What gender is my bristlenose?

[yeswaitnosorry]

I would like to get some more of these. What is a good number and ratio?

I have a 90cm tank with a lot of driftwood and plants.

Thanks

 

[poeticwinter]

how big the bn, look like male

[AllyL]

Congratulations! Its a Boy.

[yeswaitnosorry]

Thank you both.

[2OFUS]

How old is it ? Is it a juvi ?

Females get the bristles aswell

Males have a bushy face

where females that grow the bristles tend to have them on the top lip

[yeswaitnosorry]

It's about 5 - 5.5cm long. I've had it for 6 months. It was much smaller when I got it.

[2OFUS]

I'm going to say its a female

Judging by the "lack" of bristles

It should have Afew bristles higher up the face by now if it was male

[2OFUS]

These photos are of females with bristle

[2OFUS]

Another

[petfish]

i would also say female due to the lack of bristles, males have them up the face, mainly up the centre of face to the eye level nearly. i've been told that if you run your finger tip over the bristle's the F's is soft rubbery feel but the M's has a feel like stubble/hard feel at the base of the bristle's, (but have not tried this myself)

[OzShrimp]

I would actually say its female aswell, i used to breed them and like 2ofus said there should be more bristles for it to be a male and their generally alot bigger.

You will notice a difference if you do the touch test personally it freaks me out touching them lol, i love fishing but never take the fish off the hook myself lmao.

 

In terms of ration i would recommend a minimum of 2/3 females to male, they will actually fight for your girls and the last thing that you want is for them to kick out eggs ad you lose BN fry. 

 

Have you got any ceramic caves for them ?

[Eshrimp]

+1 on Female. I use to breed them to sell to shops and i would put her in as a female at that size.

[OzShrimp]

Heres a video of some of my old ones you see the bristles on the male 

http://vid76.photobucket.com/albums/j21/VrXtc/PeppermintAggression.mp4

 

edit: you will see one of my girls at the end which as you will notice has bristles like yours.

Had to go searching for that video lol 

Edited August 25, 2014 by OzShrimp

[yeswaitnosorry]

Thanks all. Female gets the vote.

I don't want to breed any, maybe I'll just keep a couple of females.