Never owned the Bristle nose pleco before. I picked up 10 about two or three months ago. I just wanted to post about how suprised I am with their algae eating ability. Sense aquiring them I have had no algae in the 20g grow out they are in. I also have been removing ornaments from the other tanks or rocks covered in algae and they will destroy the algae in less than 24 hours. These are some serious algae eaters. I have been feeding them well their tummies are always full. I am just amazed how fast and clean they can get a large ornament in less than a day. I want to move them but they are still too small to go into the planned tanks. Oh not to mention the long fins are real pretty, hopefully I can get a pair to spawn, Thanks for listening.

I agree...their algae fighting abilities are very good.

I put nine 1" juvies in my 55g which had lots of algae, until 2 days later... Then I had to start feeding lots of zuccini. ornaments that the dishwasher failed to clean, the BN cleaned. Heavy algae eaters. Love driftwood too. Hope you enjoy yours, from what the breeder I got mine from said, they pair up pretty easily, but take 2-3 years to mature. He used 1 male and 3 females to a tank and they all spawn at once.

hope you get lots of babies!

They are great fish, they work hard and are easy to breed.

I am going to try my hand at breeding them...they need to get a bit bigger and with 10 in the 20g I should get at least one pair if not two!

sweet let me know ill buy some from you if you ever get extras!

It will likely be a few months at least they are almost 2 inches now, I got them at 1 inch....I feed them three to four times a day and do every other day W/C so they are growing fast....I will let you know though.

This thread is usless without pictures!!!lol
I will agree that they are algae eating machines. I have one in my 135 and there's no algae to be seen!(knocks wood) He's not the prettiest fish I ever saw but my daughter loves him and that's all that matters.

How big do they get? The only thing I know of that eats algae that quick is my mystery snails!

Depends on the species, but most stay under 5 inches. I will post some pics of mine a bit later on.

I have some pics of them somewhere...I will have to find them....maybe we can start a BN Pleco pic thread...lol! BTW nice one KG!

My albino BN's parents were 5" for female and the male was 6".
Here is a pict of my juvie:


the males get way more bristles than the females - and only males get bristles on top of their head. the females get tiny things around the lips and that's about it. The males also get a red patch on their head, which is easy to see as some males don't get their bristles until they are the dominant male in the tank.
I believe this is a young male due to the red patch on the head.

Here are a few pics of them when I first got them...







One of the long fins in the back!

Nice looking fish.

Here is one of my girls: