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I have been reading posts on keeping bristlenose as algae eaters in african cichlid tanks, and am wondering if they require driftwood, and what specific foods for them? I currently feed african cichlid flake, spirulina flake, frozen bbs, frozen bloodworms, frozen formula one marine food, freeze-dried tubifex, and new life spectrum micro pellets.There's also plenty of java moss, for browsing and nitrate absorption. Stock is 14 Synodontis petricola, 4 electric yellow Lab.'s, 3 Juli. transcriptus, and 3 Neo. gracilis, in a 55 filtered by 2 aquaclear 500's, one running through each UG filter plate.

I was also wondering if otocinclus would be an alternative, or would they not be able to take the high pH?

The lfs wants $12 apiece for bristlenose, under 2", as are the petricola's, though they are growing almost as fast as the cichlids, which surprises me, after being told they take around 3 years to mature(the petricola's, not the bristlenose) Incidentally, how quickly do bristlenose grow, given good conditions? Would they spawn in a high pH? How big do they need to be to sex? Would one be best, or several?

Bristlenoses don't grow VERY quick, but neither are they really slow growing. Mine's grown a good inch since we bought it a little more than a year ago, but I think MOST of that inch has been in the last few months, since I started feeding it more targeted food (Courgette[zuchini] and other vegetables + Algae Wafers). It still keeps the glass clean too.

They LIKE some wood to hide under, and I think they like to chew it a bit too, but nothing like the way that Panaque sp. likes to do.

As long as the bristlenose is about the same size or larger than your cichlids, it's fine to have them in the same tank.

Bristlenoses aren't as difficult with water (of course, it needs to be quite clean) as some other species of loricarids that can be a bit sensitive to hard water, high pH etc. Obviously, they prefer softer water and lower pH than your african cichlids, but should be fine in there.

I'm pretty sure that they should be sexable at about 2" long (big bristles => male, small or no bristles => female). Not sure how much bigger they need to be to be sexually mature, I suspect 3"+.

You can have one or more, but make sure that they are about equal size and that they have plenty of hiding spaces. They do get territorial, but nowhere near as bad as the cichlids. Obviously, if the bristlenose is being chased by a cichlid, it also needs some place to hide. But they are pretty hardy (big scales to work as "armour"), so should be fine from that perspective too. They are more active at night, when the cichlids tend to sleep anyways.

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Mats

I heard from a friend that his bristlenose pair spawned in a Tanganyikan tank. But I personally never advice to keep fish in a tank that's so remote from their natural habitat.

I have spawned them with malawi and tangs, however don't expect the eggs to make it with a tank fulls of cichlids....I keep an adult pair with frontosa, 4-9 inches, 12 of the fronts, plus syno multis, peacocks, calvus and comps. THe pair of albino bristlenose plecos do just fine.

I keep them in all my tanks to take care of the brown algae.

I also have Africans but don't consider BN's very attractive (sorry). Any other suggestions for algae eating pl*cos? I prefer something that stays a little smaller. I have a 37g tank with plenty of rock and now plenty of algae. Thanks for your help.

Happy Holidays everyone.