Is this a female LDA072?

[FunkyFredFrog]

Confusion was rife in the LFS!

I want to make sure this is a female bristlenose....

Cheers guys and gals

[ColumbianChocolate]

Its a young Male. The Bristles are starting to run up his snout and are quite long at the edge of his snout. The pectoral spine is also thick!

[FunkyFredFrog]

Shoot!

I was afraid so!

The young lad serving me said that...then the owners wife chirped up and contradicted him....hmm the other male has stacks of bristles and isn't noticeably larger...

[ColumbianChocolate]

For some reason some males can take a while to develop their bristles fully. Even when they are quite young you can separate the males from the female as the males have 2 little bristles on the front of their snout

[FunkyFredFrog]

So do females not have ANY bristles?

[MatsP]

Females may have a little bit of bristles around the lower edge of the head, but never along the centre of the head.

--
Mats

[FunkyFredFrog]

Thats exactly what the chap said in the shop before he got 'overruled'! Ho-hum!

Thanks for the info as usual mats!

There's a female with my name on it waiting on Saturday!

[Firestorming]

BN are like people, some chicks get a bit of "fuzz" or a 'mo as I call it but it's the blokes that get the real "beard".

Then again, there was some female Olympic athletes that could probably grow a good set too.

I had a female "peppermint" bn that after a number of years at sexual mature size, decided to get two small stubs on the centre line of "her" head and start fanning a batch of eggs.

[djtonyel]

I think the LDA-072 females also have bigger than normal bristle i had them before

i see them in the shops the last three years and i see all the female have big bristle

[apistomaster]

Bristle barbels appear to be influenced by not only the species but, age and place in the dominance hierarchy. Many Apistogramma Dwarf Cichlid males adapt to being less dominant by assuming plainer colors and even behaviors more typically associated with females. I like to think the Ancistrus and other brooding species of plecos are capable of a variety of strategies, appearance and behavior if it gives them an advantage at breeding opportunities under the presence of a more dominant male bushy noses beard, if you will.
I marvel at how complex the brood care has evolved in the catfish. Certainly, they have broadly shown as much adaptabilty to odd conditions such as the cuckoo breeding habits some of the African Rift Lake Synodontis catfish have found with some of the mouth brooding Cichlids. Among the Cichlids, mouth brooding, rift lakes style, is often said to represent the pinnacle of Cichlid evolution. To make that brood behavior to work for the survival of a catfish has to be a bit more sophisticated?
It is a case of all is fair in love and war when it comes to evolution and I think catfish show they are perfectly able to keep up with the times and use every trick in the book to breed.
That may include some female Ancistrus having more bristles than other species. The typical barbels of the Ancistrus are something we have yet to fully understand what the evolutionary advantages they have conferred on the genus. Perhaps helpful in tracking how many fry are in a brood or detecting breeding pheromones or those of newly independent fry signaling the male's care is no longer required?

Anyway, good luck and I hope you come up with some breeding LDA 072.

[racoll]

Leaving sexing aside, are you sure it is

LDA072

(=

Ancistrus triradiatus

), as opposed to a

Common Bristlenose Catfish

?

[djtonyel]

yes im sure i have 32 species and im breeding 10 of them right now i know how looks ancistrus sp 3

the shop im talking is importing only from colombia venezuela and peru he dont import never ancistrus sp 3

[apistomaster]

Hi buddy, racoll, guess he took some air of that post.
Sounds like not our typical beginning common bushy nose customer.
Well sir, I admire your accomplishments. I think only our moderator, Barbie, has had as many of the soft, acid water Ancistrus notched in her belt.