it stands - it's laughable...



This might sound a little crazy, but do common Ancistrus have an l number?