Sexing A Young Bn

[mikev]

A funny experience today: I bought a couple of young (1.5") albino BN's and was pretty sure that they cannot be sexed for a while....but when we took their pictures and magnified ...

I think it is fairly conclusive....even if one cannot see the rudimentary bristles by simply looking at the pleco.

The other one is "clean":

 

[wendywc]

Cute! Looks like they are both working hard in cleaning your tank; nice pooping.

 

[mikev]

Cute! Looks like they are both working hard in cleaning your tank; nice pooping.

Thanks!
Continuous pooping for about 8 hours now...they eat and poop at the same time.

The way they are going, glass will be clean by Friday, then hopefully they would not mind cleaning the plants....

 

[andyj]

They're both still a bit 'small' to sex I'd say.

On some 'common bristlenose' species, the female also develops 'bristles' but these tend to be around the lip, where as the males will usually get bristles on their lip and also going up their nose onto their head.

If you can get some shots from above (putting them in a glass jug is the easiest way) we might be able to have a better idea then

I reckon about another month and you'll have more of a better idea on their sex.

Hope that helps!

Andy

 

[Bloo]

then hopefully they would not mind cleaning the plants....

Careful what you wish for ! This is less than half an hour after putting new plants into my tank
Needless to say, they went back to the shop (the fish - not the plants!)

(A bit too early to really sex yours yet I'd say)

 

[bogwood]

then hopefully they would not mind cleaning the plants....

Careful what you wish for ! This is less than half an hour after putting new plants into my tank

blimey bloozoo2, your BN must have titanium teeth!... my BN scours all my Swords leaves but doesn't do that...

 

[Bloo]

blimey bloozoo2, your BN must have titanium teeth!... my BN scours all my Swords leaves but doesn't do that...

You're telling me ! They were zipped out ultra quickly and put into a bucket and I asked the shop to have them back. It's not as though they were hungry or anything - I've had them for ages and they were eating / pooping machines. But after that little plant feast, my sand was covered in long strings of bright green poop !

 

[mikev]

Thanks a lot for your comments.

On sexing: I see your point, andyj. The nose seems to be clean (at least I could not see anything), so I guess I need to wait and see. My hope is that these are females...I already have a slightly larger brown BN in another tank, and HIS bristles are just now showing up..indeed mostly on the nose. (I don't like returning fish, but if I end up with three males, this may be forced).

On plants: thank you for the good news, bloozoo2. These are exactly the plans I was hoping they will clean...

When I looked at the tank in the morning, the front side was entirely clean, the ground was covered by poop, one of the plec was working on a plant (did not have time to access the damage), and the second one dissappeared. Turned out that he found a hiding place...inside the filter...

Question: am I right that brown and albino BN's are the same species and can be mixed?

 

[mikev]

Unfortunately, it appears that bloozoo2 was right.

First these guys cleaned up the glass -- excellent job, took them two weeks.
Then they cleaned up the largest plant -- pretty good job too.
Now, one is cleaning the driftwood, and the other is eating the plant...just like on the bloozoo2's picture.

Darn,,,it all was going so nicely....

 

[Bloo]

sorry to hear. Many people seem to have success with them - but they are such greedy little buggers that you can't blame them tucking into a lovely gourment of fresh leaves !

 

[mikev]

I think this has to do with young plecos and specifically this plant -- the leaves are juicy.

Here is another totally unexpected BN discovery: for a few days this tank hosts hillstream loaches (until their tank is ready). I put in a powerhead so that half of the tank has current, but another half is quiet; I expected BN's to stay in the quiet area. But no, looks like they actually like some current, one was sitting for an hour where the current is the strongest.

I wonder if anyone has current in pleco tanks...

 

[Bloo]

Most plecs absolutely love current - and many will only breed if they have a direct current right into their breeding cave. Many will also sit right underneath the strong outflow of the current

 

[arcticwynta]

A female can get bristles but not as many as a male so I also would wait for a little longer and yes an albino can be breed with a normal coloured BN as it is only a pigmentation gene.