Bristlenosed Catfish Question

[Bel03]

I used to keep a four footer in my garage with no heater and a sponge filter. This tank was full of BNs and they bred like crazy. The average water temp of that tank was 15-16 degrees during the day.


Would love to see some pics of the longfin peppies as they grow, does sound very interesting.

Yeah as well as tanks, we also have ponds full of bristlenose, water temps are an average 15-20degrees & everything in them breeds as rapidly as the 'tank' fish!

As for the peps, as i said, my partner isnt keen on hybrids, but i 2 think these fish will be very interesting, & we have already had alot of interest. Im interested in seeing what percent, if any, will be albino.......& albino peps......that really is something im interested in seeing the 'end result' of!

 

[getarealdog]

Good to see some people on here with knowledge on fish. Have a mate who breeds those 1's mentioned except the "hybrid" also has that "queen arabiss"? you guys know which one i mean. Cheers.

 

[mysnakesau]

The peppermint bristlenose are gorgeous, and speaking of synodontis, they're the spotty ones with long whiskers? I have kept them before and love them to death. Gorgeous.

 

[Bluetongue1]

I agree with Scleropages andBel711. I have had them in a community tank for over 10 years and they arenever a problem. Nor can I see a pythontrying to catch fish in water, even if it could see them. Just make sure you add a piece of wood for itto hide in and gnaw on – needed to keep them healthy. Aquarium shops sell suitable wood foraquariums - drift wood, Mopani wood,Bogwood and Mangrove roots. If you keep them outside over the warmer months youwill never see them because they will hide away from the bright light.

There are basically two commonlyavailable species here - Common Bristlenosed (Ancistrus cirrhosus) and the Peppermint Bristlenosed (Ancistrus dolichopterus). Ashas been mentioned there are numerous morphs of each available. The CommonBristlenose is tolerant of much lower temperatures than the fish books andinternet indicate. It will survivetemperatures down to 10[SUP]o[/SUP]C but definite slows down on the algaeconsumption as temperatures drop.

There are some alternative youmay wish to consider. Native Gobiesinclude algae in their diets. TheSiamese Algae Eater Crossocheilussiamensis is probably thebest alternative fish option available. There are a number of native shrimp that are efficient algae eaters, inparticular Caridinalongisrostris and Australatya striolata. Quite a few of the Caridina species,both native and exotic, are effective in removing filamenious aglalgrowth. There is also a range of nativefish - Fly-speckedHardyhead (Craterocephalus tercusmuscarum),Gilbert's and Lorentz's Grunters (QLDnatives but difficult to get a hold of) and Butler's Grunter from the NT whicheats exclusively filamentous algae.

You are also likely to have anissue with algal growth in the form of green water (pea soup) due to the intenselight and the minerals in wastes from feeding. You can put in a chemical filter to remove nitrates and phosphates or a UVCsterilizer to kill anything living suspended in the water or both. That can getrather complicated and expensive. Thereare some simpler, cheaper yet effective alternatives. Zeolite, even just thrown into the bottom ofthe pond, will help to remove excess minerals. Use of rapidly growing plants,such as Ribbon Weed (Vallisneria – there are several native forms) and /orAzolla (a native floating fern) will remove the nitrates (and ammonia) andphosphates. Then when needed thin outthe plants – both make great compost or worm food. So long as you are removing biomass from thepond you are ridding it of the input chemicals.

Frequent substantial waterchanges can minimize the problems associated with mineral build up inwater. However, when applied to pondswith a substantial volume of water, the water usage can be quite substantial. So if you set it up as part of your gardenwatering scheme it can be a nonissue. If not, then you need to utilize someother technique for removing minerals from your pond water.

The other issue you will have iswater temperature, as mentioned. Exposure to sunlight will help to increase it and depth of water willhelp to stabilize it. Increase in surface area will result in increased evaporationand evaporative cooling. This effect isincreased by air movement across the surface of the pond as it remove the humidair allowing more evaporative cooling – the difference between being wet andout of the wind vs being wet and in the wind. A fountain will further increase the available surface area forevaporation.

Blue

PS. Sorry about being a lttle late and opening Pandora’sBox on this one, but I have been there…

 

[mysnakesau]

Thank you Blue. One can always rely on you to give awesome responses . I forgot about the algae eaters. They aren't an easy fish to find up here, and shops aren't willing to order extra for anyone but thank you for that thought. I will keep a look out for them.

You said you just throw the zeolite in the bottom of the pond. Do you ever pull in out to wash or replace? I'm presuming you'd put it in a piece of stocking rather than scattered?

I have some live plants that I got out of our local river. Have no idea if its native or not, but they should do the same thing I guess. When I go out Kayaking on Sunday, I'll bring back a piece of driftwood. Bugger buying it from the pet stores when I can go and rake stuff up out of our river. Our river is brackish-freshwater in our area.

