# Keeping Several Bristlenose Plecos



## bannh (May 3, 2008)

Get them young, raise them together, give them more caves than there are fish and don't worry about it.

IME there are more males than females in every spawn. Which makes sense since males raise the kids, females just lay the eggs. I've never raised whole spawns to see what the ratio is but it could be up to 2 males for every female. Somewhere between 60/40 and 70/30.

I have tried every suggested method and I cannot reliably tell Ms & Fs apart until almost when the bristles start to develop.

In the dozens of adult BN I have had there has only been one truly mean male fish. He was highly territorial and didn't tolerate any fish in his space. I have kept multiple males together with zero females and with plenty of caves they didn't have anything to fight about. YMMV

A single fish might be able to take care of a tidy 55G, they work really hard on the kinds of algaes they eat. How about getting two? You might get a male and a female (fine) or two males (also fine). Unlikely you would get two females from a randon 2 fish but you never know.

I wouldn't get more than two. They are messy fish, create a lot of waste. I love them but... a LOT of waste.


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## stewardwildcat (Feb 24, 2010)

Cool thanks! I know they poop a lot but its not going to be a highly populated tank so I am not too worried.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I've got 6 in my 90gal right now. Though I do plan to move out 2 of them eventually, the only time I see any squabbling is over food. Most of them are siblings, though.


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## HypnoticAquatic (Feb 17, 2010)

if they have alot of cover availible to them they should be fine. i only got two in my 55 and they dont mind the other at all. they can sit side by side and not fight and there two males. the only prob i have had is with other spec of plecos.


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## toddnbecka (Sep 4, 2006)

It mainly depends on whether you want to breed them or just keep the algae under control. One will keep a 55 clean as long as it doesn't get too much other food to bother with algae. I keep 4 male and 2 female adults in a 30L for breeding, along with well over 100 fry. Not even a split fin among the group, and the little ones grow like weeds. If you want some young ones that will be spawning in another month or two I can ship you 6 2" brown juvies for $25, or 6 albino's for $30.


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