Keeping Bristlenose Fry Out of a Filter

[Darkwynd]

Short and sweet: any ideas for keeping bristlenose pl*co fry out of an AquaClear 50 filter? I cleaned the filter during my bi-weekly water change today and found about 40 fry living in there. The only thing I've thought of is cutting a sponge to cover the intake, but I'm afraid that would overwork the motor and/or reduce my flow rate too much.

On a related note, does anyone want an albino female b/n, or have an albino male they'd be willing to trade. I hate to get rid of her, but I'm afraid my 20 gal can't handle the bio load if they keeping breeding like this. Also, assuming I can keep these fry alive, I may have a few dozen up for grabs in a couple months...

[armthehomeless]

Put a sponge overtop of the intake.

[stevenallenbarnard]

what about cheese cloth or pantyhose. I'll trade trade you for her, all I have though are some extra hob filters

[armthehomeless]

Cheescloth and pantyhose will work too.

BTW, I can trade you too if you want (male for female). You would have to come to me though.

[smk]

i was going to suggest panty hose also you can get them real cheap at walmart under a dollar the come in those plastic things like you get out of a gumball machine good for all kinds of stuff

[Darkwynd]

See, I wouldn't have thought of panty hose. I think I'm gonna go look at the breeder nets and whatnot at Petco tomorrow, see if I can keep the little buggers contained. That way I can get them out later. But if that doesn't work I'll try the pantyhose so they don't get vacuumed again.

@Steven: I'm cool with just letting you have her, I just need to get rid of her. As long as she has a good home, I'm happy. I'm relatively stranded this weekend (wife has the winivan), but if you want to trek to the West side to get her you're welcome to.

@Arm: If Steven doesn't take her, I'll get with you after the weekend about trading sometime. I can't do it this weekend (again, lack of minivan).

[stevenallenbarnard]

I can come get her sunday if that's okay. about how big is she give or take?

[Darkwynd]

I'd say she's 2-3 inches.

I'm usually only home between about 2:30 & 4:30 in the afternoon on Sundays, give or take. If that works for you, let me know and I'll pm you the details.

[stevenallenbarnard]

go ahead and pm me, we'll work out the details on sat afternoon

[Darkwynd]

Had to put the fry back in the general population, didn't have anyplace to keep them outside the tank other than a large bowl. I was hoping they'd be okay until tomorrow if I cycled the water every few hours, but that wasn't working so well; I came back from the shower and they were all lined up at the edge of the water, presumably because it was the only place they could breathe. Oops.

At least I found a piece of cheese cloth to cover the filter intake with. Hopefully they'll be okay now.