What kind of pleco is this?

[XimeD]

So, I got him/her at petco before I knew what I was doing. I have assumed it is a common pleco till now, but I have had him/her for 4months and maybe seen 0.5'' growth (pleco is ~2'' now). I thought common plecos grew faster. So now I am wondering whether instead of a common pleco I have a female bristlenose (which would be great cause I wouldn't have to find a new home for her once I move her to my 75gal). What do ppl think???

Anyway, I am not sure how evident this is in the pics (sorry if they are somewhat out of focus, thats the best I could do ) but the tips of its caudal fin are white. My water is very hard and I read this can be a symptom of that. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the help and hope u guys like my pleco, its name was Hades but I might need to change that if its a female lol

 

[i3k]

Kind of looks like a trinidad pleco

 

[Jason7894561230]

Its a bristlenose to me

 

[neilanh]

Man pleco's are so hard to ID.

I don't think it's a bristlenose, no bristles that I can see.

Maybe go browse around on planetcatfish, they have a very large database of pleco's and lots of information.

Sorry I can't help ID.

 

[XimeD]

Its ok, thanks for the help everyone. I guess I will eventually find out depending how big it gets. Whatever pleco it is I hope it is not one of the huge growing ones.

Just for my own clarification, do female bristlenosers have bristles or not? I thought not, so then they do?

 

[XimeD]

Any thoughts on the white tips?

 

[i3k]

I think white tips are normal. I have a longfin albino bristle nose and the very tips of his tail get white in warmer water and go back to pinkish color in cooler water.

 

[Fastfossil]

Good luck

 

[FishEggs]

it looks like this one to me but i'm no expert on plecos.
Parotocinclus spilosoma • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

 

[XimeD]

it looks like this one to me but i'm no expert on plecos.
Parotocinclus spilosoma • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

Hmmmm possibly, but the tail looks different to me. I hope you're right though cause it's one of the small ones

 

[XimeD]

So what is the consensus of those females bristlenosers? bristles or no bristles?

Mine seems to have some bushy looking appendages on the sides of its head, below and slighly forward with respect to its eyes. It flares them when other fish come near. I used to think they were gills. Any thoughts? could they be bristles? (Sorry for my ignorance, still new to this)

 

[Vircomore]

I'd also put my vote towards a Female Bristlenose.

Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog Image • PlanetCatfish

This is a picture of a fully grown adult Female Bristlenose - and contrary to the name, it's usually only the Males that end up growing any "substantial" bristles. Females remain relatively "clean shaven".

 

[Jason7894561230]

Thats what i think a female bristlenose

 

[FishEggs]

either way they both stay small so hopefully it is one of them and she will be able to keep it to the end of it's time.

 

[HN1]

Unfortunately, it looks like a typical "common". They are mostly hybrid hypos out of florida at this point. Unless you get VERY lucky, you likely won't get anything but them out of the chain tanks not marked otherwise. Great fish, but too large for most aquaria. IMHO, they should disappear from the hobby.

 

[XimeD]

I'd also put my vote towards a Female Bristlenose.

Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog Image • PlanetCatfish

This is a picture of a fully grown adult Female Bristlenose - and contrary to the name, it's usually only the Males that end up growing any "substantial" bristles. Females remain relatively "clean shaven".

Yeah I came across this exact pic and it looks much like mine, I can hope , though the fact that I got it from petco probably means its a common pleco. They did have some albino bristlenoses at that same petco (a week after I got mine grrrrrrr), so I can still hope. One thing is for sure though, I definitly learnt my lesson: do not trust the people at that petco to know what they are doing! They sold me that pleco (and RTTFs) for my 20gal and regardless of what it is, it will get too big for that tank.

 

[mattrox]

Bristlenoses to have a weird spiky thing that they shoot out from the side of their gills. I never saw it before until I caught my large male in a net. It looked nasty like it could do damage!

FWIW, I thought it looked like a bristlenoe too.

http://www.aquariumindustries.com.au/Assets/269/1/BristlenoseCatfish.pdf

 

[sdrone]

Looks like I'm going to have a similar problem with my pleco in the 20 gallon tank I inherited. he's probably over 4" long now.

The orange gourami is huge, the silver dollars are supposed to have bigger tanks, and the pleco is long. I didn't realize how wide his body was either. I don't mind, since he goes around digging holes in the sand, but I didn't expect to have to change ALL the fish. I found a local store, Rainbow Pets, that should accept all of them.

 

[XimeD]

I am sorry to hear that =(

Unfortunately, as you and I can atest that story is all too common.

Hope your LFS accepts those fish and you can get some nice ones for your 20gal.

Best of luck (I would post a stocking if I were you)

 

[Khalix]

I could be way off base, but he looks a lot like what we often get labeled as Hi-fin spotted hi-fin spotted pleco - Google Search

One of the major problems in our store is they hire a lot of new people that don't make any effort to keep our fish where they belong, and there are sooo many different types of pleco's.. we get some that are clearly not what the distributor claims, and often we get "mystery fish" in some of or shipments that aren't on the shipping manifest.