Is it possible to crossbreed 2 different strains of Bristlenose PLecos?

Most likely, they will hybridize with one another. The fry will look like their parents--some features from each.

I have some bristlenose that are called reds--they have an albine parent and a regular parent. They have orange patches, white dots. No clue on gneder--they're both still small.

Hope someone else will chime in here, but I wouldn't breed them. There's a problem finding pure breed fish in many species, and the hybrids cause a lot of confusion. Think about discus--so many breeds, all hybrids, the wild caught fish cost a premium.

Look at the "mixed Malawi" cocktail at your local chain to see how species can be trashed in just a couple of decades...

...then there's the lingering question of "Oliver" http://robotics.stanford.edu/~oli/oliver.html

My understandingafter reading several dozen articles on breeding them on the web is that they will not inter-breed between the different species. And so far, my female Starlight Bristlenose and my male 'regular' bristlenose have not paid any attenetion to each other. I'm waiting for several of the LFS stores to get in new stock for the new year (man I hate the holidays... NO fish!) and hope to get some female 'regular' bristlenoses and at least one male Starlight bristlenose.

I've never seen any bristlenose go after any of my fry...albeit I usually wait until the fry are about 2 weeks old before realeasing them into a tank.

Good luck,
Bill C.

I find it hard to believe a 'starlight' bristlenose will breed with a regular, and the fry will be pretty weak I suspect, and probably all die out after a generation or two. I also think the fry are not likely to be worth much. These are separate species, so the malawi mix analogy is pretty apt - weak fish with insipid colours. Discus are not a good analogy - I think they're just colour morphs of a single species, and the differentiation between heckels and other discus is pretty bogus.
I have a batch of 3 1/2 bristlenoses I'm growing out - how long do you think they'll take to get to 1 inch or so - I guess they're 1/2 inch or so at the moment. When do you think it's safe to sell?

Just my $.02 cents worth here. The reason you get all albino fry when you cross two albinos, is because the genetics for albinism is recessive, meaning for it to show up in the fish, they must only have the 2 genes for albino. If they had any "regular" genes, the albino characteristic would be overridden, and not show up. If you don't believe me, cross that extra albino female, with a "standard" bristlenose male (not starlight, the two aren't the same species, where albinos are just a color morph that's usually attributed to the temmincki type bristlenose). You'll find that all of the fry will be brown, but if you crossed those fry, 1/4 of their fry would be albino, 1/2 would carry the recessive albino genetics, and 1/4 would have only genetics for the standard color pattern. Sorry if that's just more confusing for you.

OG's fish would have to actually be developed by some other method, according to genetics, and are probably just an albino form of a pleco with a darker original color than the standard albino bristlenose, although my albino bristlenose also show the patterning seen on standard bristlenose.

I personally find it distasteful that so many people feel they must cross different types of fish to "create" something new. It causes confusing and dilution and weakening of breeding strains in the hobby, and in my opinion, is as irresponsible as not spaying and neutering your pets.

Barbie