Ohhhh! Very excited, Pleco eggs :)

[marne2]

Ysterday one of my male bn plecs was acting very strange (shaking his booty), last night I went to feed them and turn the light off and I spot he is guarding eggs .

Very exciting stuff as I have had plecs for 2 years and have never had eggs, this male has only just matured but didn't expect him to breed as I have another dominant male in the tank. I think mum is my albino so fingers crossed I will have some albino and possibly long fin (dad is long fin ) babies very soon.

A couple of eggs seem to have fallen out as they were layed in a small crater in the bog wood (even though they have caves which they are meant to lay in). Fingers crossed some will hatch, am keeping a very close eye on them.

Ooh, very eggciting Baby bristlenoses are sooo cute. Keep us updated!

I'm too scared to do a water change, havnt done one for over a week but don't want to disturb my bn nose, do you think it will be ok to wait a few days or shall I just do a small change (without touching the bottom of the tank). I'm really shocked as I thought my ph was too high to ever get any eggs from them. Also worried as they are not very well hidden, hope none of my fish try and get them . Hopefully it will only be a few more days until we see some hatching as they were layed yesterday .

Yes, you'll need to keep on top of water changes with babies on the way. Just take some water out and replace it, no need to worry about cleaning the gravel for now. It'll be fine if you skip a week. If you're cleaning out with fry in the tank then try using an airline to clean the bottom- takes ages but you don't suck any babies up that way.

Ok, have done a water change, was very careful not to disturb them (spend ages using a small jug) , the bottoms quite clean as I had a major re-jig and bottom clean last time I did a water change. Thinking I might move the babies to another tank once they have hatched (dd1 wants them in her room), almost bought a tank this morning at a car boot sale (wish I had now but didn't have a clue where to put it), will see how many hatch and then maybe pick up a cheap tank to go in dd's room so we can grow them a bit before selling some.

2 eggs fell out I have scooped them up and put them in a breeding net but not sure what their chances are of hatching. Daddy plec still guarding the rest, no sign of wrigglers yet (should be in a few days time).

We have baby pleco's ,dad moved off them for a few seconds yesterday and I caught sight of a few wrigglers, one has longer fins than the others, not sure how many he has in there but am pleased some have survived, the ones I have seen look like brown's (not albino's) so am hoping that a few with be long fin as it will make them easier to re-home.