jayfl234

I bought two of these type plecos yesterday and it looks like a ancistrus species but not sure. Any help would be great.

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Luniyn

Any chance of a closer look? It's a little small to really see well enough to see determining factors of type of fish.

jayfl234

How about this

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armadillo

What puzzles me, is the white tip of the tail. I saw the exact same one in our LFS and my boyfriend fell in love with it. Of course, we forgot to note down the name (not that fish stores are flawless at identifying).

jayfl234

She that is what gets me to but when i bought mine it said bristlenose pleco but it does not have any bristle I just hope i did not get one that is going to get bigger than 5 inches.

armadillo

Probably a very silly thing to say but I thought that the only really big catfish was the common pleco. If I am right, you're OK. Then again, am no expert. Finding out now to make sure am not talking rubbish.

Luniyn

I don't think they get their bristles until sexual maturity, at least not at the level you see in the photos on some sites. Check out this page which shows some of the types of bristlenose.

armadillo

OK, according to one source (I'll pm you if your'e interested in the URL), max sizes of loriciidae-looking fish are as follows:

BN (ancistrus) = 5"
Bicoloured Banjou = 5"
Common pleco = 20"!!!
Waterlot's = 6"

So as it's definitely not a common pleco, it's looking good.

armadillo

Great link. You can really see the fish well. I do hate to see a fish kept out of water but I need to get used to it I guess. You do see way better that way.

jayfl234

That is a awsome link well i think they are bristlenose plecos i am just going to have to wait and see when they mature if they are male or female.

COBettaCouple

The pics do look to be of bristlenose cats.. http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/ - this is a nice site to find info on the HUGE variety of catfish, including the plecos.. i want a zebra pair so much!

vin

Looks like a gold nugget to me....http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=863

Jacko

I would agree that it is a bristlenose pleco and might be a female or young male. Like that link Luniyn gave, they are extremely difficult to sex when juvenile.

armadillo

I think the spots on the golden nugget are bigger and more yellow (his were more brown). Also, the coloration of the tail/dorsal fins was a whole yellow line for the GN, whereas mystery fish has a white triangle on the corner of these fins. Golden nuggest are lovely looking fish, though.

armadillo

But if its' a BN, why do we never see the white triangles at the tip of the dorsal/tail fins on any other BN picture. That's really what's throwing me. It's got me so curious now. I'll go back to the LFS soon and ask (hopefully, we can trust him to recognise his own stock, but you never know with fish stores). Hope he stlll has him!

COBettaCouple

i think it'll take some searching planet catfish's pleco pics to ID this guy.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...t=0&genus_id=0
Does one of these 3 plecos look to be your guy?
L358, L215, L141

jayfl234

Looks more like L215 more than any of them. But still debating and this is gonna be a tough one

armadillo

Yeah, I thought 141 was slightly similar in terms of the tail tip, but again, it's a line and not a triangle (the corner only). Also, 141's general coloration was paler. Mmmmh, tough one this one.

Could it be that it's one of the 'lined' ones, but a juvenile, and that the triangle marking will turn into a full line with age?