The newest additions to our fishie family

[gale]

First of all a new bristlenose pleco (that was hiding behind the stick-on thermometer):

It's about 3-1/4" long from tip to tail. Can anyone tell if this is a male or female? I thought for the size of the fish and the size of the bristles it might be a female.

Then we got this:

He's not real pretty (like the bright yellow ones) but he's quick. When I got him home there was a LOT of little black junk in the bag. Are they that messy or is it possibly stuff from the tank or what? I just plucked him out of the bag and into the tank after acclimating him of course. Also should I have more than one? Will he/she be lonely?

 

[SPLiSH]

Very nice pleco and snail!

Also should I have more than one? Will he/she be lonely?

I think, um.... it..... will be fine alone. My Inca snail seems happy alone. Plus, since it's practically impossible to tell their gender, you could wind up with tons of baby snails all over the tank.

Anyway, congrats!

 

[DarkSide]

Hey know I know what kind of snail I have! Mine has a white shell and red eyes though

 

[bugsy66]

Hi, looks like a female to me. I am not 100% though. But I have a bristlenose and at that size mine was really bushy on the nose. The funny thing is the otherday my husband and I were sitting in our rec room. After having this bristlenose for 2 years in the tank he just noticed it....

Very alert he is hey..... Anyways, he wanted to know what type of "algae" that was growing on this fish.... As you can tell he is not a fish person I thought that was quite funny and showed him that they were bristles.

The only time he notices something different in the tank is when I try and sneak and expensive fish into the tank without him noticing.....

Hopefully someone else can help you with this identification but I am pretty sure it is a female. Good luck they are nice fish to have they don't get huge like the regular pleco's.

bugsy

 

[gale]

Thanks. i found the bristlenose online and it looks like an adult size female ancistruss triradiatatus or something like that. I'm very happy with her-she's doing a great job on the algae on my decorations.

OTOH I'm not at all happy with the snail. It's supposed to be the type that won't kill all of the plants, yet he's already eaten most of a small one, broke another, and uprooted a third. My hygrophilia which was my first plant. So he might be in a tank by himself soon.

 

[Discomafia]

Great pic of the pleco! As for the snail, I used to have the same problem with mine uprooting plants and making a mess, so it's in the other tank now.

 

[sylvia]

What species is the snail? IME, the only kind that won't eat plants is bridgesii.

 

[gale]

What species is the snail? IME, the only kind that won't eat plants is bridgesii.

I checked applesnail.net and it appears to be a bridgesii. But he likes the plants anyway. I put him in a rubbermaid tub for now but the suction filter I have won't stay suctioned so I'll have to do daily water changes for now. I'm going to list him in the fsot section because the lfs said they won't take him back.

 

[yvez9]

i bought a bridgesii too once

it was really messy and destroyed some of my plants
i just gave it away

 

[gale]

That's what I'd like to do but I don't know anyone who has fish or tanks around here, and I'm afraid it'll be too cold to ship to anyone. I have him in an unfiltered unheated rubbermaid tub but I don't want to do daily water changes and really don't want another tank to mess with. I'm going to give the lfs a call again tomorrow and maybe I can talk to a manager. I don't even care if I get my money back-it was only a few bucks. I just want him re-homed.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

If push comes to shove you could always just put him in a bag of water and 'accidently' leave him on the counter at the fish store. My unlce had to do that with a gourami once, it was one of those that gets huge, so he dropped it off at a fish store in a bag on their counter when no one was looking, it ended up in a huge display tank they had. It's not really nice, but when it comes down to it....

 

[gale]

If push comes to shove you could always just put him in a bag of water and 'accidently' leave him on the counter at the fish store. My unlce had to do that with a gourami once, it was one of those that gets huge, so he dropped it off at a fish store in a bag on their counter when no one was looking, it ended up in a huge display tank they had. It's not really nice, but when it comes down to it....

That sounds like a good plan. I can get my kids to distract the lfs lady and then leave the bag.

 

[Catfish Fanatic]

those mystry snails are incent i tell yah and you can tell if there mail or female just look for the penis sheeth in the male and the abscence of one in a female to bad ive never checked on mor than one snail lil i love mystry snails but mine want have children when you want a tank overun you just get no luck sigh

 

[Cavafish]

That is a male bristlenose I think. Ooops going against the flow here

As a general rule you will find that the females will have either no bristles, short bristles just in a line around the 'chin', or sometimes 1 or 2 small bristles on the face as well. Males get bristles all around the chin AND over their faces, the ones on the face forking or branching ( a bit like antlers). Therefore I reckon you got a male................but hey, I coould be wrong

 

[gale]

That is a male bristlenose I think. Ooops going against the flow here

As a general rule you will find that the females will have either no bristles, short bristles just in a line around the 'chin', or sometimes 1 or 2 small bristles on the face as well. Males get bristles all around the chin AND over their faces, the ones on the face forking or branching ( a bit like antlers). Therefore I reckon you got a male................but hey, I coould be wrong

You might just be right. The bristles are pretty short but I was able to get a good close-up look at them just now and there might be a tiny bit of branching at the tips. Either way he/she has done a spectacular job on the algae in my tank after only 2 days and I'm so proud. Tonight after lights-out I'm going to toss in an algae wafer for him/her.