What am I?

[plecoperson]

I think I'm a bristlenose but Im not sure. No bristles, you see. Im about a year old, give or take a few months.

I think I look like a common pleco in minature! Can anyone tell me what sort of pleco I am?

Posing next to a pen to show my small size.

Pretty plecostomus but what sort?


help is appreciated.

 

[plecoguy]

im pretty sure that is a gibbiceps pleco. when his fin is up...count the spines, then let us know.

 

[plecoperson]

Heres a picture - you count and I count and then we compare!

Because I dont know which bit counts as a spine and what doesnt. sorry

 

[plecoguy]

ya, i still say its a gibbiceps (sailfin) pleco. ive had one before, beautiful fish, but they get big. 18"

 

[snowyangel]

I agree, definitely sailfin pleco. They get beautiful when they hit their big adult size.

 

[ayla]

Yup...I know that one to be a sail fin pleco also. Marble Sailfin Pleco.

 

[plecoperson]

id better get rid of it then as the tank is 27g. thanks all.

But if it is over a year old and its only that big? My common plec, which I would assume are very closely related to Sailfin plecos, got three times that size in six months...so whats going on? why hasnt the Sailfin got bigger?

 

[flowerhornkeeper]

hi i had a sail fin pleco that did not grow quickly for the first year but then i moved it from a 30 gal to a 88 gal and within 3 months it went from 4" to about 17" i dont know if this helps but it was deffo the same fish you have in the pic ( glyptoperichthys gibbiceps)

 

[daisycat]

We got a gibbiceps and a common pleco at the same time. The common hit 12+ inches within a year or less but the gibbiceps "only" got as far as 8inches. This was in a 30g tank. We moved them both to our 105g tank but the common kept harrassing our turtle so we gave him to an LFS and we just have the gibbiceps (which by the way looks just like a bigger version of your one) - waiting to see how much he grows now in a larger tank...

 

[plecoperson]

but that doesnt make sense as it was in a bigger tank must have been about 4 ft from what I gather and now its in a 27g only 2 and 1/2ft length so its not a case of too little space. Well, if you say so. Not convinced but my sister thought she had a bristlenose (this is her fish not mine) but I didnt as its got no bristles.

Most species of pleco look the same so how can you tell? He looks like a mini common pleco to me is it different numbers of spines?