Hey guys, had my bristle nose high rise appartments (series of tubs plumbed to use gravity to move water around) going for about 2 months now one level contains a trio of standard bristles which have had two massive batches of fry already must off layed as soon as i put them in there. The other three levels all have a pair of albinos. Now there has been no action on the albino front yet and been doing furious water changes and they are in peak condition. Now non of the three male albinos seems to sit in the cave much, they hang around the entrance sometimes but not really looking like breeding. The female albinos from what i can tell have all been gravid 1 looks liek it going to pop at the moment.
Now my question is anything else i can do to stimulate the males as i believe thats where the problem lies.
Another thing im contimplating doing is switching females with my common male and moving a gravid female albino into his appartment so at least i get some albino fry. Do bristlenose have any bonding at all between males and females or will she be just as happy laying with a male shes never seen before.
Or am i just being impatient and need to give them more time?

Not sure about the caving males as they usually cave when they are ready. Maybe they don't like the caves? You could try a nice tight fitting cave if they have larege caves or vise versa. As for the females they don't care, they'll spawn with any male that will let her in his cave lol. If you put the gravid albino female in with the common male and you'll definitely get some action happening lol :

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yeah, there are no long term relationships with bristlenose. I chop and change my breeding pairs all the time to get the mix of fry that I want.

In terms of how to trigger them there are lots of ways. The more stubborn the fish, the more effort you need to put in. Just remember that if the male is not caved up then he is not going to be receptive to triggers. As Karl said, try to find some different caves and see how he likes them. once he has chosen one, take the others out and trigger away. there is a whole list of triggers in my book, from the common to the more rare tricks used by large scale breeders to get their stubborn fish to spawn.

hmmm will a male sit in a cave without females in the tank? i got a few caves most are slate caves which seem to be a good size and proportion for them. Would it be a good idea to stick say 3-4 males in my 6 footer with a crap load of caves in it and then if and when they select a cave and i see them sitting in it move the bristlenose and cave to my smaller breedin tubs that have the females in them? My current master of reproduction is in the same cave he was in in the larger tank as the smaller breeding tub. I do have a few spare males around.

Not a good idea to have all the males in the same tank. Try adding a few caves to each tub and let the male select which one he likes. They usually light tight fitting caves if that helps ya