What to do with agressive bristlenose .....

My bristlenose tank which is 4ft is set up for breeding at the moment.
I have a 2 bristlenose that are 4cm (sex unknown for now). A male 6cm and recently revived a 8cm male and female, only a week ago.
The 3 younger ones that have been living in the tank while i wait to start up my breeding days were fine for a month then in the past 2 have had chunks of fin missing, i introduced my larger ones that were in perfect condition and on the first day were fine but the 2nd day the female had damaged fins but the large gentle male was knocked up worse than the female. im worried that the 6cm bristlenose is the trouble here, as he is the most damaged and also chases them at feeding time, the larger ones have only been in the tank for about a week now and were fine till they went in my 4ft tank.
They are in no way sick from this and do not look stressed even though its been going on for 2 months, i want them to look there selves again. I doubt breeding will be easy with such a disruptive tank.

The ph is 7 and always has been
never seen an ammonia reading or nitrite reading in the tank
Nitrates are 5-20ppm (depending on ferts for the week for my plants)
Temp is always 22 and when doing water change always drops to 20 then back up slowly
lighting is 8 hours a day
Using fluval 305 and a 300w ehiem jagar
Tank is also heavily planted with val, nana anubias and a large amazon sword about 40cm tall, 3 large pieces of woof in the tank 2 of which are cave like, i dont have breeding caves yet as they are being made from clay and having moss and anubias attached (been waiting a while but will arrive a week from now) there are still lots of hiding places in there and no other fish to bother them and i do a 40% water change every Saturday and 2-3 20% during the week at the moment for the sake of not getting fin rot on the damaged fins.

Whats the go? i dont have another tank big enough for these guys as everything else i have are just AR380's ....................... help guys

Your young male seems to have taken exception to the new male coming into his territory.

You could try rearranging your tank possibly adding more wood if possible and creating caves at each end of your tank, it's a pity your breeding caves are not ready yet, the males will still have a squabble about the new layout and who has what. Hopefully it will settle down and both fish will be happy with half the tank as their territory. If not and there is no option of moving either male you could put a divider in.

Do you place food in different places or just in the one place? If the two males are having to come face to face to get food then they will argue over it.

Ahhhh bristlenose, they have so much personality whether good or bad lol. I'd opt for more wood and caves as stated above. Also mentioned above food should be distributed around the tank so they all get a share.

The 6cm guy is agressive to anyone and has been for 2 months, even the large 8cm female get a bit of a beating from him, just not as simple as moving him to another tank . I would get a divider as a last resort. The female is calm and the 2 young guys are ok to even eat the same wafer. The large male wont chase but nudges them if they swim infront of him when he is rasping on the wood.......the 6cm one is just agressive non stop.

ill try get some more structure in the tank in the following week and try post a picture up tonight or tomrrow night for some ideas and you can see the layout in the tank now.

The caves are shaped like urns and are about 12cm long and 8cm in height and width, also have Anubias Paco and Fontinalis grown onto them, 3 of them will fit in the tank nicley and give structure and territory ... hopefuly ( told today i will get next thursday ). I guess i will just change the tank around when i get the caves and get some extra pieces of wood.

Im feeding 1-2 sera wafer or hikari wafers (what ever they feel like ) 3-4 times a week and i crack them in half and put them in different corners but the 6cm bristlenose is active and can randomly run to other wafers in the tank and chase others. Its defiatley happening at night when i feed them and go to bed haha.

Thanks guys

Any possible way you could take some pics of the tank, caves and fish. It would be easier to give better advice if we can see for ourselves.

Here are some pictures of my setup, the fish are hiding through out the pictures:

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As you can see this is my setup at them moment, lucky i got these pictures today because i might not have been able to. My dad turned to heater off over night thinking he changed to light to the night time L.E.D's but must have turned the heater off aswell. i came downstairs this morning and noticed they had not touched there food all night. Noticed the tank was down to 14 degrees and they were all huddled in the corner of the tank. Turned the heater on and put some seachem stress guard and left to work all worried only ever lost fish to old age except for a bristlenose to bloat before so i was worried i was going to lose all 5. Got home and did 2, 40% water changes as there was some ammonia in the water from the left over food. All seems well and i have not taken many pictures of them as they are stressed.
Last picture is of the big guy, you can see the damage to his fins, his are no where near as bad as my smaller 3. He has taken the cave/wood in the corner on the right for his own, has not left there for 24 hours and is fanning out the front.

These caves are coming soon so i will try locate them under each piece of wood.

Great pics mate, cheers for sharing....

Sounds like you had a lucky escape with the heater...

No problem, seeing as i am starting to move into breeding and bristlenose or whiptails being my favorite ill be using these forums out regularly now Specially as ive just started for my first batch of fry (other than livebearers which just happens!). Yeah i feel more than lucky after seeing them this morning.

P.S. nice s15 in signature

Yeh it was a design i made many moons ago on Forza Motorsport 2......

caves arrived and i set the tank up, will get some more pictures of the tanks new setup. Bristlenose still have damaged fins.....

on the new caves, did you take the oppurtunity to rearrange the tank?

Has the damage to male and female got any worse, or the aggression got any less?

great looking tank

Good luck with the breeding

very nice looking tank..hope they work out there differences as from stated above I would put allot more hiding places for them even some rocks more wood as to break up the bottom of the tank more. my 2 males squabble alittle and only gets bad when the female starts getting ready to spawn. the younger stronger male of mine will chase the other all over the tank, flicking there tails and tangling there spurs.Even when the smaller male runs he gives chase til the other makes it to his cave, then it stops. I fear when that happens in your tank there might be more damage to the small less aggressive males. I would get a divider for when the spawning happens.

ill update this thread with pictures in the coming days as nothing has happened. Either way im not pushing for breeding although i do want them to breed eventualy.

Tank changes are:
No more Vallisneria
Going to get more piece plants like anubias
Temp from 28 > 26 now (everyone seemed happier keep the tank at a constant 26, more fanning is being done when i do a water change even though the temp srop would be a lesser margin)
Water changes are every 2 weeks now not once a week

My males dont fight now, one has a cave while the others cave is on the opposite side. Its my large female and my up and coming male that sometimes get stuck into eachother. He fans everyday 24hours at the same cave and its been going on for a month everyday and the female will try to go in but he blocks the cave off and lowers his head and wont let her in. She wont go near his cave now.

Lookin forward to pics

Good lookin' tank, would love to be a fish in that kind of home

Good luck with breeding and keep us informed.