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Hello!

I have 5 L-183 plecs in a 30gal along with some guppies. I'm curious on a few aspects of keeping/breeding these plecos.

• Several of my plecs have ugly colorations/bands on them. Is this typical of low-quality/non-desireable specimens, or is could it be something parameter-wise? (See attached picture)
• Two of my plecs have great colorations and a distinct blue seam down their dorsal and tail fins. One of them has brownish, copper coloration on the bottom, leading edge of its pectoral fins. Is this just another coloration of the 183, or is it another species entirely?
• I have tried alder cones, PH changes, temp changes, etc to induce spawning. I'm uncertain if they're actually big enough to breed, so that's probably a factor too. But are there any tips from those here that have bred them?

I admittedly don't know much about this species, so I'm a total noob here.

I don't have much experience with Bristlenose. To me it looks similar to stress colourations I have seen in other L numbers, when they have recently been caught, or for a few days after being moved into a new tank. It actually looks similar to a lightening of colour, in bands I saw on my I purchased a couple days ago, they are almost back to the colouration that I saw in the shop before they were caught.

Do you see much aggression between those three, one is clearly a male, maybe the other two are smaller males and they fight each other a lot, leaving the darker ones to be female and left out of the fights? Just a thought I could be way off!

Are there plenty of hiding spots? Maybe introduce a few more caves if you don't currently have enough for one fish to have a cave each. Alternatively, you could try separating them with a tank divider, or into another tank if you have one and see if after a few days the colouration changes.

I will leave whether they could be a different species to people who know more, but I they all look very similar to me, apart from the colouration.

Mine will show those patterns as well, sometimes.

They are too young/small for breeding. I'm going just by the size of their bristles... or you got females only, but I doubt that. How big are they? 6-7cm?

MarcW wrote:I don't have much experience with Bristlenose. To me it looks similar to stress colourations I have seen in other L numbers, when they have recently been caught, or for a few days after being moved into a new tank. It actually looks similar to a lightening of colour, in bands I saw on my

L260

I purchased a couple days ago, they are almost back to the colouration that I saw in the shop before they were caught.

Do you see much aggression between those three, one is clearly a male, maybe the other two are smaller males and they fight each other a lot, leaving the darker ones to be female and left out of the fights? Just a thought I could be way off!

Are there plenty of hiding spots? Maybe introduce a few more caves if you don't currently have enough for one fish to have a cave each. Alternatively, you could try separating them with a tank divider, or into another tank if you have one and see if after a few days the colouration changes.

I will leave whether they could be a different species to people who know more, but I they all look very similar to me, apart from the colouration.

I haven't observed them fighting or showing any sort of aggression. In fact, they all seem to like each other. I have numerous cholla wood structures and they love hiding inside or on the undersides of the wood. During feeding times, they all come out and munch on the food with all of the other fish. They also love to group up next to the filter intake.

I'm hesitant to assume its stress coloring from moving them because they look like that in the tank normally. Perhaps it could be a water quality issue causing stress?

Jobro wrote: They are too young/small for breeding. I'm going just by the size of their bristles... or you got females only, but I doubt that. How big are they? 6-7cm?

They're about 7-9cm. Any idea how big they typically start breeding at?

Well, still I can't see any bristles in there. They are either too young or all females. But just looking at them I'd say too young. Mine are about 2 years old and have a TL of 8-10cm. My males show way more bristles than yours. If you can't easily distinguish sexes on BN, they are either all the same or still too young.

Took another look, and I'am pretty sure those are only about 1-1.5 year old. The two sitting on the rear side are probably going to turn into obvious males soon. The others are hard to tell.