PlanetCatfish.com

Hi
as some of you know, for a VERY long time i have been hunting for Bristlenoses, and today i saw one, by him(or her, i cant tell yet, too small) in a tank all alone, and i knew it was my time to pounce!!
im not sure what type he is yet, as hes been hiding for a long time, but i know hes eating my wood, all i can see is a trail of poop coming out of the back of the wood!!!

I have 3 questions i would like answering, so if you can, please help
1. What type of Bristlenose?
2. Male/Female?
3.Broken Tail??(ill get some more pics if you need them, its hard though)

Try taking some pics with all of the lights out in the room except the one on the tank. I can see alot of your camera lens and not enough of the fish. What makes you suspect it has a broken tail? How long is the fish?

its about 2 inches
ill try with the lights out, its mainly because today was rather bright outside, and the glare from the window didnt help

i suspect a broken tail, mainly because it looks slightly crokked, and the (stupid) guy at the LFS was quite brutal with it

can you identify the fish? is it a common?

ill take some more pics now

Better pics definately would help in being more exact, and is the fish 2" SL or TL?

Anyway it does look like it's every bit of Ancistrus sp.3, and -possibly- a female if it's 2"SL with no headgrowth. If it's only 2" altogether, there's no way to guess at it's sex without having a group.

Edit- I forgot to mention, it looks like it has a mild curvature to the rear part of the spine. I've seen it before in common tank-raised Ancistrus, and I'd be very leery of making it part of a breeding group.

Whilst deepfried has a point in that the small size may make it hard to judge sex, I'd say that the body-shape is also pointing towards female. I also agree that this is possibly not good breeding-stock based on the curved back part of the spine.

--
Mats

I've never seem an Ancistrus sp3 (common) like that before. How do you know it's even a BN pleco to start with?
Here's what a commom BN pleco looks like:

The mon is hiding and those are the 1" frys.
Although I've seen people grouping various other BN into the Sp3 group before. But the most common BN pleco in the fish hobby are the ones in my photo.
Also, at 2" you'll never know the sex unless you vent them. They start growing bristle after they reach more than 3" long. Then, you'll know for sure as the female have no brisles and the males starts to develope them.

sorry about the extremely late reply, internets been down for 4 days
im uploading a second set of pics now
EDIT : also, anyone know how to get these buggers to eat? he hasnt eaten much since sunday, so im slightly worried. Ive offered fresh cucumber every night, but the clown loaches are the only ones i can see eating it

More pics for that tail











It was labelled as a L183, but i knew it wasn't!!!
it was labelled as a bristlenose thogh, and it seems the right shape

Here's a couple of pics of 'Spot', our adult Male Bristlenose. He's just under 2 years old here. Perhaps they may help for comparison. I'll throw in one of the young fellas as well. They're 14 weeks old. The last is 'Sprinkle', our adult Female, of the same age as 'Spot'.

mine is only about 2.5 inches TL, and he looks basically identical to those ababy ones, apart from the yellow flecks on the tail tips

So, anyone give me an idea on how to feed? ive put fresch cucumber in his wood cave, but hes not touching it. Now ive pushed an algae wafer onto the roof of his cave, exactly where he sits, precisely where his mouth usually is, so weel see what happens

Also, i was reading an article somewhere on this site, but i cant remember where its gone, about sexing BNs, and it said about a ridge down the nose is a good indication os sex. That didnt help because it didnt tell me what sex that was!!!!! lol but i think mine has a ridge running down from between the eyes down to the mouth

Males would have a ridge between the eyes, females not.

Was this in the FAQ? If so, it needs fixing...

--
Mats

yeah the FAQ
it would help alot of people to change it
thank you MatsP, your always there to help

Yo congratz. Took long enough to find one. Hope he/she stays heathy for ya.