It is just a large black tub I have put in for my snake's water, and added fishies to eat mozzie wrigglers. So water changes is something that I will do frequently. I have one of them gravel cleaners. I was hoping to get another half wine barrel like I have in my diamond aviary but they didn't have any. So the black tub had to do.

 

[Bel03]

I agree Kathy, Mike always offers such helpful information where he can! He is my 'idol'! I just wanted to add though, wood is actually eaten by L222's, bristlenose will use wood for hiding but they are algae eaters, we also feed ours algae wafers, but only occasionally as they can get stomach bloat easily. They also eat squash & zuccinni though. (we just weigh it down with a fork.)

 

[gillsy]

Sorry mate i wouldnt keep it with your snake as like Gibblore said the spikes are nasty,go for somthing like a red spotted plecostomus or simaliar they look stunning and would be much more suited to your snake and also dont mind the cooler temps.I have seen bristlenosed catfish become very territorial and cause a lot of harm to other fish .They can grow up to over a foot long and are pretty hardy fish,very common,easy to care for as they eat algae,small plants and small crustaceans,hope all goes well for you.

You must have mutant bristlenose as they only grown to about 15cm absolute max

I feed bristlenose to my stingrays

The file can't be bothered with them... nails any fish over 10cm though....

Then why wouldn't you give me a female then!

 

[Bel03]

I agree Gillsy, our biggest breeders are now a few yrs old & they are max 12-15cms.

& LOL, but maybe Scleropages didnt want his rays to starve! If you were closer, we have a spare......few hundred females! :lol:

 

[gillsy]

I agree Gillsy, our biggest breeders are now a few yrs old & they are max 12-15cms.

& LOL, but maybe Scleropages didnt want his rays to starve! If you were closer, we have a spare......few hundred females! :lol:

HAHA There was no way the rays would starve, I was feeding them yabbies!

 

[Bel03]

HAHA There was no way the rays would starve, I was feeding them yabbies!

Yeah, i was kidding! Im sure one lousy b/n wouldnt have made any difference! Yabbies are my oscars fav, she loves them!

 

[starr9]

We have some huge gold fish and some brisl nose's and I found one the other day attached to the big gold fish "having a feed". It left a big hole in the side of the gold fish and we did what we could to help the gold fish and its fine now. Freaked me out as I though we were going to loose old "Goldy" 4 a bit there but she/he is fine now! I didnt know they would latch on to a fish so much bigger than them that was still alive and well!!!

 

[Sinners121]

they eat the slime coating on them. well atleast they did on my discus

 

[jordan-gibson]

We have some huge gold fish and some brisl nose's and I found one the other day attached to the big gold fish "having a feed". It left a big hole in the side of the gold fish and we did what we could to help the gold fish and its fine now. Freaked me out as I though we were going to loose old "Goldy" 4 a bit there but she/he is fine now! I didnt know they would latch on to a fish so much bigger than them that was still alive and well!!!

do you feed your BN any alge pellets or other foods? i have heard that if you dont feed them and just let them eat what alge they can find they can get hungry and start looking elsewhere for food, like the side of a fish, anyone else confirm this for me?

 

[gillsy]

I've never had it happen, unless the fish is dead or not far from it. The BN must not being getting enough food to be looking at actively hunting a fish.

 

[Bel03]

We have some huge gold fish and some brisl nose's and I found one the other day attached to the big gold fish "having a feed". It left a big hole in the side of the gold fish and we did what we could to help the gold fish and its fine now. Freaked me out as I though we were going to loose old "Goldy" 4 a bit there but she/he is fine now! I didnt know they would latch on to a fish so much bigger than them that was still alive and well!!!

As the others have said, they must be hungry. We have them living in all of our tanks & ponds, with hundreds of other species of fish, including a pond full of massive goldfish, & as Gillsy said, unless something is already dead, they have never touched anything else. Ive only ever seen them using their 'horns' when 2 males are fighting over one bredding log (although there are plenty more to chose from!) Do u put vegies in for them? Zuccinni & squash are the 2 favs with ours. & as i mentioned earlier, algae pellets are ok as an occasional option, too much though will cause bloat, & they will die.

 

[gillsy]

As the others have said, they must be hungry. We have them living in all of our tanks & ponds, with hundreds of other species of fish, including a pond full of massive goldfish, & as Gillsy said, unless something is already dead, they have never touched anything else. Ive only ever seen them using their 'horns' when 2 males are fighting over one bredding log (although there are plenty more to chose from!) Do u put vegies in for them? Zuccinni & squash are the 2 favs with ours. & as i mentioned earlier, algae pellets are ok as an occasional option, too much though will cause bloat, & they will die.

I prefer using blanched pumpkin, the rainbows, firemouths and lions have a good go at it to. It never makes the water cloudy and after a day or so there is nothing left of it. I find zucchini gets too mushy if you don't remove it, after a night. I keep going to try squash but never get around to it. I also put 1/4 of a block of bloodworms in the log of the adult male BN so the other fish don't get it. And every now and then I scatter bloodworms in after the lights have gone out and the fish are alseep, (normally an hour or so after lights out) so the varioius other sized BN in there get a good feed as well.

