I got one new bristlenose cat today, and one thing still makes me wonder. The guy at the fish shop first asked me whether I wanted to have a breeding pair. I only wanted one, but I completely forgot to ask how he wanted to see the gender of those cats. Those cats, including the one I bought, were all much smaller than my female guppies. I didn't see any bristles on any of them. Perhaps I was just not close enough? Does anyone know?
Sexing young bristlenose cats?
- Thread starter Ulan
- Start date
i don't know. . . . maybe just trying to make a buck and knowing that by the time you can sex them it'll be too late for a refund. . . i don't know any way except to see who gets bristles and who doesn't. possibly a close up examination of the reproductive region, but that takes a trained eye and some time, not to mention it's generally reserved for adult specimens who've reached sexual maturity.
males have many more bristles than females, even when young. males are also larger ATMO and a bit darker than females. even with this, it's not easy to postively identify them until they get about 3" long.Ulan said:
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it's too young to sex yet. once it gets about 3", judge by the size and placement of the bristles. femalse just get small bristles on the sides, whereas males get them on the side and along the front nasal area.Ulan said:
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they're sexable, sometimes, at that size. I breed albinos and can usually pick out a few males at around 1.25" or so. It's much easier to find a male than a female because not all fish without bristles are females. Sometimes, they're just slow males. You can also sometimes see differences by the shape of the body and head. It's hard to describe, but you can definitely see two different shapes if you have a bunch of young fish together. Some heads are round and some are more angular, when viewed from above. The angular are generally all males. But, yeah, it's a crapshoot at the store when they're small. If you know the fish are from the same batch, pick the largest and smallest and you'll get a pair 95% of the time. They should definitely be sexable at 2", given good food, space, and lack of competition. A lone male should get bristles by that size, which will take another 2 months or so from 1.5". Feed it well and it should be 3" in 3-4 months from then if it's male. 6+ months for a female.