Are my plecs male or female?

Hi all, newbie here I have 2 juvi bristlenose plecs both around 3 months old and around 2 inches in length, one is behaving quite aggressively to the other bristlenose and whenever they get within a few inches of one another one will get aggressively chased away, they are in a 90l tank with plenty of aeration and bogwood at a temp of around 26 degrees they are fed cucumber, spinach, spiriluna tabs, algae wafers and bloodworms, they are the first bristlenoses I have kept and I would like to breed them one day if they are a pair, think I have read somewhere on this forum that you can tell if they are male or female by the shape of their snouts?! I have taken some pics of the underside of their mouths if anyone can help, many thanks! not sure if this behaviour is normal? they were fine together to begin with, the aggressive one has been in the tank a little longer as I got the other one sometime after so not sure if this has anything to do with it.
This the the aggressive one, it's only just a little bigger then the other one,

This is the one that is submissive,

I would say you have a male AND a female there, judging by the their mouth shape. The top one looks male and the bottom looks female.
But then, I'd say wait for the experts to come in, I'm terrible at gender distinction myself xD

Wouldn't worry about the aggressiveness, so long as noones getting hurt My eldest two (a year each) love the chase the other 3 away from each of their little spots.

Thanks for the response, that was my thought also, I really hope I have a pair! I know the pics aren't great! there is a fair bit of algae on the glass and I took the photos with my mobile, will get some better pics up soon

At a quick glance id say you have 2 females there..,...

They will be far more aggresive than two male's aswell especially when food is involved.....

could you post me a few pics of them from above ....

do either have any bristle's???

Hi, I have a couple of pics, not sure they will help! I'm struggling to get a good top shot as the tank is deep and the substrate dark, think the pics are of the same fish the one that is submissive, neither plec has any bristles at all and they are reaching the 2 inch mark, I will try to get some more pics later hopefully if I can get them against the terracotta pot they will be better!

Not good pics, but they both appear to be females. however at only 2 inches it may be too early to be certain

My guess would be that you have two females. Hard to tell for sure at this age. I look at the body shape when they are this young. Females are usually more rounded and males are a bit longer and leaner. Only one way to find out for sure and that will simply take some time.

Got a new youngster today hoping this one's male it's just over an inch long though so a tad smaller than the other two, any thoughts at this stage?

Guess I should just learn to be patient!

not the best of pics but im going for females

me too id say you have got another female....

Make sure you get one with bristle's up the nose mate....

Oh dear! strange thing was in the tank the one I picked did have bristles around it's snout, at 2 inches would this be a dead cert for a male? the bristles weren't going up the nose though but there was a few in there and he had a job catching the one I wanted so ended up bagging anyone he could catch! there was a beautiful mature male in one of the other tanks that I was thinking of buying but he probably would have cost more and my girls would need some time to catch up with him!

YES THEY WOULD NEED TIME AND MIGHT NOT MATE WITH HIM, I HAVE TRIED SEVERAL ways of buying stock, but its limited here in Ireland.
Bought big female and some smaller males no mating, when i bought a group of the same size fish from different lfs knowing they had different suppliers they bred. Feed them twice daily and wait to see what happens. Its a waiting game, but when the males dissappears for a week well u know u will be smoking a cigar soon.
Best of luck, i am sure the guys on here will fill u in a lot more than i can
Regards,
Denis

I have noticed this morning that my new fish appears to be developing a light coloured ridge up his nose, does this mean it's about to sprout bristles?!
I have added my larger female plec to the tank now and they have met with no sign of aggression from her although this could just be because she is on unfamiliar ground, anyway here are the pics I have taken this morning, once again I am sorry for the dismal quality of them yet again but they do show what I am trying to explain must get my digi camera batteries sorted! :roll:

It is my understanding that common BN females rarely have any bristles at all, and the few that do develop them do so at an older age when they are fairly large. This only applies to the common BN and not the other species of BN that do often have bristled females. This being the case, if a common is at a smaller size and shows any bristles then it is probably a male. This has held true with all the common BN I've had so far; every BN that showed bristles at a young age did indeed turn out to be male. This has been true of those of my own breeding and those I purchased so it's not just a quirk of a particular line. The age at which they develop bristles is quite variable and dominance plays a part also, many sub dominant males take a long time to develop bristles so an un bristled one could still be either gender, time is the only answer to that one.

I agree amber...

all my common females who are breeding have no bristle's atol...

9 times out of 10 if they establish bristles from a young age then they tend to turn out male....

My advice would to be feed the females you have well and go and buy a fully mature male....

you will also be surprised at what size the females sometimes spawn at...

And sometimes you do get a fussy male but the females will not be they tend to pick on the most kind hearted male..

My albino male as no say so in the spawning process they just push there way in and he looks as if to say oh not again just hurry up,,

although my brown male has a cave and gives the come on signals to the females but they are not interestid with him .....

Took your advice Curby and got the mature male I saw today, he is around 4-5 inches so would I be right in thinking he is fully grown? he cost £7.50 thinking this may be a bit dear for a fully grown bristlenose or would you say it's about right? he did originally say 5.95 but then came back and said 7.50 :roll: when I originally asked how much the male bristlenose was he pointed to the large common pleco in the tank and said 9.99! seems they don't appear to know what they are doing in there so I think I may have been had on the price a bit but never mind I have him now

7.50 is cheap !

Jagtazman wrote:

7.50 is cheap !

Great! even better he's doing very well and has even found the cave I made him

your onto a winner mate....

Lots of baby bristlenoses everywhere! counted at least 20 this morning alone, I suspected they had spawned as the male had been hiding away in his cave for some time and then one of the females appeared much skinnier, they are already about a cm long!
They don't appear to be eating their veggies much just algae, is this ok? do I need to supplement their diet with anything? the parents get courgette, cucumber and bloodworm pellets, what is the success rate on these little guys? do a lot die off before they reach a certain size? also I really wanted an albino but they all appear brown is there any chance I will get any albinos in future spawns with either females even though they are all common browns? thanks!
Here is a pic of one

Hi Bristlenose
Congrats on your fry.. Those caves are popular aren't they..
I would think if you have algae in your tank, the bubs should be ok, & your feeding the parents so the bubs would have a munch if they need to.
I had a batch not long back & all survived, with no special treatment, cept for many water changes & good food..
The survival rate would depend on their environment.
Re the albino, you will only get an albino if your breeders have the genes..
Have fun with your babies.

That was quick lol...well done mate....

So we do come in handy now and again on here....