Need pleco ID help

[stooker]

Hello all, I picked up this pleco today, my first. It was sold as a bristlenose which is what I was looking for. However, after getting it home and seeing it up close, it looks more like a clown pleco. It's only about an inch long. My fault for not looking closer at the store, I'm embarrassed to say.

Only thing I can guess in favor of it being a bristlenose is if it's a calico, but I just don't know enough about them and the stripes look too well defined.

So I'm checking to see what the community thinks. In the end, I don't mind too much if it's a clown, I just want to make sure I'm giving it the proper care and feeding without assuming the type.

Thanks in advance.

 

[King Fisher]

Definitely looks like a clown pleco. Cool fish.

 

[stooker]

That's what I was leaning towards and definitely not a bristlenose at least.

Checked up on the tank during lunch and he's out and about, so I might have gotten lucky with a non shy pleco. Plenty of dirftwood to hide in, but he's instead battling the corys for a wafer and nosing around the substrate.

 

[King Fisher]

Awesome. My last pleco just sat in the corner of the tank all day. He'd move around at night of course. Lol

 

[stooker]

Yeah, if it weren't for the fact that he's been out and about a bit during the day, I'd prob take him back and ask for a bristlenose. Originally wanted the bristlenose to help with some algae, but I think I'm on track with getting the tank balanced out with less hours of light and scaling back the CO2 level. It's been a battle for sure.

 

[King Fisher]

If you got the room I don't see why you couldn't add a bristlenose as well

 

[FJake 13]

Not a fan of bristlenoses. They're just hard to look at for me. Love the clown. Have you tried an UV sterilizer for the algae? Keeps my tanks crystal clear. The only drawback is it sometimes makes me lazy on water changes because it is so clear. I know the changes still need to be done.

 

[stooker]

Not a fan of bristlenoses. They're just hard to look at for me. Love the clown. Have you tried an UV sterilizer for the algae? Keeps my tanks crystal clear. The only drawback is it sometimes makes me lazy on water changes because it is so clear. I know the changes still need to be done.

I've never looked into UV. I don't mind a little algae and I love having the excuse to get a pleco, nerites, and amanos as a cleanup crew. At this pace, though, in going to have to start supplementing their diet soon. They are destroying the algae and it's not recovering quick enough (a good problem!).