I got a Bristlenose just because I love them and knew from the get go that I needed to care for it as any other fish. The bonus is that he has, in fact, been a magician for my glass, even with me feeding him lots too. Love that fish so much.

Princess Pleco said it best, "Never expect a super model to do the house cleaning."

I’ve had my large 5 inch male bristle nose pleco for 6 years now, amazing fish never see him much but when I do it’s a treat!

Thanks for this. I was wondering what this little pleco was maturing into. Caught him hand to tank out for tank cleaning and I was surprised to be poked and prodded by retractable horns popping in/out of the side of his head. Alien and Davey jones like indeed! Made me all the more fonder of him !

Balance is key. For relatively lightly stocked tanks adding a little this or that does have the possibility of solving "all your problems". Experience helps. And Bristlenose are pretty cool fish anyway. One of the highlights of the Bristlenose is that relative to other Plecos the clean to waste ratio is pretty good. Plants are a big part of the "balance" and some form of maintenance is generally going to be involved no matter what, even if it is plant maintenance. Don't be afraid, just don't rush it.

I just got a bristlenose for my tank. He/she is SUPER tiny but adorable. Can't wait for it to grow larger

I have two adopted Bristlenose plecos. Got my girl, Mammon (seven inches), two weeks ago and my boy, Abaddon (four inches), two days ago. I love them so much!

Thanks! Spot on with my experience over the past 5 years with them.

Recently got a bristlenose about 3 inches long and he is so funny to watch. He comes out around 10 minutes before the lights turn off for the night. The only annoying thing is sometimes in the morning a plant is floating because he bumped one and the plants are pretty new, mostly small patches of hairgrass.

i have an albino bristlenose that i inherited with my first tank 7 years ago. he's over 8 years old now, has been upgraded from his original 30g to a 40g, then 60g, and now finally to a 125G, and is doing fantastic, this year i decided to get him some buddies and picked up 2 standard bristlenose from my local LFS. Mr Janitor is only about 7 inches, im curious to see if the non-albinos will end up bigger! they are fantastic and have so much personality.

Just bought one a week ago.Took all the brown algae from my glass and gravels within two days!!!Now my tank looks PRISTINE! By the way, great and informative video,Blake.

I love bristledozer plecos, they will vacuum the carpet and shine the windows (granted they shit on the floor when they are done). They are little bulldozers! One of mine is having alot of fun digging, tunnelling and rearranging my newly setup tank and I love watching that, it is having alot of fun 😂 The tunnels have just become big enough for my SAEs to swim through so they love it aswell!

Good to know that they're sensitive to medication. Thanks Blake

Thanks for sharing.Great info.Have a great day/night.

Great advice Blake 👍

My golden bristlenose Gimli is a goofy little thing, he's not thrilled about the lights (he's in my plant growing tank) but he's been getting better about not hiding when I come by

I’ve raised enough of these guys to do a couple of giveaways through Colorado Free Fish and Rehoming, where we either give them away or trade for other fish or shrimp or snails, etc. I love these guys! Thanks for the tidbits I hadn’t known. Have a great one (although I see I’m a bit late to the party. 😊

Brilliant video! Bristlenose are the most abuse fish ! Same with mystery snails. They all need care and feeding!

Thank you for this!

lol, totally spot on with your descriptions. Ps want the pleco vacuum 😳😳

Got one a week ago no idea the gender but we are calling it a he . Hes so playful and friemdly took a day for him to acclimate to the tankmates and now hes out all the time cruising and cleaning . Super cool looking fish

Three sides of my 225 gal Tanganyikan Juvenile Tank was covered in algae. I dropped in six 2" Super Reds and all the algae was gone in three days including algae on filter intakes, algae on the anubias leaves, heater, air hose tubing, everything. Your right they will add to nitrates and my pothos loves it.

Thanks for the video brother, I Love the shirt ❤️🤩🙏🏽✌🏽

The edits made me sub.

I love common bristlenose plecos and the long-fin. I have both and they breed like rabbits!! LOL The fry are adorable.

Doing research on fish I potentially want in a 20g tall planted tank. This video was very helpful, and it told me two things: A) the Gender Dimorphism in Bristlenose is quite unique! B) I need a male for my tank so I can name it Lorax and it will speak from my weeds. XD In truth, I was looking at Bristlenose because my Spouse loves Plecos, but I know most pleco species get *way* too big for a 20 Gallon tank, but I also know our downstairs housemate has a Bristlenose in his tank and the introduction to 'Senor Bubbler' (who may actually be a Senorita, now that I've seen this video!) was honestly a window into how delightful these fish are!

well done

Love these fish!! Very easy to breed

can I keep it with 1 dkh??

