I bought this albino brittle nose at 2”. Now she is 13” and lives in my pond. With the regular size Pleco’s.Is this the elusive albino pleco?shes HUGE

[rosie g]

so I bought a 2 inch albino brittle nose Pleco from LPS like three years ago, and she’d began growing very very fast. I have a 55 gallon and it got to the point where she was so big and powerful that she would incidentally kill my smaller fish when she flipped around at night she would literally annihilate the poor little corydoras with her big a$$ tail i moved her out to my outdoor heated cichlid pond where all the huge adults live. she loves it out there.

by the way i’m in south florida so i only need heaters from late nov-march. with the heaters, so far the coolest it’s gotten is like 68° and these adults are well fed and very “meaty and muscular” so they have all survived the past 3 winters

anyway, is this a super large albino brittle nose or is it the elusive albino Pleco?? this girl is huge!!! I measured her and she’s 13 inches head to tail!!! The 8 inch blood parrots are in the foreground, and this big lady is in the background. Don’t let that distance fool you. i’m starting to truly believe she is a regular albino Pleco. Which is super cool because I don’t hear much about them!!

 

[NoodleOfDanger0]

From the pictures, it doesn't look like she has bristles yet. Bristlenose Plecos get their bristles at around 6 months old and will only really get to be 5-7 inches so it's definitely not a Bristlenose Pleco. I'd say she probably is an albino common pleco.

 

[DoubleDutch]

From the pictures, it doesn't look like she has bristles yet. Bristlenose Plecos get their bristles at around 6 months old and will only really get to be 5-7 inches so it's definitely not a Bristlenose Pleco. I'd say she probably is an albino common pleco.

Females don't / hardly get bristles but agree it probably is a different species.

 

[itiwhetu]

That is not a bristle nose they just don't get that big. My guess it is an Albino common.

 

[Colin_T]

Either an albino gibbiceps or plecostomus.

If you put bubblewrap on 90% of the pond surface in winter, it will help trap the heat and reduce your power bill.

 

[rosie g]

Females don't / hardly get bristles but agree it probably is a different species.

yeah she’s almost 3 now and last year i had to move her out of my 55g bc she would whip her tail and hurt the corys. i was under the impression only males produced prominent bristles and females are more subtle. thanks for your answer though. i bought her at a LPS as a tiny “albino brittnose” but now i have my doubts. she’s a giant and almost as big as my dark common plecos. she’s a treat!