Female bristlenose pleco?

[Snagrio]

Kind of asked before, but want to be for absolute certain that I have the species correct and I didn't accidentally get a monster in waiting. Apologies for the reflections.


For comparison, here's the very obviously male albino bristlenose that shares the tank with her(?).

And btw, I've heard about bristlenose having aggression with their own kind if they don't have space, but these two are in a 125 gallon and I've not noticed any quarrels thus far.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

That albino BNP looks like a female to me. Males have bristles in the middle of their snout, even at a young age.

I can’t tell on the other pleco. Will you please try to get a few more pictures of its body shape and snout?

 

[Metalman]

Here is Percy the pleco, well bnp to be precise....clearly shows his head side on and I don’t see the bristles on yours tbh Phoenix

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I didn’t upload a photo of my BNP, but here he is:

As you can see, he has bristles all over his snout. Now obviously these are very long compared to how they were when he was a baby. But even when he was young, he still have very small bristles in the middle of his head.

 

[Snagrio]

Odd... Everything I've looked at says females have little to no bristles at all.

My male(?) doesn't have a lot but there's still a few in the middle of the head. Also as I've heard the head of a male tends to be more "fleshy" compared to the more "armored" head of a female, which mine seem to demonstrate.

The best head-on pic I could get of the other one. Also keep in mind the albino is a full grown adult (don't know the age, came with the 125 I bought a couple months ago) while the other was a baby I got from a store a couple years or so ago. So there's age discrepancies to factor in as well.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Oh, now I see the bristles...

It is literally impossible to know 100% what gender it is at this age.

My males bristles seem pretty rigid, not like picture #1 in post #5. I guess God made every Pleco different?

 

[Snagrio]

Oh, now I see the bristles...

It is literally impossible to know 100% what gender it is at this age.

My males bristles seem pretty rigid, not like picture #1 in post #5. I guess God made every Pleco different?

There was another bristlenose I had for some years (sadly passed away a while ago) that started to grow bristles around the age the current one is, but there wasn't a whole lot from what I remember even when it became an adult. From what I can tell, the bristle amount/distribution can vary wildly between males and even females sometimes.

At any rate I don't particularly mind what gender it is, the original question was if the smaller fish was indeed a bristlenose and not some other species that grows into a foot long+ titan.

It was labeled in the tank as a bristlenose, but you never can fully trust the pet store now can you.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

There was another bristlenose I had for some years (sadly passed away a while ago) that started to grow bristles around the age the current one is, but there wasn't a whole lot from what I remember even when it became an adult. From what I can tell, the bristle amount/distribution can vary wildly between males and even females sometimes.

At any rate I don't particularly mind what gender it is, the original question was if the smaller fish was indeed a bristlenose and not some other species that grows into a foot long+ titan.

It was labeled in the tank as a bristlenose, but you never can fully trust the pet store now can you.

It’s definitely not a common Pleco. Safe bets will be that it will grow up to be less than 5 inches long.

 

[Snagrio]

It’s definitely not a common Pleco. Safe bets will be that it will grow up to be less than 5 inches long.

The store was a Pet Supplies Plus (similar to Petsmart and the like) and they have a rather small selection of fish at any given time so I doubt there's a more unusual species it could be either.

 

[Gypsum]

The albino is definitely a male.

The darker pleco might be a juvenile gibbiceps species. I'm not 100% sure it's a bristlenose.

 

[Metalman]

Phoenix what veggie is that your albino is feeding on bud looks like courgette as we call it? I have some broccoli for them to hang inside tank tonight.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Phoenix what veggie is that your albino is feeding on bud looks like courgette as we call it? I have some broccoli for them to hang inside tank tonight.

It’s a slice of blanched cucumber. He loves cucumbers, but they make such a mess, I only feed him a slice once a month.

I normally feed him Fluval Bug Bites Pleco Sticks.