Just got a small common bristlnose today..new to the hobby. I have red eye tetras and panda corys all under 1 inch right now. I noticed a film on my glass and a couple of brown spots on the glass. Did some research and decided to get 1 today. My question is dont have or want live plants right now...just trying to focus on the fish. I do have 2 small pieces if driftwood. What can i feed it once the algae is gone? I do have hikari algae wafers, regular flake, freeze dried blood worms, shrimp pellets, slowing sinking granuales, and bug bites for bottom feeders. I mainly do flake but like to do a variety. Will this be enough for the bristlenose? Oh i will try blanched zuchini but i havent yet. My tank is a 15g fluval flex and the pet store said it would be fine for my size tank. Any suggestions on the food?

Great video Blake! I’m currently cycling a 20G long and want to have one of these little guys with some harlequin rasboras and a Bolivian ram. I really like Amazon swords and I’m sad to hear that he would eat them. Is it possible to still have a heavily planted tank with plecos?

Oh jesus I am literally looking to buy a few !!

Is 16 gallon possible?

I have BN. Its about 2 inches right now. Ive recently within the last week noticed him following directly behind my panda corys a LOT...i guess like birds follow a lawn mower thats kicking up insects. Has anyone seen this or is it normal?

Where did You get Your T-shirt from? Love The Rainbow Fish design 🐟

i wanted to get a bristlenose because they look cool

I've got what was sold to me as bristle nose, had them for years and they have bread a few times. None of them have bristles so I'm assuming they are rubber lips plecos.

I got an albino one in my guppy tank that has thick algae and it practically scrapes everything clean

1 out of my 11 aquariums doesn't have a BN pleco....its the only one with alage issues.

Hi Blake. Do you recommend bristlenose plecos for a convict cichlids tank? My convicts are relatively small right now.

This all seemed fairly accurate but live up to 5 years mine is about 15 years old and still doing fine 😀

My Bristlenose is about two inches long and has no bristles. So a female? or do they need to be bigger and older for the bristles to develop? Just wondering.

is cactus plecos to big or to slow?

my bristle noses love green beans

my bristlenose plecos are one of my fav catfish. i saved two fry from my 72 gallon larger fish community tank and put them in my 7 gallon shrimp tank

Be aware that your commitment is a lot longer than 5 years. My boy is 19 years old and around 8". I got 4 of them in 2004. In 2016 I downsized my tank and sold the other 3, who were all still thiving at 12 years old

What is the best thing to clean the glass inside the tank and outside the tank

Blake do you recommend a ich medicine easily accessible in Aust? Most of the reputable guys keep raving on about Ich-x but I find it only comes from the U.S (ebay) with slow delivery and crazy delivery fees. Ideally need something that's safe for plants also.. TIA for any info

Just wondering what is your electrical bill like mate?

How would they interact with anubias and vallisneria?

My bristlenose is now twelve years old 🎉

Between bristlenose and snails, for cleaning the glass, wich would you choose ?

Off-topic but I need to know... When choosing sand for your tank is fine or course better? Thanks.

I have a bunch breeding at the moment. Absolutely the dumbest I've ever owned. There's a breeding log but the big male decided his "cave" would be an indent in one of the large pieces of driftwood and now he's had three ladies come up, force their way in and lay eggs. It's out in the open and some eggs ended up on the gravel. I don't know how typical this. prior to this prolific breeding season (this is the second brood in about a month) I was planning to sell them and buy some nice L plecos that don't grow so big. Hopefully i can offload them somewhere capable of homing them, but art this point i don't even know how many there are because its a 128L 10yr old tank with alot of hiding spaces. 100% gonna tumble this batch so i don't loose them in the driftwood and plants.

I got a question! So I'm making my own bioactive tank for my pet boa, and I want to do a flowing river feature... I'm also kinda tired of having to scrub poop scum outta his water dish every other week. Is a pleco a good candidate for the poop tank? To be clear I'm not trying to replace a filter with a pleco. Here's the project: I want a ~100-200L flowing water feature in my 5'×2' snake tank. I want the current to be strong enough to flush his waste down into an aquarium below, which will be dubbed to poop tank. The poop tank will be a 450L tank with a ridiculous amount planets growing in it to hopefully mitigate the nitrates (there will be a LOT of nitrates). The water next will go through filters/heaters/pumps and send it back top side. I'm hoping I can find a fish that will thrive in this environment, and yes any poop fish I get will supplemented with real food. I'm not a complete monster 😂 any suggestions?

Are u sure about the kife span of 5 years? I got 2 bristle nose who are 7+ years old now.

❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊

So my bristle nose ate my angle fish I wasn't sure that was possible and am still confused As my bristle nose did eat one fish prior that I saw, that fish the bristle ate was kind of bullying all the other fish so I thought that was why and left it at that But I'm wondering why my bristle is eating my fish I am thinking of separating him

Unrelated to plecos. Reminded me of finding out that comet fish do not get along when they get bigger. Started finding dead or injured comet fish and blamed the cichlid.

