I initially thought this bn was a female. I've had her for several years now. But as I'm looking at other bn pictures, she seems to have too many tiny bristles. Do males ever have short bristles? I have very hard alkaline water (KH and GH 20+, pH 8.3-8.5). Would that affect bristle development? She's been in my tank for years, since she was a tiny baby.

The one with the long forked bristles - I know he's a male! LOL!

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What do you think?

its a boy, def a boy.

Only males have bristles running up their nose and even tho this fella's are small they are still there. on top of that he has the bump on his nose. the reason behind this bump is not clear to me but some males have it and others dont, however, no females ever have it. I suspect its some sort of mutation of the bristle gene. they still breed perfectly fine and are healthy.

Do you know why he would have such short bristles?

Thanks for the quick answer!

some do and some dont. If you take into consideration the height of the bump they are not that far off normal size, they are just mostly hidden in his bump. I have a male similar to this. seems to be more common in albino and calico males.

in general the size of bristles varies considerably. I have seen some males with bristles that male you think he could use them to swim, while others have little nubs. just the genetic luck of the drawn is my guess.

def a male for e too, doug not often wrong either... lol..

There's one thing iv had happen to me before. I purchased 2 adult females to go with a male I had. 1 didn't have any bristles but the other had little ones around the front lip of the head. LFS guy assured me it was a female as they wer supposedly capable of having small bristles too. Couple weeks later she had taken up residence in a cave and the bristles had grown longer. So she was actually a he. Now doug mite be able to shed some light on why males would disguise themselves like this. My guess would be a dominance thing. Bigger stronger male gets the cave therefor he should have the bigger bristles to attract a female. U could see what would happen if the male with smaller bristles had his own tank, cave and females. Would be interested to find out how that would turn out

The male with the tiny bristles has been living alone in the 125gal for several years. I guess no one to show off to maybe??

I suspect he did not appreciate the boyfriend I purchased for him... LOL!

His bristles have actually gotten quite a bit more prominent since I brought the other male home. I guess I am in the market for some girls now.