Please identify my Bristlenose

My partner brought me my first Bristlenose 8 months ago and I've been besotted with him since, his name is Spike, he is a fully grown male, he was fully grown when brought. We brought two females some 5 months ago hoping he will breed with one of them but to no avail, everything is just as it should be in my tank, its a 23 gallon tank with lots of fresh plants, caves and a nice piece of Bogwood, Spike is king of his castle and wants for nothing, we are under suspicion that he will not breed because he may be a different type of Bristlenose, he looks like an L100 Ancistrus becauase his bristles are pitchforked at the ends, can anyone here tell me from his two photos what type of Bristlenose he is please. Thanks in advance.

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It does not look like a common BN to me, but it also does not look like an L100, branching of the bristles occurs on many types of BN's, I think on L100's the spotting is an even size throughout the fish whereas on youre it appears to be getting larger between the dorsal and caudal fins. See the PROFILE HERE

What colour are the spots and is it possible to get some clearer pictures.




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Hi m8, i'm pretty sure that your B.N. is a beautiful male Ancistrus hoplogenys, L059, I have sub adults of this species & they are almost identical to your fish except for some russet brown colour along the pectoral,dorsal & cadual fin rays but I am told that the colour dissapears as the fish becomes a mature adult. He is definitley not L100, i have a wild caught breeding adult trio of that species & they have no pattern in thier fins exept a few white speckles. Hope this helps, he's a beautiful beast whatever his identity in my book.Regards Mike.

Many thanks Mike, I will try and do some reasearch on the Ancistrus hoplogenys L059.

Jim: I will try and get more pictures of Spike but no promises, he wont keep still for very long, he hates having pictures taken.

His spots are an Ivory colour.

I have got some more pics and an older one that I found, good luck peeps!!

I have no idea as to what kind of BN he is, except that he is a frightfully charming fella!

Hey,

Could he simply be a common bristlenose? His markings match and his coloring could be due to the lighter color of substrate that he is blending to...

His markings are obviously to small and pale to be an orange spot but perhaps he is from a mixed bloodline because as you said, his spots are ivory in color which is lighter then the usual commons.

Correct me if I'm wrong:)

Hi,have you got photo's of the females?

Looks just like mine, which I've believed to be common

My money is on a common bristlenose. Classic black spot at the start of the dorsal fin.

Looking at the new photo's he may be a common.

The two females look very small compared to the male, even if the picture was taken when you got them, they may be still to young to breed. Bn's normally mature at about 9-10 months old.

No they are just two baby bristlenoses we brought a few months back, lol, we dont know what gener they are yet!

We will try and get a picture of the female at feeding time with a bit of luck and I will post it on here.....she's worse than Spike for photos!!

Looks like a common to me....
a very perfect origanal example....good blood lines...

he will be a great breeder

Agreeing with the rest, looks like a lovely healthy male common bn to me...Congrats