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I got 3 baby(1") albino bristlenose plecos. I'm curious if 2 male BN or 2 female BN can live in the same tank? Right now i'm growing them out in a 15gal but when they are older i'm going to split them up into 2 tanks. I have a 58gal planted tnak which already has a female regular BN pleco and my other tank is a 90gal with a rubbernose pelco. I don't know the sexes of the baby plecos yet so i'm trouble shooting for the future.

Say they turn out to be 3 males, could 2 males live in the 90g with a rubernose and the other male go with the female in the 58g with the female? I want to know how BN plecos react to eachother since i have never kept more then one pleco to a tank and know sometimes they can be territorial. I don't want too much fighting.

Degrassi,

Well, whilst i cannot give you a definative answer, as all setups are different, i can relay my own experience.

I have 75UK Gal tank (3x2x2) in which i grew on 4 standard bristlenoses. General community tank that turned out to become 85% catfish

As they grew, it became clear i had 2 males and 2 females. Great luck, but would they all be OK together?
It turned out they were just fine. They didn't breed for a long time, I think the males were too busy arguing over territory (caves) to get into it. Then all of a sudden, they decided to co-operate. I actually had the situation where the 2 males were guarding the same clutch of eggs! One on each side ! After this, they spawned regularly.

Sadly earlier this year i lost a male and a female.
Strangely, the other pair haven't spawned since, despite the lack of competition.

So I think if you can provide enough potential spawning sites I would give it a go. It will be some months at least, before they are likely to become a problem.

Hope this helps.

Phil.

That's a great story! Quite interesting!







Graeme.

Thanks, hopefully they will turn out to be 2 males and 1 female.So in the end i have 2 pairs. I'm not too concerned about whether they spawn or not, I just want to have 2 and thought a pair(m/f) would be better then 2 of the same gender.

Anyone else keep more then one?

Has anyone ever noticed signs of imbreeding when bristlenose siblings pair up? I got my male and female at slightly different ages, because i thought that gave me better odds, but for all i know they may still be from the same parents..
(please excuse me if this is hijacking, but it seems a related question ) I'm hoping the 'kittens' won't end up with their eyes too close together or something!

Thanks,
nim