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If you haven't came across these before, they are great algae eaters, unlike the common pleco they won't eat your live plants, and are more suitable size wise (common plecs grow large and need a fair size tank to be housed correctly).
Bristlenose - Ancistrus Sp.(3), grow to about 6-8 inches in length, the males have long bristles, with the longest being up the centre of their head, they also have shorter bristles around the front of the head, the females do not have these long bristles up the centre of the head but they do have some very short bristles around the front of their head, females are also smaller than males in both length and body mass.
You need to have a piece of bogwood in the tank as this is an important part of the bristlenose diet and plays an important part in the breeding process. Food wise you can have a tank that has green glass from algae and 4 of these youngsters will make it totally clean in 2-4 days, they are really busy algae eaters, they will also eat any missed fish food, that said you do need to feed them a good diet ofcourse and you can do this alternating with cucumber, peas and once a week catfish pellets.
It is not possible to determine gender at a young age for the majority of us, you need to wait until they are 6-12 months old, an interesting aspect of breeding these catfish is that the mother, father and all their fry will live together in the same tank and the parents do not eat the fry. You should ofcourse ensure the tank is of a suitable size.
Bristlenose like mature water in the tank so they are not a good fish for a newly set up tank you need to wait some time, 6-12 months really.
The easiest way to find a pair is to get some sub-adults (almost adult) or adults the gender differences are then quite apparent. Settle them in your mature tank, feed them well, give them a nice cave to hide in, some bogwood, and they will breed for you, even in the community tank, if you choose a nice large piece of bogwood, say 18x6 inches and curved, they will dig under it and use it as their cave, providing them with prime access to the bogwood, they will lay their eggs on the underneath of the bogwood over other hides, so it is important.The first photo below shows the eggs attached to the bogwood, the male fans the eggs with his fins to maintain a steady temperature, water flow and cleans them until they hatch.
Here are some photos of the eggs and how the fry looked when they were younger.
Bristlenose Catfish Eggs
Bristlenose fry eating some cucumber
Bristlenose fry sucking on the tank walls, already looking for algae
Bristlenose male - face and dorsal fin
Bristlenose male - head close-up
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