How do you sex albino bristlenose plecos?

[Jessie J.]

Hi everyone. I want to get some albino BN plecos sometime soon, for breeding, but I can only afford two to start with.How can I sex them reliably? Thank you.

 

[Colin_T]

Mature males get long bristles on the face and have hairs on the edge of their pectoral fins. Females have fewer shorter bristles on the face and none on the pectoral fins.

 

[Valerie Adams]

Males will also generally have a large red patch on their heads

 

[Jessie J.]

Okay, thank you!

 

[Demeter32]

Good luck, it took me forever to find a female. I ended up with 4 males and 2 females after buying them 1 or 2 at a time. One female was actually given to me as a mature adult. You won't often find BN at an age that you can sex them accurately. At around 3in you should be able to tell the genders, males will just be starting to get their bristles and females will be getting plump.

Here's an old female, notice she has just a few bristles on the edge of her lip.

Here's a male. Bristles all over his face