Bristle Nose Difficulties.

[Botia Robert]

Hi, I am having difficulties keeping bristlenoses alive.

This is the only fish I have ever struggled with.

I have bought these from different shops and kept them in different tanks with different fish. I always have wood and feed vegetable food.

The only thing in comman is the water I use. I have pH about 6.8 and about 10ppm Nitrates but really soft water. Could this be the problem?

If I buy 3 at a time 2 die soon after purchase. The third lasts maybe 6 months and grows and then mysteriously dies. There are no features on the dead fish and no other fish have any ailments.

The best I have managed is 12 months for an Albino BN.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[starsplitter7]

Hi there,

I am sorry you are having problems with Bristlenoses. I am unable to help you because I have problems too. I have lost all my females except for one, due to what I believe is eggbinding. Heartbreaking. Females are hard to come by here, because they have no bristles.

I have water between 6-7 pH, and I am assuming my water is soft although I haven't checked it. I know Florida has incredibly hard water due to the calcium deposists. I add coral to my filters to try to increase the pH.

I lose BNs mysteriously and perfect like you mention. I have one right now with degraded bristles due to water quality, but he is recovering well. I am happy for this fish.

With my breeding BNS, I have them in a 20 gallon. There are 3 males and a female, all raised together. They are small BNs. Males are 4" and the female is 3". I had lost two other males from that tank, but I would suspect it was from bad water. I ahve had these fish for about two years, and raised them from tiny fish.

I had two albinos in another tank that were fantastic. Female veiltail -- gorgeous. She died and it killed me. The male jumped the tank, and I found him much too late. I really do think my problems are related to water quality -- lax in water changes once in a while.

I have four albinos right now -- three females and a male (all raised from about 1-1.5 inch), and I am hoping they will breed. Right now I only have the male and one female together, but I am hoping to add the other two females. Everyone is getting water changes today. I wonder if these albino girls and my small BN males will breed together?

Yesterday I also found a BN baby in another tank. I have no idea how it got there. It is a dark BN baby and I only have albinos in the tank,a nd I am unaware that they bred. I think I may have moved it there with some plants. I'll see how that goes.

Usually when I talk to people and they are losing BNs, I find it is because they don't feed them enough, but it sounds like you are feeding yours. I give mine algae wafers and zucchini. The ones in my regular tanks also get whatever the other fish are eating like flake, shrimp pellets, blood worms, . . . if they are fast enough. I hope something I have written helps you.

[starsplitter7]

The wood you have available for your BN, do they eat it? I know they need it in their diet.

[Botia Robert]

Thanks for the reply, I do have wood in my tanks. Do they need a special kind of wod such as Mopani?
This is a tough issue because I think i have most requirements satisfied.

[starsplitter7]

Everything you wrote about your BN, sounded great to me, but I am not an expert.

I have pieces of driftwood and coconut huts in all my tanks, but I just realized my BN fry only have a coconut hut, and I can't imagine that offers the wood they need -- fiber maybe, but certainly not wood. I may need to find some wood for them. I may need to shuffle some wood around. My fish all like the coconut huts for shelter, chewing on, grazing the algae that grows on it. In the fry tank, the coconut is the most populr feature. It is always stuffed with BN fry and snails.