Fighting Bristlenoses ?

[Realtree]

2 possibly 3 of my bristlenoses have started fighting amongst themselves. They are all juveniles approx 1.5 - 2 " . I have 5 in my tank at the moment.
Is this a sign that they need to be thinned out now ?
Also how can you recognise the gender of them ? i do have one that is definitely paler in colour (and is not involved in the fighting) - is this a female ??

 

[KittyKat]

Males have bristles, females don't (well.. sometimes one or two very short ones, more of bumps on the edge of their noses). You are probably right in that they need to be thinned out. How big is your tank? Do you notice fighting mainly when there is food in the tank?

 

[Realtree]

Males have bristles, females don't (well.. sometimes one or two very short ones, more of bumps on the edge of their noses). You are probably right in that they need to be thinned out. How big is your tank? Do you notice fighting mainly when there is food in the tank?

Tank is 180L
the fighting seems to be at any time but has calmed off at the moment.
The bristlenoses are definitely more active today for some reason

 

[KittyKat]

How many of what sex have you got? How many caves? Are they well spread out? Probably one of the females is ready to breed and the males are fighting over her. The males are quite territorial and mine will regularly fight too. The only way to keep them apart for mine is to make sure there are enough females so that they are too busy fanning eggs! Easiest thing tho is to just get it down to one male and 2-3 females.

 

[Realtree]

How many of what sex have you got? How many caves? Are they well spread out? Probably one of the females is ready to breed and the males are fighting over her. The males are quite territorial and mine will regularly fight too. The only way to keep them apart for mine is to make sure there are enough females so that they are too busy fanning eggs! Easiest thing tho is to just get it down to one male and 2-3 females.

All my bristlenoses were introduced as small 1/2" juveniles and my tank has 30kg of rock work so trying to keep an eye on them and sex them is quite a task. As far as I can tell I cannot see any real signs of bristles on any of them

 

[bbbls108]

Hi,
Its sounds like they are starting to mature.You get them nugging each other and sometimes they will have a go with each others with there tails and heads.As long there are enough caves and hidy holes for them the tank seems big enough.They are working out whos going to be the dominant one.
(Is it around 48 gallons i work in gallons not litres sorry lol)
If you have a spare tank and you see one of them starting to grow his bristle if you remove him,if theres any other males in the tank they will start to grow his bristles once the other male is out of the way.If a dominant male is in there the other male or males wont grow their bristles so they can avoid a fight with the dominant male.
I hope this helps a little

 

[rmanpf]

There are roughly 4 liters to a gallon (US) so 180 liters would be close to 45 gallons US.