Bristlenose flaring his whiskers!!

[Riss]

I took this picture of my bristlenose catfish 'Bill' the other day. He is sitting on his favourite spot on his driftwood and decided he would flare his whiskers for me.

Let me know what you think!!

[catfishmike]

that's a sweet pleco,so does he move them alot or do the bristles just twitch.i always wonderd if they could control them or not

[Riss]

He mainly just flares them when another fish gets too close to him. Letting them know who is boss i guess.

But yeah...most of the time they are down. He's just chillin hehe

[mann]

Are you sure that's a bristlenose?

(Sweet pic, btw)

[Riss]

Yes it is a bristlenose, he hasn't developed his bristles on his nose yet. He's either still young...or he is really a she. lol

[catfishmike]

bristlenoses seem to come in all kinds of patterns as far as bristle placement goes i see all kinds of growth on the young bristlenoses at work.i like when the nose grows in real full and it looks like worms.ya know with a face like that you would think these plecos would be ambush preadators,waiting for a fish to snap at the tenticals.but no just graze on junk all day long.

[Riss]

Maybe someone can tell me whether it is a male or a female. I'm not too sure.

[mann]

Well, is this a bristlenose plec?

I guess it's a terrible picture, now that I look at it.

[catfishmike]

i would say male thats still developing but if it grows more and thats it for the whiskers then maybe a female ,but ususaly females are devoid of any facial whiskers

[Riss]

It looks like a bristlenose to me....but its a bit hard to tell from the picture.