Bogwood Colour Pleco?

[blackbat]

whenI had a tank given me full of fish it was very very over stocked and contained a1 red/brown colour pleco 2 common and one Blonde/yallow with black eyes along with 5 scissortails 2 gourami and 5 terta all in a 3ft by 12 by 12 tank the plecs are all about 14-16 inches except this little red plec he doesnt have spots and instead he looks like parqui (SP?) flooring like they have in school halls.
is he a colour variation on the common plec or is he a different type.
The fish now lives near by with a friend and he has two clown loach friends and the the glowlights from the tank he came in with him now. The scissortails all died when i got columnaris and the big black and blonde plecos and the tango orange gourami are with my bf leaving me with the 4 and last pleco and 1 gourami (she has two new friend now too).
Alls well that ends well but I am interested as to why the red pleco is smaller and such a different fish to the others, much shyer and less bolshy. ANy Ideas?

 

[LisaLQ]

Is he like this:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...p?species_id=55

Or like this (nicked KathyM's pic!):
http/img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/Kat...06hannibal1.jpg

Top one is a rusty plec (like my avatar), bottom one is a chocolate albino common plec (basically your normal common plec, just a chocolate albino version of it - same as your normal albino one).

Sounds like you have two normal commons, one proper albino one, and one chocolate albino.

Pics would help

 

[blackbat]

yes it is the seconed one but he is a very bright red he matched the bogwood perfectly lol
as for the proper albino shouldnt they have red eyes? it's not really white as much as beige honey coloured. but I know that one is identical in size to the rest. The red one is very little I wonder if he has been stunted or if they are all a bit smaller?
what is bred to get a chocolate albino a common and an albino common?

oh forgot to say thanks for your reply

 

[LisaLQ]

Not sure about the breeding/genetics side of things, but albino commons do come with dark eyes from the pics I've seen, but I think they're dark red - sometimes you cant tell though. The chocolate albinos definitely come with red eyes, as I've got one and he has them - but they're again very dark.

I know for a fact Kathy's plec (the one in the second link) was much redder than the pic shows, as is mine - as she used my camera to take the pics, and it's really unreliable colour wise. My chocolate albino is peperami coloured *lol*

Some albinos dont grow as big as their normal coloured relatives - I'm not sure why this is - but it isn't always the case, I've seen some piccies of 14" albinos recently - but then I've heard of some who've only reached 10" or something. It would also depend on what size tank they were in, and as you said they were in a very small one, it's probably that he was stunted. Common plecs (normal and albino) really need big tanks - the bigger the better. For four commons, I wouldn't go under my tanks kind of size (6 x 2 x 2ft). I've heard of some, and seen some, that have been up to 18" - although 12-14" is apparently more usual.

I wonder if the chocolate albinos are more likely to be smaller than normal albinos and normal coloureds...?

 

[blackbat]

well the other 3 are bigger but I am really not sure of the ages or anything. All I know is that since splitting them up the other 3 have grown some and he hasn't. AT least they are all happy now and have a lot more room. They are in a 20+g tank and a 20+g tank and a 18+g tank at moment but I know that all 4 will be in bigger tanks within a yr and have plenty of growing room in them. we just had to all rush out and get as bigger tank as funds would allow to get these fish seperated really. I am gonna get a 240l tank when the funds allow I have a rio 125 at mo and at least the pleco can stand up in this tank
The chocolate plec is stunning looking but just a bit smaller than mine and the two my bf has. It sounds normal tho so not to worry. he is a happy little fish no the less and he certainly held his own with the others when we had them. I know the man who I had them off loved them and he had them from his friend I guess it was another one of those petshops selling fish that were not at all suitable for the tank size in order to make a few more pounds profit