female common?

is this a female common bristlenose?

looks like a female ancistrus to me.

though pictures do not do it much justice right now, they can be hard to photo :?(

looks like a smaller version of my female ancistrus....

though it could prove me wrong with more growth or better photographs...lol..

It's hard to tell with those photo's.

My first impression with the second photo was that it's female but can not be 100% sure.

If you could get a clearer photo of it's underside, if possible, would help.

It's looking stressed, is it new?

no its not new i've had it quit a while but i just recently put it in this tank.
can it breed with this male? or are they the same?

If I was pushed I'd say you have a pair of commons but I'm not 100% sure. Sorry

Some clearer photo's when they have settled in will help.

are these better?

you have a pair of commons but the female is really skinyy try feeding some cucumber pelletsetc to try get her back to her normal size.

OwNz wrote:

you have a pair of commons but the female is really skinyy try feeding some cucumber pelletsetc to try get her back to her normal size.

I'll agree with Ownz it looks like a pair of common BN's, but it may be just the angle of the photo making it look skinny.

Adding a little extra protein to the diet will help condition them, Give them good diet of vegetables supplemented with a bit of bloodworm once or possibly twice a week to get them in tip-top condition. There is always the chance of bloat when adding extra protein so just keep an eye out for bloat and if they do show signs then switch to a vegetable only diet.

I always think males look sorry for themselves when out of water

i will but i don't have any cucumber or frozen bloodworms just dried ones. can you feed them regular worms?

There are plenty of alternatives if you don't have cucumber HERE the more varied the diet the better.

If your LFS don't have suitable live/frozen foods you could use pleco tablets once a week, or you could try rehydrating the dried bloodworms so they sink to the bottom, but I find live food is better for conditioning.

i never feed them regular worms, Doug might be able to help on this, but I remember reading a article some where that they can sometimes add parasites to the tank and fish and since I was not happy in the risk thought I woul stay clear of adding any garden worms to the tank for now.

Think it is a question and topic still open to debate, but when your breeding I tend to stay on the side of caution

They also like lettuce, spinach and broccoli.....

as previous posts have suggested she does appear a little thin, though this can be common with young fish and new set ups as there is not as much algae or food in the system to munch on when you don't feed them

I some times leave some old filter media in the breeding tanks to aid in bacteria, and also leave the light on a extra few hours to help algae growth increase.... just decrease lighting if algae generates too quickly.....

i think she looks skinny because of how i'm holding her and shes mad