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I have a 110 litre Juwel tank with sand substrate, two large pieces of bogwood, a few peices of slate for cover and an upturned flowerpot. The inhabitants are a few swordtails and a male Bristlenose about 2.5 inches long. I have just added a 2 inch Golden Nugget and the Bristlenose has started to chase the Golden Nugget around the tank. They both have plenty of places to hide, but if the golden nugget is stuck on the glass, the bristlenose will come up underneath him and nip at his tail, then chase him off.

Is this behaviour likely to stop as they get used to each other or am I going to have to re home one of them? They both seem to be feeding well.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Andy

this is completely normal behaviour, and, the cause is this; most plecos(including these two) hate the company of other loricariidae species. any. even little cute ones.
if the tank was even larger and you let them into the tank at different sides, this sometimes can stop them. its basically a question of size, in that the bigger one will bully the smaller one.
You may have to let one go
(cough) bristle nose (cough)

As Pictus-man said, all these fish are territorial, and will establish some sort of pecking order between each other if they can't get their own territory.

Once they have established who's the dominant, the fighting may subside somewhat, but they aren't going to just sit there and not move a fin when someone else tries to get into their territory.

Having more "good" hiding places may help a bit, such as bamboo tubes, flower pots (or even better, saucers or low height pots). The ideal hiding place is one where the fish is just barely big enough to get in, and others bigger than itself can't get into.

I have 4 species, 12 individuals, of pleco in my 400L tank.
Candy stripe pleco x 2 (4")
Clown Pleco x 3 (2.5-3")
Gold nugget x 2 (3-4")
Common bristlenose x 5 (2-4").

They have LOTS of hiding places from broken pottery, bamboo tubes, slate, rocks and plants. They do fight every now and again, but not really badly.

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Mats

Thanks guys for you advice but unfortunately when we woke up this morning the Golden Nugget had died. He had turned a pale grey colour over night but there were no other signs of damage. All the water parameters are fine, I guess that he died of stress.

Given the size of the tank, it's a Juwel Delta 80 (110 litre corner tank) could you recommend some more compatible bottom dwellers to keep with the Bristlenose? I wouldn't like to make the same mistake again. I'm guessing that a small group of corys would cause the same territory issues?

Andy

Well, you could keep another bristlenose in there, especially if it's a female or two...

In my personal experience, bristlenoses aren't more agressive than any others, if anything they are LESS aggressive than for instance gold nuggets. But almost all plecos have territorial instincts towards conspecifics. I think that Cory's for instance are unlikely to suffer the same fate, since they aren't similar (conspecific). That's my best guess. I have , and they are completely ignored by the pleco group, unless they get too close to the food of one of the plecos, of course...

However, it's important to make sure that there are several places for the plecos to hide from each other, and not just one good hiding place. Also, if you introduce new (territorial) fish to a tank with territorial inhabitants, it can be a good idea to re-arrange the decor such than none of the fish feel quite at home. They will then fight and find their own territories, but none of them will have a "home advantage".

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Mats

Oz, I currently keep 2 BN's (1 male, 1 female) in a 180lt tank along with 4 corries and the BN's completely ignore them. That is, until feeding time, and then its pretty obvious how the pecking order lies ;)

on a related note...I have a 50g (36x18x20) with two pairs of BN. They have gotten along swimingly so far, except for the initial night when there was a bit of chasing and nipping.

I want to get some babies as I have recently decided that all 4 are the same common sp. Would I be best off seperating them into two different tanks, or can I leave them all together? I have a 37g tank with one albino gibby that could handle two more fish.

If I do move 2 BN in with the gibby, would that cause any conflict?

Thanks!!

Are your new bristlenoses the same sort of size as the "old" ones?

I'd put them in together, since that's what you need for them to breed. However, watch them carefully, and if they fight too much, you'll just have to separate them...

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Mats

three (male, 2 females) are about 3" and the male has fully developed, branched bristles. The other male is 4-5" and probably three times as heavy as the others.

I'm not expecting any breeding until the females get a little bigger, but I don't really know. I would really like to get a big female but the lfs never has them. Do BN's breed better as a colony?

My experience from breeding only involves a single pair. I don't think it's a hindrance to have several females. Males MAY be agressive towards other males, and the male will "fight" with the female to impress her of his ability to defend the eggs/fry.

But you should be able to breed at 3" total length, but you may need to feed them a bit extra to get the females gravid. Cool water changes can help gettting them going too...

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Mats

sounds good, thanks!!

I breed my bristle nose in colonies. 5 males and 15 females in 400 L tanks, and only keep the breeding fish till they are 5 years old then change them for yearlings.

Have more breeding caves than males so they have a choice and work out among themselves who owns what.

I can take two or three hundred juviniles a month from these tanks and they breed all year provided the temperature does not get too high. Temp much above 26C and the breeders just shut down and do nothing.

Alan.