bnP - setting the mood

[katienaha]

I got the breeding group of lfbnp's from charles, they havent bred yet... how can i best set the mood?

They have 4 sperate cave type areas, my water sprite is growing in fast and I am replanting clippings as fast as they will root out, so planting is getting heavier as I go. 2-6 gallons of water changed every 3 days or so (55g tank) as I have a lot of evaporation, and my water is quite hard, so I tend to take water out frequently to keep the hardness more stable.

Lots of driftwood. pH is about 7.8 stable.
temp about 26-27. Lots of tannins in the water right now.

[gklaw]

Not sure what I did right or wrong. Mine from Smiladon laid their first batch of eggs after a couple months. Moved tehm into the dicus tank to make feeding easier while I was in vacation - probably hatched for discus food

Moved them into their own planted 25 ga with one cave when I returned around Nov 15. Now there are over 20 wigglies out and about

pH generally 6.5 - don't test often enough. Temp 79F. Never tested for anything else. Tank actually looks not the greatest with tons of plants in there. May be that's good for breeding?

BTW. Aquaman is taking a Christmas Road Trip to PG.

[Adz1]

you need to figure a way to get the ph down closer 6.6-6.8 and when changing the water add a couple degrees cooler then whats in the tank.
when you say cave areas do you mean actual caves with only one entrance and just big enough for the pleco to enter?

[katienaha]

I have clay pots and wood for caves. See "katies 55g" in members photos. Some pots are open some are face to face. Trying to block off back half of pots in middle of tank to make one opening I can back the gravel onto one open spot on the wood so there's one opening.