bristlenoses

[malken]

I was told that there are two types of bristlenosed plecos, those that will damage plants and those tat won't. Is this true and how does one make the distinction?

[NatakuTseng]

Most won't touch your plants unless they are already going south. My suggestion would be to go to http://www.planetcatfish.com and look up all the "Ancistrus" species, those will give you all the bristlenoses with profiles and pictures.

[malken]

How big do they get? I've heard alot of conflicting things. I read somewhere that they can get up to 8", others say they max out at 4" or 5". Anyone 100% sure on the matter?

[OrionGirl]

There are far more then 2 species of fish being sold as bristlenose. That's why you need to identify the species--bristlenose is a generic term for any ancistrus species.

In general--most won't get more than 5-6 inches, but a male of some species may get bigger. My largest male is currently about 6 inches, and he's 4 years old. I've never had a problem with them eating plants, and I currenlty have 4 different species and 1 hybrid.

[Blinky]

My male Ancistrus claro 'Gold marble' bristlenose is a good 4" long now - I can't believe he's gotten so big, so fast. He's only about a year old (I bought him at ~1.5" in October '04), so I'm guessing he's still got a considerable amount of growing to do. He's a great fish :)
BNs are wonderful, mine doesn't bother the plants much - he had a favourite sword (which eventually outgrew the tank) and 'scrubbed' some of the leaves until they had thin spots, but he'd much rather munch on algae wafers, brine shrimp and his chunk of bogwood than eat the plants.

[Barbie]

Ancistrus claro don't get larger than 3 inches. You might post a picture to make sure that's what you actually have. In general, most commonly available Ancistrus stay under 4". There are medusa plecos, that will go 8, and one or two types of black water ancistrus that will get about that big, also. As a rule, they aren't seen often in the hobby. It's a safe bet that if it's less than 10 bucks, it will stay under 4".

Barbie