[cpat83]

Wasn't trying to breed but I noticed last night, 2-3 on the drift wood. I thought something was up as the dad hadn't come out of his cave for a few days. This morning I counted over 30 on the back glass doing their pleco thing. I would assume there is somewhere around 40 babies moving around in the tank.

What do I do next with them all? It is a 30 gallon tank with a few mollies and danios. The babies are already about 3/8 - 1/2" in length so they do seem to be doing well thus far.

I was thinking of dropping another cave, with some zucchini inside a dip net to try to separate them out so I can get them into a fry tank.

 

[mikebike]

the easiest way is to suck them up with a syphon hose.
Traping may work put some vegie is a plastic water bottle with a few pin holes in the bottem to allow air and water to drain. put some marbles / rock in it to sink it. leave it in overnight I like to attatch a string to the top/neck if the bottle so I can pull it up/out

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Congrats.
:bigsmile:

 

[mollyb]

From the sounds of your setup - I would consider just leaving them in there, they obviously like it. Congrats!

 

[cpat83]

I am no expert, but they appear to be doing well. I dropped in some algae wafers and a good amount of them were feasting this morning in one spot. A conservative estimate of numbers is probably 50-60. All of them are about a 1/2" so I would think they are entering the safe zone as they are moving throughout the tank with ease, considering I run two HOB filters - i was concerned they might get sucked up or find their way inside the housing.I guess I could place some foam over the intake.

At some point I will have to move some of them out, I would think I will run out of room!

 

[cpat83]

Now starting to have issues, I had been doing 50-60% water changes about every 5 days but yesterday did a full cleaning and pulled all items out of the tank. I counted about 10 dead fry, which I assumed was just due to a detailed cleaning. Now today I get home from work and I have encountered 5-6 more dead fry. I still counted at least 25-30 alive, not sure if that amount of dead fry is normal?

I have been feeding whafers, squash, carrots, broccoli....shouldn't have been a shortage of food

 

[mollyb]

I find plecos very sensitive to water conditions, maybe something in your source water? Cloramine? copper?

 

[cpat83]

Tests for ammonia and nitrite have been clear... maybe some of the rocks have been an issue I'm not sure maybe I'll pull them out

 

[mollyb]

if there are dead fish, there is usually ammonia, just from the dead fish. nitrAte is a better indicator of a longer term problem with the bioload, I was thinking of heavy metals, or chlorine/amine in the tap water, I think the water quality from the tap is not always consistent, and not always good for fish, at least where I live.

 

[cpat83]

I'm not sure what is going on my adult plecos are doing fine I pulled everything out except for driftwood and caves and did a major clean last night I'm down to 15-20 fry still alive... not getting any ammonia or Nitrite readings and have been using prime. Is overcrowding a huge concern? 29 gallon with 2 adults and 3 other 2-3" pleco?