We came home with a 3 1/2 inch "Bushynose" pleco yesterday, and are wondering if it is a girl or a boy. The bristles are pretty short, almost non-existent . If it was a boy, would they be bigger at 3 1/2 inches?
New BN Plec Q
- Thread starter FireDancer7905
- Start date
Can you post a pic? The bristles grow very slowly. And at 3.5", your BN is not finished growing yet. I'm betting you got yourself a young male there.
Males should have more bristles by that size. Fms will get tiny ones but only around the front of the head. The males get them up the center of their face as well.
TTA - I had adults male and female both albino and brown pucallpa sp. and none of the females ever showed any bristles. Maybe it's only some species of ancistrus. And with my males, they were spawning and still only had stubs for bristles. Very slow growing bristles on my males.
I have some male BNs that had 3-4mm bristles at 2.5". I would expect longer bristles at 3.5" if it was a male. You may end up having to wait for it to grow up some more to get a positive idea though.
Well, I tried for pics, but can't focus clearly enough on the head. 
Guess we'll just have to wait and see!
Guess we'll just have to wait and see!
they should be shjowing but I have had some that developed the bristles late.
Deb..I think we were right when we guess the sexes of the lil BN's..I know one tank has a male/female. the other tank I rarely see them both out at one time.
Deb..I think we were right when we guess the sexes of the lil BN's..I know one tank has a male/female. the other tank I rarely see them both out at one time.
Fish that are being dominated or picked at can grow little to no bristles and still be a male. I've had albino bristlenose females with little stubs all the way around their lips, clear to absolutely no bristling at all. ANY bristles up the center of the face like TTA said would make it a male. Another trick is to catch the fish and touch it's nose. If it's raspy, it's a female, squishy, it's a male (and no, I'm not going to elaborate more and run away with that one, hehe).
This is a picture of a trio of L183 Ancistrus. Two females, one male. You can see how much bristling the females have.
Barbie
This is a picture of a trio of L183 Ancistrus. Two females, one male. You can see how much bristling the females have.
Barbie
my bn is about 4 inches (give or take a half an inch lol) and his bristles are kinda long. heres a pic of em. at the angle you cant really see the tail half of his body. but you can see the bristles.
