Bristlenose Plecs

[Cichlid-Man]

Well today on a trip to the LFS just to pick up the free gift certificate they were giving away....I stumbled across some great looking bristlenose plecs. They had just come in and were the best i've seen around here, so i got 2.

To make this trip even more intresting....another guy got 2 BN's right before me (He got the good ones!! >.<). So both employees that were helping us went and bagged up the fish at the bagging station. Just when they finished tying the bags....bam....the power shuts off. The entire city block, gone (traffic accident + power poles = bad). Anyway, after they dealt with the tanks and filters and what not they started checking everyone out old school style. A calculator and a piece of paper. (Oh incase anyone is wondering.....there is a lever on the bottem of the cash registers and you pull that and the drawer opens. Don't waste your time smashing it. ) Anyway after i got to the car with my stuff, yes i got a free $5 gift certificate, hey 5 is better than nothing, i checked out my fish. Wow! In all the confusion inside and the pitch black dark i got his good BN's!!! . He didn't pick them out so he won't care, the LFS guy did for him. So they are mine....muhahahaha!

So thats my trip to the LFS for today. Anyone have any sexing info on these guys?

Here is a pic of one of the Plecs...

 

[ecotank]

Nice grab...now how did you manage to shut down a whole electrical grid just to nab the better plecs? I know it wasn't an accident...how'd ya do it?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Thanks, well see first i dripped water onto the store wires...that shorted out the short and made a powerful charge that traveled into the main lines outside blowing up the whole block

 

[depthC]

Lol, well lucky you. I can tell your pretty observative since you actually noticed you got the better bag. And that they pull a lever to open the register. Good observations.

.dc

 

[trouthead]

I personally don't know about these fascinating guys/girls, but was intrigued enough to research, here is what found about sexing:-

Lisa Brinkman's website:

Males develop tentacles along their head while the females do not get these tentacles. There is no other discernible differences in the sexes. Males do not get these tentacles until they are approximately 1 year old.

Other references to bristlenose sexing:-

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/ancistru/49_f.php

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/ancist.htm

http://pub157.ezboard.com/fthetropicaltankdiscussionforum41828frm3.showMessage?topicID=756.topic

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Thanks depth, thanks a lot trout

Yes well the owner came up and shouted....."There is a lever on the bottem of the register to open the drawer"........well ok then

 

[Sprite42]

THe females do get the bristles. The difference is the male has a row of bristles that runs from the tip of the snout right up between the eyes. The female does not have this.

IME, the bristles start to show well before the one year age mark. I have two that are about 6 months old and the bristles are growing nicely. But, mine are albinos so that may make a difference.

 

[trouthead]

Hi Sprite42

The stuff I read didn't say that females didn't have bristles, it was the extent of bristles that was commented on i.e. snout versus head.

 

[Sprite42]

Yeah, I read that too! But, was wondering about the amount of bristles. I got mine from a breeder and they are albinos (all six of them). They all seem to have a full face of bristles except two and they have the line of bristles running up the middle of the face.

The breeder says these are the males and the only way to tell. But, I haven't noticed the females being wider than the males anywhere. They all look identical otherwise.

I was beginning to second guess myself and the breeder, LOL, as to what I have or what species I have.

I meant no harm and prolly should have worded different. It was late after a long day. My apologies.

 

[blueturq]

females have very few bristles on their face, and the males are loaded with them.

HTH

 

[wayne]

Bristle noses plecs come from any one of about 70 (!) different species so bristle development is a bit tricky to detect. One of the upsides of buying them together is that you can be sure m/f pairs can actually breed together

 

[houseof6]

What i have heard is that males bristles start to branch off at the end so there are two points coming of the end of most of the bristles. Kind of like a tree branch. Females have very few if any bristles that branch off. I'm not positive but thats what i have heard.