13 replies to this topic

[zacy boy]

Hey guys I recently bought a trio of peppermint bristlenose 1m 2f each ranging from 10-13cm, they are currently in my community tank along with a large bristlenose colony. I have 5 d caves in the 6x2x2 tank and I'm just looking for any hints or important things to keep in mind when trying to get these guys to breed

Any help would be appreciated guys,
Cheers

[fishking123]

tip-dont have a tank light.. they like it dark
http://lmgtfy.com/?q...int bristlenose

[zacy boy]

Thanks for the actual help. As for the link I did look on google but it's nothing like personal experience of people on the forums, one of the purposes of the forums is to ask questions in the hope that people like you take them seriously and provide help rather than some useless link. You have asked questions to at some point and I bet when you did you wanted people to take you seriously, give that a thought next time you go to answer a question mate.

[werdna]

Mine bred in a 3ft tank with almost no filtration and heaps of wood.
I never fed them, ever, and only did water changes every couple of months.

They do take around 2 years to breed, so you might just have to wait.
How old ard they?

FK - Remember that comment next time you ask for help... If you think you are above answering a question, dont answer it.

[Moses]

I've bred 1000's of peps in numerous setups but the best by far was a tank I made that was roughly an 18" cube with dark tint glass all the way around except the front panel. It sat on the kitchen bench in full traffic. Just the one breeding pair. Couple of pieces of driftwood. One breeding cave. Hang on filter and internal filter. One heater. No gravel. No light. The male moved the cave around to where he wanted it which was pretty funny.
I bought a proven breeding adult pair so getting them to spawn wasn't hard. They were well over 12cm. When I noticed the female laying on top of the log fanning with the male in the cave I would do an 80% waterchange. Straight tap water with Prime added as I was filling. They would breed every 2-4 weeks in excess of 100 fry. Took about 45 days or so and the fry would be around 3.5cm. It would be nothing to have 200-300 fry in that cube at any point. The water was very clean though. Usual weekly waterchange of 25-33%. Sitting next to the kitchen sink made it easy lol
They were fed mainly zucchini and pumpkin. Had veggie wafers maybe twice a week. Viforma once a week. Gotta watch that stuff though as I've had it cause bloat in small fry.

I've found the problem isn't getting them to start breeding, it's getting them to stop! You can get them to breed like clock work after a few spawns. Just have to watch your fish and look out for the signs. A female laying on top of the cave or near it is a tell-tale sign. The male will lay just inside the cave fanning like crazy to get her attention. Waterchange. Babies.

I'm with werdna on the age thing. Definitely around 18-24 months before they are even interested regardless of how big they are. I've grown up males that were well over 10cm within 12 months and they still didn't start breeding for another 12 months.

I've found the D caves to not be long enough for adult peps. You can get the clay logs in 2 sizes, small and large, which I've found to be best. Aquotix had some last time I was there. Not sure which other sponsor's sell them. You may see your males peps and male bn fight quite a bit. They can be pretty aggressive and territorial when it comes time to breed. When those spikes pop out of the side of their head, they mean business and can do some damage. I've only bred them in species only tanks with a pair. Put too may females in with a good breeder male and he'll get burnt out real quick. Literally he will spawn or double spawn once or twice a month non stop. Thats a lot of work for the poor fella. Not sure when they get a chance to eat!

Hope that helps. Any other questions feel free to ask

[theKid]

In a 6' I would add some shelter, plants or driftwood or even rocks near the entrance to the cave the male picks. Seems to encourage the female to hang around more otherwise she may pick a cave of her own at the other end of the tank.

[fishking123]

if you had a try and looked you will see how i did it! not even 20 topics down and on page 1...
if you dont want a comment like i made then just dont reply! but its ok to be mad im ues to it from kids at school

http://www.perthcich...showtopic=52092

[sandgroper]

With Pleco's for breeding purposes, i'd keep it one species per tank for best results.

[zacy boy]

Evening guys,
first of all Andrew, im not sure on age i just know they are around 12-13cm in length i picked them up from poseidon the other week, i understand i might have to wait i just wanted to ensure everything that i could control i did properly i hear mixed results from people which only makes it a little more trivial trying to make sure im doing everything right but thanks for your help .

Moses- thanks for your response, from what i can pick up from your post i need larger d caves as it does appear that the male barley firts himself in there at the moment, will have to take out the common bn this weekend! . tonight i did notice however that one of the females had burrowed under a piece of driftwood i have in the sand and has made a cave herself, might be just wishful thinking but im fairly sure there was another peppy in there and couldn't see the male so fingers crossed! and thanks for the tips mate will pop down to aquotix this weekend to check out the caves

The kid- i actually noticed that myself and have rearranged some stuff accordingly

sandgroper- i think thats probably a good idea, ill take out my bn colony this weekend

Thanks for all your help guys i do appreciate it, have a good one

[bigjohnnofish]

bred in full light and as moses said every 3 weeks another batch...

having tank lights on does not define if your pepps will breed or not... they'll darn well breed when they are ready... they'll breed in good water or crap water...

search this forum and you'll find literally truck loads of posts on breeding peppermints...

[Departure]

what do you guys do with all these peppermint catfish? you would think if you breed them to sell, the market for these types of catfish would be flooded. I would like a couple of peppermint adults but I see them for $150 some times more, makes me think if there is so many around why are they this costly?

[G-Force]

I've just started making longer Slate breeding caves for my peppermints but have plenty of slate left over for other builds if people are after them.

I made my first cave around 15cm long with a removable lid to extract eggs if needed. Compared with the D cave I have already its about 3-4cm longer.

If anyone is after some give me a PM with your required dimensions!

[bigjohnnofish]

what do you guys do with all these peppermint catfish? you would think if you breed them to sell, the market for these types of catfish would be flooded. I would like a couple of peppermint adults but I see them for $150 some times more, makes me think if there is so many around why are they this costly?

because people kill them just like the common b/n.... i have bred thousands of them and yet the demand still keeps coming....

peps are more expensive as they take longer to reach maturity... 18mths to 2 years is the norm... common b/n 4-6mths....