At what size can you sex bristlenoses?

[yhbae]

Originally posted by Kim
Hi

My two parents (bristlenoses) breed all the time, and I supply my local fish shop. He hasn't had to get any in for about 8 months now cos I'm over run with the little sweeties.

My nursery tank is full with babies rangeing from 0.5" to just under 4". the big ones are only just showing signs of their bristles. It seems to be that the ones that have a huge growth spurt in compared with the others and bully more always turn out boys, So it would seem as though you have at least one chappy in there but theres time for the others yet. Hold out cos I thought none of mine were boys and let them go as girls. when I kept them longer they then started to change.


Best of luck

Kim x

Great! one of mine definitely bullies and now I see the second largest one also competing for food more aggressively. I guess I have at least one male. (Hopefully not all of them are female... )

Thanks for the confirmation...

 

[yhbae]

Yeah, one of them started to show some bristles - now I know what it looks like. It kinda resembles beards in the human world - I was expecting more like a tree growing on the face but I guess not...

Under close inspection I believe I have two males and 2 females. Two are clearly larger than the other two, and the second male also seems to have developed very short bristles which looks like fine sword edges...

Can't wait to breed them!