BN Pleco Adults & Fry - Local Pick up only, NoVA

[abcdefghi]

I have the following that I need to sell locally:

2 x female BN plecos
~20 BN pleco fry

These are the dwarf variety and only grow to approximately 4" I have a male as well, that the females had been breeding with regularly (spawned typically every 2-3 weeks). However, I don't have the space to take care of them and so want to rehome them (except the male which I plan to keep).

I do not want to deal with shipping these, so local pick up / meet up only in Northern VA.

Price is best offer, depending on the price I can also include the male.

Thanks.

[MatsP]

Sorry, but I'd like to understand what you mean by "dwarf variety"? Are they not the common

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

- if so, why do you say they are dwarf - or did you buy them of aquabid as "Dwarf Bristlenose", which is quite frequently listed, but as far as size goes, I don't believe there is ANY evidence for them being any smaller than any others. So they should reach a good 5" total length, and really large males may reach about 6".

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Mats

[abcdefghi]

I was sold them as dwarf, but being far from an expert they may well simply be regular BN plecos. I could try to measure the adults, but am somewhat certain they are not 5" and nowhere near 6".

Either way it is not like I am asking a premium for them, based on a claim that they are dwarf plecos.

[MatsP]

I'm not saying you, or anyone else for that matter, using the word Dwarf together with Bristlenose is trying to get more money for the fish. I'm just trying to make sure that everyone knows what you are selling. Put another way, I'm just questioning the validity of using "dwarf" to describe the common bristlenose in general, because they are not dwarfs. I'd also guess that your fish are nowhere near the 5-6 years old that it these fish can easily live to, and given good food and other conditions, they keep growing for their entire life - even if they slow down after a couple of years, at around 4" or so - males generally grow bigger than females. I'm pretty certain I haven't lost a single mature male since I first started breeding them a little less than 7 years ago (aside from accidents such as when my overflow on the sump filtered tank got blocked, and the fish "tried to experience the outside world" by getting over the edge of the tank, and fell on the floor of the tank.

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Mats

[Sue Foster]

My local pet shop calls them drawf plecos too. I suppose they are compared to the common pleco and some other tank busters. Mostly you are seeing American English. We can be a lazy bunch.

[MatsP]

100 people being wrong doesn't make it right! ;)

Yes, I know, I can be annoyingly pedantic at times. But if tyou call it "Dwarf Bristlenose Pleco", then it's not a "Dwarf Pleco", it's a "Dwarf Bristlenose" - which means that, by common meaning of dwarf should be smaller than the usual bristlenose. The common bristlenose is nowhere near the bottom half in size-range of bristlenoses. If we go by the size in the Cat-eLog, there are 113 species in total (that have a recorded size), and listed in size order with largest first, it's in 33rd place - there are 80 different species that are listed as smaller. I'd be the first to admit that some of those sizes may not be accurate.

The same logic would make someone at 6'(180cm) a dwarf, because that's where the 75% of humans are not as tall... If we ignore the fact that human dwarfism is defined as a "medical condition", a dwarf is a male under 4'10", which is significantly shorter than the shortest 5% of men (around 5'4" or 160cm).

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Mats