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I had my mother pick me up another BN today to put in the 55, and I already have one that I believe to be a male in the 20 so I had her ask if they had any females incase I ever want to breed them. They had 2 BN left, the breeder they get them from is retiring so these are the last 2 they'll get for awhile, and they told her 1 was definitely a male, so I told her to get the other one and I'd hope it was a female. The man there told her you can't always go by the bristles, which I've heard before, but he also said that males all have a red dot on their head. Has anyone else heard about this, if so is it a reliable way to identify the gender? Thanks for the help.

I"m not sure, and was wondering about this myself. As I understand it, there ate two different species commonly sold as bristlenose (plus the albino varients).

In one species, the male develops long, single bristles, and the female may develop a small 'moustache', but not more.

In the other, males develop branched bristles, like a 'Y' and the females develop smaller, single bristles.

I don't know how to identify them as juveniles though, or at what size to be looking out for bristles.

<Vet in Training>
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I think that the male BN has thicker fin edges.

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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com