Bristlenose Catfish

Common Name/s: Bristlenose Catfish

Scientific Namr: Ancistrus dolichopterus

Family: Loricariidae

Origin: Amazon River, South America

Maximum Size: 4.5" (12cm)

Care: Bristelnose catfish are not a strictly nocturnal fish. These algae eaters establish territories around caves, peices of wood and other hiding places found in tanks. These fish can become territorial and aggresive towards other members of the ancistrus family and rarely towards bottom dwelling fish such as corydoras catfish. They can tolerate a wide range conditions but generally prefer soft, acidic water which matches the conditions they are suited to in the wild. It is thought that these fish rasp on wood, so having a peice or two of bogwood or driftwood would be ideal.

Feeding: These fish eat algae which form on the tank glass, decorations and gravel, but their diet must be supplemented with meaty foods such as frozen bloodworms, vegetables such as zucchini and cucumber and sinking pallets.

Sexing and Breeding: An easy fish to breed. They mature at around 3" - 4" these fish can be easily sexed by the amount of bristles on their nose, males have a lot of bristles whereas the females have small amount. These fish breed in the males cave, orange eggs are laid by the female and protected by the male, who may not be seen for days, until the eggs hatch. Once the egss have hatched the male will try keep them together in a group, inside his cave, but the fry will slowly become escape and enter the tank. Feed the fry small foods.

Comments: A lovley catfish which is kept by both new and experienced fishkeepers. It is a common fish and is almost always avaliable.

I've found that most BN's sold are very small. The smaller they are, the more fickle they are about water conditions. The BN I bought a few weeks back didn't even last the night, and obviously because it was so small its hard to tell diseases. I've also noticed most BN's in the tank aren't the same type- there are several 'bristlnose plecs' that generally have similar needs but look different and get to different sizes.

Finally, you can also get BN's in albino, longfin and albino longfin

heres my Bristlenose

I've found these fish to be quite difficult to get hold of and, like a poster above, they are always very small unless they have been taken back to a fish shop by a customer. When they're small they tend to grow very quickly to begin with and it doesn't take long before bristles start to grow on their face. They're a very interesting fish and I find mine likes flowerpots!

I have found that BN's also have a nasty little habit of sleeping on heaters, it totally burns their skin and the end up dying, but they still continue to do it!!!
I have had a school of around 6 for ages, and one by one they started dying off!!!
If you have a submersible glass heater, try to install it completely verticle, just to make it difficult for them to sleep on it!!!

Here's my two juveniles

I noticed in the profile you've given the wrong name - the latin name you've used is for the Starlight Bristlenose:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=221

A common bristlenose, as shown in the pics on this thread, is an ancistrus sp. 3 - not found in the wild as it's a tank bred mix up of unknown background.
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...p?species_id=49

Here's my albino bristlenose:


On the right:

My Bristlers

Firstly the Albino Female


And the now somewhat larger (Male)

6 week old bristle nose

Here is a pic of my bristlenose.

Here's a couple of my baby Albino Bristlenose, I have a large male in another tank but I can't get a good picture of him.
Baby Female:

Baby:

Baby 2:


As they grow older the yellow color increases. They are both pretty young

Can I just add that the eggs aren't always orange, when mine spawned the eggs were a creamy yellow and they hatched with absolutely no problems and the fry are growing up happily in my tank.

A few pics of my catfish.