Bought myself a Bristlenose Pleco this morning only they called it a Bushy Nose Pleco. It was in a tank with about a dozen others all about 3" long. Once the guy dip the net in to the tank there were fish going every which way so picking out a particular one was out of the question. I know I saw bristles on others in the tank but when I got mine home and in my tank I could not see any bristles. How big does a Bristlenose have to be before they get their bristles? Mine does seem to be a little smaller than others that were in the tank.
Here's a picture of the Pleco I got this morning. Does it look like a Bristlenose to you?



DLH

It's really hard to do with that shot. Can you get a head shot of it. If its a bn it could be a female as they don't usually have bristles.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

i posted a commento n the gallery pic. But like i said if thats a male there is no chance its a BNP, if its a juvie female then there is a chance that it just hasnt developed its bristles yet. If that is over 4 inches long than its not a BNP in my oppinoin.

I didn't know that about female Bristlenose. I thought the females just had fewer bristles.

I realized the first picture I posted didn't show all of the nose so I replaced it with another. If you would like a picture taken from directly above, let me know. Another thing I just noticed. Don't all natural colored Bristlenoses have very distinct spots. This one and I think all the ones in the store look more like a common in coloration.

DLH

There is all kinds of color variations of bns. The one in the pic, is it a brown, that is the normal coloration.

Some females will get bristles around the edge of the nose but not on top like a male and some won't.

Albino male topped out at 5 1/2 inches


3 different color variations


These are all females


And all kinds of babies here


And a green one, fully grown

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Thanks susankat for all the great pictures. In both the "3 different color variations" and the "These are all females" pictures the top fish looks the most in coloration like mine. I printed out the picture of mine and went back to the fish store, it's only a few blocks from me, to show them. When we looked at the tank where my fish came from about a third of the fish had no bristles. Since the object of me buying a Bristlenoe is the bristles, he agreed to trade mine for one that had bristles and here's a picture of him.

DLH

He looks good, Sometime get you a female and you can have some babies too. I breed mine and sell to lfs here in town. Right now I have a bunch of the green dragon babies that people are lining up for.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Susan,I got all excited, seeing the pic of your fry... Paitently waiting till they are big enough!
My tank of the month submission will be their new home. :p

__________________
"Buddha in your tank"

Oh that's not all of them, there is a bunch of fry in the 220 and some just hatched in the log in there.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Susan

The 2 dark fish in your photos. The spotted one and the one like mine. Are both those patterns found in nature? Same thing for the green one.

DLH

Yes the 2 are found in nature that way, the green was done by a lot of line breeding. In fact in the 50 fry from them there is 7 albinos out of the hatch.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html