What Pleco do i have?

[Taylor911]

Hi,

I got a pleco on Thursday and want to know what species it is.

Its dark-brown with white spots all over it.
Its also very small, i assume 'cause its young.

Any ideas what it could be?


Thanks,
Andy

 

[D-MAC]

Hi Andy...Do you have any pics you could show us? and what price did you pay?

 

[scatz]

moved to i.d forum.

As derek suggested, it would be almost imposible for us to say which plec you have without a photo, but have a look through our common Bristle nose profile to see if it looks similar (baring in mind that juveniles do not have any bristles)
http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2262

 

[Taylor911]

Ive been trying to get a pic for a while. Its really hard to forums the camera properly.
I tried an under water camera which scared him into hiding, unsurprisingly.

The price i thing was about £4.
I got a weather loach and him for £9.** (not sure the exact price.)
So it must be around £4.

Thanks for the above link, it gave me an idea.
The topside looks like the picture 3rd in from the left.

Ill attach a picture i took, its not great but might give you an idea.

Terrible i know, but it might give you an idea of colour...

This is his belly, does this shed any light?

If both are useless ill try to get him on the back of the tank, or even in a bag to photograph.

 

[matubula]

Looks like one of the Hillstream Loaches that is often incorrectly called a plec, usually something like 'Hong Kong' or 'Butterfly' plec.

 

[macvsog23]

A Hill stream loach not a pleco
Needs cool fresh clean fast flowing water.

I believe they come from Vietnam.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillstream_loach"]Hillstream loach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Beaufortia_kweichowensis.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Beaufortia_kweichowensis.jpg/200px-Beaufortia_kweichowensis.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/1/1c/Beaufortia_kweichowensis.jpg/200px-Beaufortia_kweichowensis.jpg[/ame]

http://www.loaches.com/

 

[Taylor911]

So its not a pleco? Its another loach.
Thats quite interesting, ill go back to the shop and confirm what they had it advertised as.

Thanks everyone, i will endeavour to get more clear pictures of it for you to get a better look of the topside.


Bingo - Got him.
Best i could get.

So these two are the best.

 

[Irene0100]

yes hes a very nice hill-stream loach, they prefer to be kept with company, ie a group of them rather than on their own, so if you can buy a friend for him do so. he wont grow very big at all. price sounds about right too.

 

[Taylor911]

Right.
Ok, thanks for confirming that for me.
Ill be sure to get him a pal. Or 2.

I've also got a Weather Loach, they tend to ignore each other.