when do bristlenoses develop bristles?

i am waiting for my marble bristlenoses to mature so i can breed them at what size do they usually develop bristles? any information would be a great help

High winralove, generally you should be able to some sort of bristle growth by about 12 months maybe a touch longer.
J

thanks very much at what size do they usually develop themm as one of my bristlenoses is growing faster than the others and i was wondering if i should exspect this to be the male i dont know how old my bristenoses are so would be a great help if it was in cm's? thank you.

If you take a peek at my thread "a premium bristlie" and look at the 2nd foto-- he was the best developing
fish from my first batch of babies.
@ 7-8-9 months old(and about 6cm) you can just start to see 2 small bristle at the front of his nose.
He got moved on to friends house and proceeded to go ballistic growing bristles, in almost the exact same
pattern as dad just not as long at the young age.
Mind you he was probably an exception , I haven't had a fish develope like that for a while,
nearly every fish will develope at a different rate with their own ups and downs.
J

Kurosaki J wrote:

If you take a peek at my thread "a premium bristlie" and look at the 2nd foto-- he was the best developing
fish from my first batch of babies.
@ 7-8-9 months old(and about 6cm) you can just start to see 2 small bristle at the front of his nose.
He got moved on to friends house and proceeded to go ballistic growing bristles, in almost the exact same
pattern as dad just not as long at the young age.
Mind you he was probably an exception , I haven't had a fish develope like that for a while,
nearly every fish will develope at a different rate with their own ups and downs.
J

I found that with my bristle nose they started growing their bristles when they were 7 months old (about 5cm).
a couple of months later the bristles had grown all around the head of my male albino bristle nose.

So I got my very first Bristlenose on Chrstmas Eve and she was about 2.5" long (6cm). As far as I can see, she doesn't have any bristles at all as yet although I can now see that she is definately getting those lovely yellow spots on her, which I hadn't seen to much of when I first got her? So I presume that she is a she? I would like to have a go at breeding them as I have a bit of spare space for breeding and keeping tanks. She is in a communal aquarium at the moment but with only about a half dozen or so other fish, all Danios (Zebras, Leopards and WCMM) and Panda Cory.

I also wondered: Do Bristlenose' eat snails as I read just now that some Pleco's do eat snails but most are solely algae eaters The piece I read, didn't unfortunatly go into any detail and explain exactly which particular Plecos do eat snails? I only ask this as I have just this evening, put some small Malaysian Trumpet Snails in the aquarium and a Brown Ramshorn Snail, with some Red Ramshorn arriving tomorrow and a large Zebra and couple of small Apple Snails at the weekend. Cheers!

Well those "lovely yellow spots" mean nothing when sexing bristlies, head structure is best indicater- especially the raised section through the middle of the face, most males will develope bristles down the center of the head- but I have seen a real monster of a fish with only 2 bristles at the front of his lip but he still had a huge raised section down his nose making him look a bit like a rhino.
Snails: bristlies will eat some snails , my pepps have a slight go at them rams horn things, as for malaysian trumpets- I'd take the little buggers out straight away - they breed like crazy , very hard to eradicate and most fish wont eat them including bristlies, or you could leave them there if you like snails.
J

I know the "loverly yellow spots" mean nothing. I was just mentioning it as I had never noticed them before and it looked like she, if it is indeed a she (and to be quite honest, I don't intend taking it out to have a look at either), was looking quite nice, as far as nice can go with a Plecostomus anyway, but each to their own!

I got "her" because "she" was cheap (ain't most single females?), well looked after and from a reputable breeder, that's all, as I wouldn't have bothered otherwise. They don't really hold any facination for me but it is very nice to be able to join a dedicated forum for these fish, never having kept one before. The advice will be a boon I am sure! !