Super Red Bristlenose Breeding

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

Hi all. I wanted to start this off with a quick intro into my breeding experience so far and then get into the thread. I bred a Ton of platies when I was a kid, I’ve bred cherry shrimp a few years ago, and I spawned some celestial pearl danios back in December 2020 (lost them while I was on vacation, trying to get a second spawn going). A few years ago I tried to breed bristlenose but ended up with 2 males and then was satisfied with just having them (1 albino and 1 standard). Well, we finally got some super reds in at my LFS and I leapt at the chance because my boss let me get them half off (I work at my LFS).

So I got 3 good sized juveniles. 2 are for sure males because they have lots of medium length bristles on the side and top of the head. But the third has some short bristles only on the side of the head. It also appears that her fins lay more flat whereas the males are a bit angled? I’m not sure if that’s a real thing or just a posture thing. (Any advice here would be great).
 

Now for the tank. It’s a 20 long running at about 77 degrees Fahrenheit with a few caves (I intend to get more from pleco ceramics) 2 hang on back filters, a sponge filter, lots of live plants, 6 celestial pearl danios, 7 habrosus corydoras, a blue goby, and 2 apistogramma hongsloi (that I’m also attempting to breed). 

Diet wise I’m going to feed lots of blanched vegetables like cucumber, zucchini, and maybe some carrots (anyone done carrots before) as well as get Repashy soilent green, morning wood, bottom scratcher, and super green. I’ve also got fluval bug bites pleco formula and hikari algae wafers, I plan to rotate through these frequently so they get a large variety. I also have plenty of wood and surface algae in the tank for them to graze on.

Alright, if you’re still reading, thank you. That was a lot 😅 any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

I’ll try and get some better pictures once my lights come on today as well

[Levi_Aquatics]

Those are beautiful plecos!

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

Alrighty I got some good photos of the likely female. I’m gonna try and get some of the males. Like I said, they’re of a similar relative size.

[Fish Folk]

Love them! Provided you’ve got a pair, caves are key. Greg Sage at Select Aquatics has carried excellent ceramic caves in the past. (He also carries green dragons 🐉 🤩. You may need patience. If they’re not mature yet, they’ll need time. 

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

Yeah they definitely have some more growing to do. That’s a good tip about Greg Sage, I forgot he sold caves. I’ll look into those for sure. I’ve got a couple in there now but I’m probably gonna swap at least one of them and add another.

[Colu]

Looks like a female  as it only has the smaller side bristles