Butterfly Or Bristlenose Pleco

[DukeT]

Some time ago, I purchased 2 small Pleco's from the LFS store, which were labelled as Butterfly Pleco's.

I will try and post some pictures over the next few days, but in the meanwhile will describe them the best I can.

Their colour changed depending on whether the are laying on the gravel, or on the stone or Wood in the tank. They also have striped across their bodies at various points from their head to their tail, all of which confirmed my belief that they were Butterfly Pleco's.

However, a couple of weeks ago I found some orange eggs which hatched out into around 30 baby pleco's. The strange thing I noticed however is the male (the Pleco that was guarding the eggs / young) has grown Bristles all over his nose, where the female (the larger one) doesn't have any.

So, can anyone tell me please, do I have butterfly pleco's or bristlenose pleco's, or some mix of the two?

Had the young not been born I might have presumed I had one of each, but they were both very small in the same batch / tank when I bought them.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[KittyKat]

"Butterfly plecos" are also known as hillstream loaches. The two species have very different body shapes, so just google for "hillstream loach" and "bristlenose pleco" and compare the body shape. I suspect that you have bristlenose plecos because the loaches do not grow any bristles.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This is the problem with common names, There are actually two plecos which commonly get referred to as butterfly plecos. One is Dekeyseria brachyura (L168) and the other is Dekeyseria sp. (L052).

The only pleco species that get bristles are in the genus Ancistrus. Males will always get them and sometimes females will but to a much lesser extent.

 

[DukeT]

Thanks for the help all, they must be Bristlenose then

Looks like I need to read up on the little guys!