BN pleco sexing

[fish_4_all]

Well I have one on hold at my LFS and I am trying to determine once and for all if it is male or female. It does have wiskers on the lower lip, none on the head and is about 3 inches long. There is a smaller one and it also has wiskers on the bottom lip only. Is this a species that the female has wiskers or are these males? I will try to take a picture of it at the LFs today and post it.

Basic description: light spots, light browning color, whiskers are 1/4-1/2 inch long on bottom lip and number 6-8 if I remember right. Body comes to a distinct end with a long and narrow tail.

[Fluff]

Sounds like a female. The females have lip wiskers. The male has them to but longer as well as on his head. At 3", they should be sexable.

[fish_4_all]

Here they are. I think one is male and one is female. The female is 4-5 inches total. The male is shorter, 3-3.5 inches.

[Fluff]

Unless I'm not seeing what you are, they both look like females to me.

[fish_4_all]

The male one actually has whiskers above the lip line. They are very short and hard to see. I think it is anyway. I believe it has 3 whiskers just above the middle 2 whiskers. Really hard to see but they were there, I hope so anyway. 8O

It sounds like if there are whiskers anywhere but only the lip it is a male.

Now a bigger question:
Will all BN plecos breed together? My LFS says the ones they have are all the same but they look different. Might just be age because they are less than 2 inches but they still look odd.

[Jchillin]

Yes, bristlenose's will recognize each other despite their varying colors. I have a few in my tank at the moment, several different variants and all are from the same parents. Take a look at my "cats" pics in my sig.

[Fluff]

Maybe this will help.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...istru/49_F.PHP

not to hijack but just a quick question... you say different colors will breed together JC? DOes this mean that an albino bristlnose could possible breed with a regular color bristlenose?

[BrianNY]

Yes Asheley. They are in fact the same species.

[Jchillin]

not to hijack but just a quick question... you say different colors will breed together JC?

Brian answered the question before I could. But not only is the answer yes, but that is also the reason for all of the nice color morphs of the species.

thanks!

[fish_4_all]

Well we will find out. I got one that I think is a male, not the one pictured but he is young. The female is almost out of quarantine so I will get to bring her home soon. If he starts to protect a cave and she start pestering him then I should be in luck. Either that or have to wait for the male to hit puberty and grow his whiskers.

so from what i can tell, the males will have the big bristles on the nose, and female will only have the ones on the upper lip.

[fish_4_all]

I didn't get the female, she died at the LFS. A real shame too because the male I got is the same size she was and they qould have been able to breed really soon. The smaller one I have will be a while before I know if it is female or male. At just under 3 inches there are no whiskers above the lip line but who knows. Will find out soon and hopefully be able to get my hands on larger female.