We just discovered that our bristlenose mated under a decorative cave in our goldfish tank. Was not planned or expected. Now we have a heap of fry we weren't prepared for. Oops.

Plecos in general I found are like water puppys v funny sweet skitzo abit but a joy to keep have some albinos tho look more snow white ones there not tho nor bristle nosed the way they hover around the tank like lighting is so funny mine follow you around and nom nom your hands v dear sweet darlins there so friendly

Hahah yeah Amazon swords. The buggers destroyed my swords.

I love your jokes :)

Our pleco has a white spot on the e think it ich unfortunately one of 2 cory catfish died We have 12 neon tetra 8 glofish tetra 2 black skirt tetra 2 shrimp 1 snail 1 pleco and 1 catfish inside of a 90 gallon tank We have no idea what happen to other one all we know it died and had a missing tail

🤣 The vacuum pleco

I cannot be summoned by some Mongrel pup #fishiemon64 great video i got green dragons bristlenosepleco

I got my bristlenose yesterday , it's very young so I don't have any ideas on it's gender. He loves hiding by the heater

They are cool fish but I think snails are the big algae and old dead leaf eaters

I started with 2 last year in a 29gal... now I have at least 40 in a 75 gal😭😭

How badly/quickly will a single Bristlenose do a number on your sword plants? I have a heavily planted 10 gallon tank with 2 mature swords. One Amazon/one ozelot sword. I would like to get one bristlenose, but I also love my sword plants! I have lots of wood in the tank and I do a 30-50% water change once a week. In the tank currently: 4 rummynose tetras 1 lone neon tetra 1 panda Cory catfish 1 sparkling gourami (always hiding) I feed flakes, and a shrimp wafer for the corycat, would add in veggie wafers for the bristlenose. Let me know your thoughts! 🥰

Sorry, I was only half paying attention to the video. Where can I get this magical unicorn fish? 🐠

I just purchased a 3" bristolnose pleco for my 75 gallon he/she shares with silver dollars. It looks like he's munching on my driftwood and I have been giving him veggie wafers but the silver dollars chomp them up so I have to figure out how to feed him better

there such characters

✋, 🔨⌚🎶

Just curious, did anyone else name their bristlenose Mr Whiskers?? Seemed like such an obvious name to me lol

My bristlenose got huge and now hes bullying my discuss...

Mine will eat watermelon and kiwi

They are great for cleaning the glass,but they create alot of waste

I have a female Albino Bristle-Nose along with a regular Pleco (10 inches) in a 150 tank and they're pretty lazy neither of them is doing their job the front glass remains almost opaque with green algae despite me having to scrub it twice a week.

I've had one for a couple years it turned out to be a female it has no bristles.It chases anything on the bottom tank and uproots plants I personally wouldn't get another one.

How to prevent pleco from going too big?

If you want little/no water changes, y'all need to look up Father Fish on KZfaq. I've been running his method for 6 years now and it's legit. Low algae, great plant growth, and better fish health than any of the other methods by FAR. I run a 6 inch sand bed with lots of plants and Malaysian trumpet snails(MTS). MTS are the best invert for your tanks, let me sell them to you real quick. These guys explode in population like any other snail, but, here's the kicker, they bury themselves in the sand during the day. I only ever see less than 10 during the day but at night I go in with a flashlight and there's at least a hundred of the little doods in there. When they bury themselves in the sand, they take a good amount of detritus with them and the top layers of sand are aerobic in which the bacteria concerts the detritus and ammonia into nitrite and nitrate. The plants use the nitrite and then the lower inches of soil are anaerobic and convert all the remaining nitrate into nitrogen gas that seeps its way back up through the soil and then bubbles up to the surface. It's a complete nitrogen cycle that allows for a more complete ecosystem with microfauna like worms thriving in the soil. Search Father Fish on KZfaq. He's the wise old wizard of the hobby. Fishtory! is doing this very well too, often in collaboration with Father Fish

Kinda sounds like gatekeeping to say that wanting a bristlenose to lower your maintenance should reconsider the hobby. A bristlenose absolutely can lower your maintenance need. (WITH THE CORRECT STYLE OF TANK) I have a darkwater tank with Crayfish, a pleco, dannios, and mollies. The pleco keeps the the algae cleaned up and converts the waste into a form readily consumed by plants and bacteria. I just need to refill the tank as it evaporates about once a month and my levels stay great. Without a bristlenose, Id need to do something different to remove stubborn algae. Otherwise my tank is environmentally stable.

Lol just bought 2 males

I suspect our pleco may be female

The phrase " cleaner fish" should be banned! 🤣👍