Bristlenose Catfish breeding

[SCOOTER]

I have three Bristlenose Catfish (1 male 2 females, I believe) that have been in my tank for five days. The two females are visible most of the time, but the male has been in a piece of hollowed out driftwood since the second day I brought them home. I read on the species page that they breed readily and the male will guard the eggs in a cave untill they hatch, Is it possible they have bred already?

[Full3R]

well, if they mated at the shop, and they had a similar peice of wood at the shop which the cats were planning to breed in they could have got confused and bred in the one u own, i bought a pair off blue gouramis, and the day i bought em they spawned, fortunetly none of the fry survived due to the lovable, black ghost i owned at the time

[SCOOTER]

They did have a piece of driftwood at the pet shop, I just thought it was weird the two females would be out all the time and the male would hide. Do you think any of the fry could survive with two Jack Dempseys without removing the fry.

[Full3R]

possibly a few if the floor of the tank had numerous small hiding spots like a rock that had the underpart dug out so that only the fry could fit into, small pots, more driftwood, just a few spots where a large group of small fry could fit together without the dempseys getting to

The local pet shop bred some bristlenose and buried a piece of pipe that was 3 inches in diameter and about a foot long just a bit over half way so there was about 2inches submerged and about an inch above gravel so they could retreat in there

[William]

It is not impossible that they have spawned allready. It is quite common for fish to spawn within days of being bought. Most likely since they get a better environment with less other fish.

How large are your catfish?

[SCOOTER]

The male is about 3 inches and the females are about 2 1/2 inches.

[William]

Than they are large enough to breed. Are you able to shine a flash light in where the male is to se if he has eggs?

[SCOOTER]

I will do that when I get home from work. When should they hatch if there are eggs? If there are no eggs to guard, why else would the male be hiding all the time.

[William]

From article in the article section
"Once the eggs are laid it takes 5-6 days for them to hatch, then it takes another 5-6 days for the babies to eat their egg sacs. They then become free swimming and independent. They are about 1cm when free-swimming and can take them up to 4 or 5 months to grow to 3cm (selling size)."

We speculate in what the male might be doing hiding if it doesn't have eggs once we seen that he doesn't ;-)

Is he hiding at night to?

[SCOOTER]

As far as I know he is, I had no idea where he was untill he stuck his head out a little from the cave last night.