Bristlenose sexing time....;)

Woofy

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Jun 30, 2006
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so i'm having a huge debate on if i have male or female plecos, so here are some pics, lets see what you think :)


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no hes the tricky part, the albino is smaller than the other two, but has bristles yet look at these pics...kinda looks like a gravid female no?

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How big are they? If they are 3+ inches, I would say that you have all females. (it's 2 plecos right?) If they are small, the albino would be a male, possibly the regular as well. So....big....female.....small...male
 
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its two regulars bn, and one albino. the other two are about 3 inches maybe more, and the albino is 2 inches.
 
IMO the albino is probably male, the others appear female. Males will have bristles up the center of their nose, while females will range from none at all, to a full lip ring of them, depending on the species. The albino is pretty bristled for that size to not be a male, and I can see one bristle starting to grow up at the center of his lip, but I can't be positive. The angle of the photos isn't terribly conducive to a 100% positive answer. Gravid female albino bristlenose will have a very gold back half to their abdomen. You can literally see the egg mass and that it looks like their intestines are being shoved up towards their nose.

Just FYI, the "regular" bristlenose you have are a different species than your albino. Probably L182 or something similar (hard to know without collection location information). They tend to get a bit larger than your standard "common's" and could potentially include a male that's just terribly immature and yet to grow any facial "hair". Good luck!

Barbie
 
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