Pleco interbreeding

[wallymc]

I have a long fin (dragontype) yellow pleco and a plain clown bristlenose pleco which have breed. Surprised when I saw little 3/4" plecos in a heavily planted tank with lots of driftwood clinging to the front glass. Didn't realize they could interbreed, any comments?

[bekateen]

Hi Wallace,

I've never seen the name "clown" used with bristlenose pleco before. Perhaps this was a mislabeled tank at the source where you got them? If at a pet store, it is common for stores to hold both common bristlenose plecos (

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

) and clown plecos (

Panaqolus maccus

) in a single aquarium, so maybe that confusion?

Anyway, long-fin green dragon bristlenose plecos are simply human-created artificially-selected forms using common bristlenose plecos. So yes, they will absolutely breed with other common bristlenose plecos if given the chance.

Cheers, Eric

[panaque]

The common bristlenose plec (

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

) come in many selectively bred forms, like your yellow long fin and plain brown ones, but they are all the same species so they can freely interbreed in the same way that different breeds of dog can.