Hi, as a newbie and hooked on BN's can someone tell me when do the males bristle-up? Is it size or age related?cheers,Yvette

When I bought mine, there were several small bristles on the lips and around the gill/fin area. I couldn't really see the later, but my net did. However in the front of his face right in the middle of the smaller ones, there are two that are much longer. On some of the others that were in the tank at the LFS their bristles were much smaller. I'm not sure how old he is, but the fish were def. not mature. I think it's like with most other things, it goes from individual to individual. Hope you get some bristles soon.

Eaglehorsesmom

I'm still looking! :[IMG]http://i4

Maturity and time are the best gauges Yvette- and possibly good stock. The first noticeable
off spring that I saved from my first batch of fry, I call him JBJ ( James Brown Jnr) is about
15 months old and has a full set of bristles just like the old man- full set down the middle of
the face even with tiny little splits, every fish will be different - just depends which catergory
your fish comes into - unless they are all females ( you lucky begger) then you just need to get
a male with different blood lines and rock'n'roll.
J

My common BN got his first bristles around the lip at about 1.5". he's 2" now and has them growing on the middle of his face... he'll probably have a full head of them in 6 months.

i have had a female thinking it was a ale i have had for 1.5 years and thought it was a male till like last week till saw the little bristles only around her outh im like gobsmacked until i actually read how to sex i wasnt very dissapointed till i realised that females get small sometimes no bristles and tendto be smaller just my luck huh?

AH thats good luck Brislz, much easier to walk into a shop and buy male . Out my original 2 B/N that I brought over 3 years ago , I thought I had one of each(M/F), as time passed the bristles kept appearing but not growing huge on the female ,
I've seen the big hairy female in the males cave- which just confirms that some females will get bristles.
J

yeah as i said mine has grown little ones i think they will get bigger after all shes only like 1.1/2 years old

I asked a breeder once about this when i was buying some adults. he showed me a good way to check. when you have him/her out of the water, feel the bridge of its nose with your finger, if it is soft and squishy then you know its definately a male, (even if there are no bristles at all) because the soft part is the area where the bristles develop. if its hard and rough to touch, then its definately a female. I tried this on a few before i bought them and it was very accurate. i think they need to be at least an inch in size to do this though. hope this helped.

Thanks for all your replies - I still can't see any but I'll have a feel next time I catch them up! lol. Does being long fin albino make any difference?Yvette

no it doesn't make any difference except for the fins of course

if you take a look at the picture of my female albino in the gallery section you will see she had bristles only on the top lip and see is 6" in length