I'm Confused.. What Kind Of Plec ?

[Glod]

Ok, I was watching my fish today when I saw both of my "bristlenoses" out at the same time. I was surprised to see that they look quite different in markings.

This is the one I originally had

This is the one I got yesterday

Are they both bristlenoses right enough ? They're both about 2 inches long and I think I can see the start of bristles on the one with "splotches" no sign on the one with just spots tho.

edit: fixed pic placement and added a little more description.

 

[tamara]

the bottom looks like a dwarf pleco...just look it up on google to see if they look the same..
as for the top ones...i'm not sure if they're the same..sorry!

 

[smithrc]

the bottom looks like a dwarf pleco...just look it up on google to see if they look the same..
as for the top ones...i'm not sure if they're the same..sorry!

A what??


they both look like BN's to me - the top one looks more mature and is showing its patchy colouration the other is showing its uniform coluration

They will change depending on what they are hiding against and also if they are stressed - the new one looks nice and healthy

 

[stang1]

I agree with smithrc, they both look like bn's to me too.

 

[Glod]

The one in the bottom pic even has the spotty colouration on the same log the top one is on. I have noticed that they do get darker and lighter depending on the background
The new one was mixed in with a tank of tiger plecs (L002 I think) but was clearly not a tiger plec. if I get the chance I'll try and get a decent pic of the old one too, didn't realise it was quite so poor, sorry about that.

 

[LisaLQ]

The patchy markings on one are it's stress markings, completely normal, some plecs show them more often than others.

There's loads of different types of ancistrus, ranging from your LFS find common bristlenose, to medusa plecs, to black eyed golds (L144). All sorts. Go on Planet Catfish and check out the listings under "ancistrus".

Common bns are basically a LFS bred strain, a mongrel so to speak - so you will get some who look slightly different to others.

Both of these are common BNs, one is normal brown, other is an albino. Bottom piccie was my black eyed gold L144, who sadly died before he grew up (he was deformed slightly in the bonce)