Short Finned Common Bristlenose Tank

[GotCrabs]

I've got 3 Short Finned Common Bristlenose (1 male, 2 female) in my Mr Aqua 12g tank and 12 juveniles also, seeing that the 3 adults are starting to get some size about them soon enough they'll be too large to roam freely around the tank without making all the Shrimp agro, so I'm thinking of taking them all out (this'll be interesting) and placing in the AquaTopia 20l I have on their own.

Questions are, what's the easiest way to catch these little buggers, the juvis are like 1.5cm, adults are roughly 6cm, should I use substrate in the tank or go bare bottom, will 1 pleco cave be enough coverage, also I have 3 10cm x 10x stainless steel mesh squares covered in Subwassertang, would that be enough for them to play around on.

Eventually, these little buggers as cool as they are will have to go, so I'm not planning on going with a fully planted tank.

Cheers.

[Callan]

They can be fun to catch. If you have a cave I would try and use it as a trap and move them to their new home in the cave. I have also previously used a 20mm suction hose to catch them, just sucked them out into a bucket. I am a fan in bristlenose tanks of not using substrate because they are fairly dirty fish it is easier to clean the bottom of the tank. You may have to put in more caves but the male will answer this for you soon enough. You need to put driftwood in the tank they love munching on it. I was given advice to do a large water change with soft water when their is stormy weather. Good luck hope you get them breeding. 

[GotCrabs]

I never realised that I had juvi Bristlenose until I did a rescape and looked in the cave to find a bunch of eggs, I quickly put the cave back in the tank and the Dad jumped back in fanning, within a day or two there they were, haha.

 

[GotCrabs]

All right, just ordered a cheap internal filter, so once I have that I'll attempt to grab the little suckers from the 12g and put them in the 20l on their own, will go a bare bottom, have the one pleco cave and place all the Subwasertang squares in there and a piece of Crested Java Fern.

[GotCrabs]

Argh crap! I've got 7 more juvis in the cave.

[revolutionhope]

dead?

[GotCrabs]

Nah alive, just don't have room for more Bristlenose, haha, it's good they're breeding though.

[Callan]

Yeah they must be happy. The easiest way to catch juvies is with the suction hose IMO. Glad you are getting good results.

[GotCrabs]

Yeah it's good that they are going well, just don't have the room for more Bristlenose so might as well get them in their own home.