Bizzare Bristlenose?

[Pterophyllum]

Hello everyone,
As you can probably tell from my user name, my main interest is Angelfish, although I have been keeping all sorts of fish for over 40 years now, oh yes, and for a living I own an aquatic store!
In all that time I've never seen a bristlenose quite like this one...


It is about 4" body length and came in from the wholesaler mixed with a number of other apparently "normal" bristlenoses.
I'm assuming the extra branching of the bristles is the result of a genetic mutation, rather than physical damage, or the fish being a different species from the usual.
Any insights greatly appreciated - thanks.

[Richard B]

Well hello there.

It's a natural ocurrance and certainly not generated by damage. It may well be a batch of fish that look like commons but are actually a different species with a particular type of bristle. Bristlenose are notoriously difficult to ID to species without a capture location but someone may have an idea - we'll have to see...


Edit - i'm not saying this is the one but

ancistrus stigmaticus

has similar bristles

[Pterophyllum]

Hi Richard,
Thank you for the reply, I note

i'm not saying this is the one

but the fish you link to has very different bristles, on my fish each individual bristle has several distinct branches, and each of those branches has several further branches some of those evene seem to be branching.
By contrast the fish you link to has only a few slightly branched bristles. I'll try and get a clearer photo that better illustrates what I'm seeing.

[Barbie]

Your picture of the type of bristles is quite fantastic. I have not ever seen such extreme branching in bristles that short. It will be very interesting to hear if it is a specific species. It would give me another fish to try to attain! Thank you very much for sharing!

Barbie

[Pterophyllum]

Little bit of an update.....

1. Checked with my supplier, and the fish was wild caught in Paraguay
2. We got another shipment from the same supplier, these were slightly smaller, and there are several males which look similar, but with less pronounced branching. This makes me think that it's not an aberrent individual, but simply a particularily splendid specimen.
3. Put him in a 2' tank with two others, 1 female, 1 I'm not so sure about, thought it was female, but it seems to be developing bristles quite rapidly. Anyway the good news is that he's guarding a good clutch of bright orange eggs!

[scientist0724]

I love the extra bristle-lyness of your fish. I think it makes him extra special.

Arlene

[2poc]

The bristles look like little Anemones, great fish

[bigbird]

stunning male and wonderful bristles. cheers jk

[Pterophyllum]

Further Update:
I now have in excess of 100 babies from this male, here are some better photos of both the male, and the female he has sucessfully bred with, as noted earlier, I believe both to be wild caught fish from Paraguay, and I'd be really grateful for any pointers as to a likely species ID.....

Male





Female