Im not sure why i am having trouble breeding Bristlenose. Switched the settings of the tank around a few times and this is what i have at the moment


This is my tanks setup, its been changed about 3 times.
Recently i cut the pots into halves as they were to high to be safe for breeding.
Now i think maybe too short .

This is a close up.



My 'Female' is about 8cm and the male 7cm and they have been fighting over caves
over the last 24 hours since i cut them, they have never had a go at each other unless
it was food related. Now i am seeing fighting over caves and it goes for half an hour
until they shred fins.
Is 'it' a female.

I have 5 bristlenose in the tank, 2 that are 4cm and to young to sex, another about 6cm which has started to bristle so i am near sure its going to be a male and my 7cm male which is fairly covered and the 'female' which is 8cm. No problems with the first 3 bristlenose at all. But the bigger ones i thought would breed just fight.

Other inhabitants are 6 black neon tetras, 6 Glow light tetras and a rosy barb and none of these even take note or the bristlenose.

Water is
PH: 7
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20

Temp: 24 (drops to 21 when water changes are done)

Lights are only 6 hours a day and i do water changes 50% every week and sometimes maybe even 2. Feeding is every second say using hikari one day and Sera woodchip things the other.

Any suggestions on the sex and if anything looks wrong?

the pictures i have are of the female.

I hada BN, completely bristleless. Could not figure out why they wouldnt breed, they hated each other, until i decided 1 of em was a dud, i moved the 'female' out and added a new female, the new female and my male got it on within days.

The original 'female' once moved from the male and in with another female started growing bristles, turned out she was a he and in turn bred with the female it was with. The female turned male was 7-8cm when the bristles grew *LOL*

yeah, it's always good to buy your male bristlenose a ..... boyfriend. haha hopefully i haven't.

As Alasse has pointed out some males can be late developers or they just get fewer bristles, sometimes having a male that is more dominant can effect them. Fighting over caves is ususlly a male thing.

Pictures from above or below of the fish will help sex them.

The set up looks fine.

This is the best i could be of the female tonight, i waited for an hour next to the tank. She wont come near the glass very often, it could take me weeks to get a shot as ive only seen the small ones on the glass on a daily basis.

I think ur best bet would be buy a female and put her in and see what happens it wont hurt having 2 males or 2 females in there i have several males and several females in my tank and they breed like you wouldnt believe. my males dont argue over caves as i have put heaps in there so also try to put at least 2 more caves in there. the pics def look female. maybe she has to much male hormones lol

Hi,i agree with what others have said,get a female and put her in and see what happens.Also again as has been said add more caves.I drill holes into bog wood about 6 inch deep and 1 and a half inch diameter.They love these and so do the fry.What are the size of the entrance holes in your caves?They like very tight fits.Also if you do a 75% water change this usualy gets them spawning(first you need a definate pair),good luck

P.S My bristlenoses wont use anything on the gravel and also they like them to be enclosed.Get a couple of bristlenose caves made of clay or better still drill into your bogwood if you can but be carefull !! You need a suitable piece of wood that you can drill into 6 inches.If you get clay caves dig them into the gravel so that they are at an upward angle,facing the front of the tank,that way if they use them you can keep an eye on them.This is how i position my wood caves.

To me it does look like a male without bristles. Is there any way you could add a tank devider? And as others have stated get some females in there. If you can't find any in LFS then ask around local breeders.

The caves are about an inch high and 2 and a 1/2 inches wide. They are almost like the ones they sell on thefishcave website but are 2 inches smaller in length. They are using them now they have been cut, they never have used them since now so i was thinking of getting some smaller pieces of wood because i only have large ones and building up some structure at the entrances for them. Even stacking small bits of wood so its harder for them to get into the openings of the caves.

Yeah that would be cool to have some wood caves but have not even breed them in these caves, i would rather get into the breeding more before i can experiment with different caves.

I cant really seperate the tank with a divider, because of the tetras. I want to get another 4ft tank but then talking to my mum and girlfriend about it would be a mission haha. If i do get another female i would have 6 bristlenose in a 4ft tank. Is this going to be ok? or is it too crowded. If this 'female' is a male then i will have 3 males in the one tank and 1 female :S

i agree with Kfenk! that it looks like a male. the bump on the nose is a tell tale sign.

Its always tricky when they wont breed for you but keep at it. I would also suggest going with a prefab cave rather than a pot one as they seem to like one with a bottom. Not sure why but i guess it feels more safe.

When I am first trying to get a group to breed i put in several different caves and let the male choose the one he wants as he is the one who is going to use it. The other thing to remember is that it is now just heading into the dark and gloomy months over there which means that the bristlenose are just gearing up for sexy time. they breed most proliffically over winter for many reasons.

If you are desperate to get them breeding then i would get a breeding pair and add them in. the tank looks big enough to take a few

my bn wont use any caves unless they r the clay ones also fussy little buggers i wasnt aware of the bump on the nose :| ive got abou 12 bn in my 4 footer and no trouble with breeding in there. it does depend on the bn to

hmm seems im getting a lot of comments on the caves. What i will do is get some Selleys Glass Silicone and glue the other halves of the pots together so they are a lot longer. Then ill shift the gravel out of the way where they sit and put them down so there on the bottom of the tank glass so it makes a flat surface?????

Also going to order some D caves aswell (found some on ebay australia), i didnt no they were so fussy. That way ill have about 5 caves for them to choose from ...... which means ill need more wood and bits, haha. Sounds like i need to get a Female for sure aswell. Ill be looking around this afternoon when work is over. ill keep this updated as i may have trouble getting a female.

The breeder i got them off has tried to stop his before when he couldnt afford it and they were still breeding in the corner of his tank in the gravel and under wood aswell.

yeah, once they get going they can be hard to stop. mine have bred in all sorts of odd places including once just in the corner of the tank totally exposed...

I would try instead of putting them on the bottom I would get a bit of spare glass and silicone it straight to that. I think the issue may be that the feel the open bottom cave is not secure enough.

Maybe you could sell the female/male or swap him/her if you are getting over crowded unless of course you are attached Once you have sorted the caves out you may then discover if he/she is in fact a male or not,good luck and keep us posted.

In the fourth picture whose nose is poking into the shot ?