PlanetCatfish.com

I know it is young I have searched the database for an exact match but no luck. Is this a hybrid?

It is unlikely that it's a hybrid. There are a lot of different bristlenoses out there.

Does the fish have spots, or not?

Edit: Also, what size is it - many bristlenoses are different in young and older sizes.

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Mats

It has no spots at all. The body itself is plain.

I have 2 and the largest is no more than 5cm at present no bristles yet.

I have some "spotless" Ancistrus that are discussed/identified here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 13&t=29014

I'm not saying yours are the same species, but it may give you some ideas what species of Ancistrus have no spots.

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Mats

Thanks I have read the discussion you posted a link to and have looked at the data for both l338 and l88 and would say by looking at the pics it is nearer an l88 but I still am undecided. I will keep looking and if I can get better pictures I will post them at a later date.

Cheers for the replies mats

By the way, where did you get it from? It may not help to know that, but it's possibly helpful either because it helps us know who imported it, or because someone else may have one of it's brothers/sisters and have identified it.

It may also be a case of "let's wait 'til it grows a bit bigger". But there are also some very good experts on the forum, so lets see what they say.

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Mats

The most I can tell you is I bought 2 for £6 from a shop in Newcastle and they were labelled bristlenoses. The ones I was given don't look like the ones that were in the tank which had spots and striped fins.

I like them even thought they are different. I have only had one possible identification from someone saying they were common bristlenose but then another saying "no" ? Very confusing lol.

When they are stressed they go a lighter brown but most of the time are very dark brown almost black in colour. I can never get a better pic because they move around before my camera is able to focus.


I forgot to mention that the shop owner gets orders in from europe so not sure of the origin.

Let's make one thing VERY clear... There are few Loricariidae that are harder to identify than Ancistrus - some of the whiptails will be close, but bristlenoses are hard. There are lots of them that look very similar, and they are one of the most widespread species in South America, which species all the way from southern Central America, down into Argentina and I think there are even some in Chile. Almost all are brown, and the only obvious differences are the size and amount of spots and stripes on the dorsal and caudal fins.

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Mats

These look like what are being sold over here as "green dragon" bristlenose.

yeah I agree they do but do green dragons have the slight white edge to the tail and top fin. The pics I googled didn't show these markings but the rest of the fish looks the same and the colouring. I have never heard of green dragons before??

Do you know whether it is WC or bred? If it is WC and has absolutely no dots whatsoever (have a look at the base of the fins) is COULD be Ancistrus sp. LDA16. But that is rather unlikely. I am not aware of anybody breeding them, and if you have two (and there were probably more in the shop) I'd rather say this is a bred color variant of the common bristlenose.

Hi Jessonthenet- I think the first question that needs addressing is "can we rule out common bristlenose (

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

)?" Individual fish are capable of appearing orange, jet black, or green mottled depending on mood and tank surroundings- plecos rival cichlids when it comes to being able to change their colouration/patterning. Unfortunately I've not got photos of the fish concerned, but some of my male fish appear to have no mottled markings at all, but are just jet black.

The black gravel substrate leads me to think that the fish might be making itself as dark as it can. Most common bristlenose don't show such a prominent white flash as yours on the dorsal fin, but 2 pictures in the Cat-eLog (53 and 55) show juveniles with a strong white/yellow marking on the dorsal (albeit not with a "black" body colour. Also, the nose looks longer than normal for a juvenile common.

I'm not saying this is definitely , but I can't rule it out either, especially at £3 per fish.

These fish were in the tank with what you have described as cirrhosus. There seems to be a lot of variations of this type so you are probably right about it being a common. The fish I got have always been the same colour though since I got them from the shop. I will post one more pic to be sure as this one is a little more clear I think.

I never knew that there were so many different colour variations of one single species of plec