I originally put 25 1cm long BN in there, and have about a dozen left (damn turtle!) and the size difference in the group that hang up one of the tank and the group that hangs up the other end is amazing, they just must be getting slightly more food.

 

[Bel03]

You are right about the zucc going mushy if not eaten in a day or so, but we dont have that problem with thousands of them! :lol: You just learn what amount they can get through, & put pieces in that are that size. They love squash though too. We have mostly american sicklets, we havent really got into africans too much yet. Firemouths are cool, we just sold ours though, they werent doing much breeding & we needed the tank for our first batch of ebjd's! Exciting!

 

[Bluetongue1]

Thankyou Kath and Bel.

Forgive me for correcting you Bel but it is you that deserves the “hero” tag, not me. I know you appreciate your privacy, so suffice to say that if our situations were reversed, I would be proud to have achieved half of what you have as a devoted partner and a loving mother. You have had to deal with some incredibly difficult circumstances and continue to do so. As a result, you are someone I look up to and feel privileged to have had some small measure of interaction with. Me sharing my knowledge does not come within a bull’s roar of your ability to get on with life and be a mother and a wife. I know who the real hero is.

OK Kath, now I know what the ultimate aim is, I can advise accordingly. Goldfish are nice to look at and highly visible. If it is the visual appeal, then one to three small fish is all you need. I like the fantails because they are slower through the water and visually appealing. If you don’t really care whether you see the fish or not, then native fish will do an excellent job. See if you can borrow a seine net or similar and do a bit of fishing while you are out kayaking. There is bound to be a range of Gobies, Gudgeons, Rainbows or maybe Fly-specked Hardyhead (Craterocephalus stercumuscarum),Pacific Blue-eye (Pseudomugil signifier) or Agassiz’s Glassfish (Ambassis agassizii) in the river. There is also likely to be those nasty little Gambusia. So learn to identify them if you go collecting your own fish. Aquarium shops can provide quite a range of natives – just let them know what you want them for and the dimensions of your black tub. The prices are quite reasonable for the most part. If you just want el cheapo, not nasty, not very visible mozzie wriggler eaters – WhiteCloud Mountain Minnows are excellent. They originate from White Cloud Mountain in China and are very cold tolerant. The beauty of them versus Gambusia is that they won’t attack tadpoles. Goldfish, by the way, love tadpoles. If they can fit it in their mouth, they will eat it. Once the tadpoles get too big, the goldfish leave them alone. Not so Gambusia. They will take bites out of the tail of a tadpole 10 or 20 times their size. They will keep this up until the tadpole has virtually no tail left and can no longer move. Then they will start on the body. Lovely little fish – NOT!

I only feed my couple of goldfish once a week, if I remember. A lot of people tend to over feed them. I have some fine leaved plants they can nibble on if hungry. I will admit to having lost a few but the two that I have left, one is around 10 and the otherat least 3 years old from purchase.

Irrespective of which fish species you use, water quality will be improved dramatically by using some aquatic plants. Bunnings actually sell a few decent native aquatic plants. In particular Nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) and Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum propinquum). They also have a few native sedges and rushes. I actually grew bulrushes in my “gold fish bowl”, a ceramic bowl about a metre in diameter and half that in height with a flowering water lily in themiddle. It was only a few months back that I removed the bulrushes to cut down on the required maintenance around the place.

A good rule of thumb for determining how many fish to have in your “pond” is... 25 cm[SUP]2[/SUP]of surface area is required for every 8 cm of fish. With a few mozzie eaters and some plants to boot, you will not need an algae eater or algal treatment. I can send you a brochure on Zeolite if you PM me a PO box. I also have a 1 kg bag of the stuff sitting in front of me with a price tag of $3 on it. So I don’t think it is all that expensive for what you get.

Mike

 

[mysnakesau]

Thank you very much Mike With the information you have provided I think I am almost on the right track. I think I might get a fish tank for Mr Bristle and Mr Fighter and bring them inside. I am sure I will have casualties amongst these goldies, and I didn't even think about frogs when I popped the goldfish, but I will replace them with some that you have mentioned. How fun Catching my own. I love pacific blue eyes, the others I will look up the names for what they look like. I use to keep bumblebee gobies Cute little guys.

I have some weed from the river? Will they be as good as the ones you mentioned? One of them is quite a thick mass, so perfect for tadpoles to hide in amongst. It has a variegated, ruffled leaves. Another is one that has root system in the gravel but on a long stem and the leaves float on the water, and a water lily.

I have to get ready for work now but I will get photos of them to show you, and will PM you right now for the zeolite info.

Thanks again!

 

[Bel03]

oh shucks! Thanks Mike, i really dont know how to respond to that......but you kind sir have a heart of gold!