When I pulled out all of the wood in my 75G while rescaping, I felt something slimy. Turning the wood over, I noticed a clutch of bristlenose eggs belonging to the Huacamayo Dwarf Ancistrus (L279) in that tank. I removed the eggs and put them in my shrimp tank, figuring that either the shrimp would eat them, or I’d get some fry. Well, I got fry!

I noticed several of the eggs were hatching , with the head and tail first coming out. They then wiggled constantly try to further separate themselves. See the video below:

No matter how many times I find fry in my fishroom, it’s amazing to sit and watch them hatch.

The Ancistrus fry truly are miniature versions of the adults, and they immediate suction themselves to the glass and scavenge for food once hatching.

It’s even more amazing to see their hearts beating and blood pumping while still hatching out. See the video below of three young fry still hatching:

I probably have 20-40 fry in this batch. In the past , as long as I feed them well and keep up on water changes, most can survive without any problems.

If I’m lucky, they’ll all grow up to look like this.

Sometime before the holidays, a pair of my generic bristlenosed plecos dug a hole under one of the rocks in my 50G aquascape and produced a spawn of 15-30 baby plecos. I knew they were nesting because I could see the parents initially fanning the ceiling of the rock where they dug their cave, presumably keeping the water fresh around all of their eggs. A couple of weeks later I noticed a slew of baby plecos clutching to the top glass all around the tank.

They hung around the glass for several weeks, but now they seem to have dispersed throughout the tank. In the picture above you can see three plecos cleaning the top of the largest rock in my aquascape. Obviously, the fish are still not huge as they are dwarfed by an adult Amano Shrimp. If anyone has any suggestions on what to feed these guys to grow them up a bit faster, I’d love to know. So far, I’ve just been feeding them algae wafers, and I feed the other fish in the tank frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Comments on anyone else’s pleco breeding experiences are welcome!

In October, my Pelvicachromis pulcher ‘Super Red’ spawned and I had a whole swarm of little Krib fry swimming around in my 40G farm tank. After only a couple months of paying extra special attention to feeding them, I now have a group of decent sized fish. The largest ones are about 1.5 inches long, with the smallest being about an inch.

The parents have left them to fend for themselves, although so far they are getting along just fine with the parents. I don’t completely know how many young fish I have, however, because they have dispersed throughout the tank, and the only time I ever seen a number of them together is when I’m feeding them. At those times, I’ve counted 7-8 together, but it wouldn’t surprise me to have double that number hiding in the overgrown farm tank.

They have yet to get the brilliant colors that the parents display, but you can definitely tell that they’re kribs now. Small patches of color are starting to show up around the gills and fins. They have the distinctive squat (or maybe pear shaped) body where the belly seems a little bit too big in comparison to the rest of the fish. I’m not able to sex them yet, but I’m never great at that anyways with most fish.

I’m really pleased with how easy these fish have been to keep and raise. The only thing I’m worried about is if the parents spawn again, and decide they don’t want their previous brood around anymore. If I see signs of spawning though, I may pull the parents out to their own tank to do their business.

A few months ago, I picked up a nice looking trio of Pelvicachromis pulcher ‘Super Red’ adults hoping that they would be ready to spawn quickly. I was very pleased when I noticed that they had done so about a week ago! I set them up on my 40G farm tank, but for awhile they didn’t really seem all that interested in each other.

Then I realized, that being a farm tank, it didn’t have a single piece of wood or rock in it. I rectified that by making a small cave out of some porous mossy rock, and shortly thereafter, two of the fish paired off and took up residence in that cave. It wasn’t long until the female sequestered herself, and then shortly thereafter a swarm of fry emerged with the parents.

The parents escorted the fry throughout the tank, allowing them to feed on detritus on the substrate, and small organisms on the plant leaves. In addition, I used some frozen foods to supplement both the fry and parents diets, as the frozen cubes thaw and have a fine mist of brine shrimp pieces for the fry to graze on. I could visibly see the bellies of the fry bulging with food, so that always a good sign that they’re getting enough to eat.

Hopefully, the fry will continue to grow up fast, and I’ll have a small colony in the 40G. I’ve tried keeping these fish in the past, but for one reason or another, I’ve always lost the females before they would breed. I guess a male and a female fish don’t always pair up.

The fry don’t have any of the color on them that the parents exhibit, so I’m looking forward to seeing that develop as they get bigger. Once they’re big enough for blackworms, they should grow like crazy. (I hope). Comments welcome!

I went to feed the fish in my 75G this evening, and to my delight, one of my three Nannacara anomala females (I have a male and 3 females) were guarding a swarm of fry in the front right of the tank. Fortunately, this is the perfect place to take pictures, despite the dirty glass.

I’m wondering if the other females are also holding fry because the male was staying in another territory with another female, and wouldn’t come out in the open for a picture. Two of the three females are in breeding coloration, which is a predominantly black body with yellow highlights. Their normal coloration is mostly a drab yellow.

The fry were grazing on tiny micro-particles in the beard algae. (Yes I have a little bit of beard algae.) I dissolved a small amount of frozen brine shrimp, which floated down toward them. Being frozen, there were plenty of other smaller particles that the fry were able to fit in their tiny mouths. The female (and other fish) took care of the larger brine shrimp.

These Nannacara anomala are incredibly entertaining fish to watch. The females all have their territories, and the male glides back and forth between them without any commotion. If a female strays too far from her territory, a bordering female makes sure to chase her away, flaring fins and nipping. Fortunately, there’s plenty of room in the 75G for them to occupy without any major damage. Now, I need to focus on rising up these fry!