Albino bristlenose pleco

[angelminx]

Selleck is my Albino Bristlenose Plecostomus.  He was ~1 1/4" long when I got him on March 3rd of this year.  Today he is ~2", not including his tail.  So far I don't see any "bristles".  I don't know when they are supposed to appear, and he may not actually be a "he", but I named him after the famous "mustache" we all "know and love". 

Here are some pics of him:

     

[For some reason all my pics of him show up more yellow than he actually is.]

[angelminx]

more pics:

     

In the 1st shot, you can see his "strange" shape...I don't know if it is a deformity, or a species "thing".  He's the only pleco that I've seen with that abrupt narrowing towards the tail.

[angelminx]

This is the most recent picture I have of him that I have.  You can see his head/face better because he's on the back glass:

  

[angelminx]

These 3 were taken a day before the one in the previous post:

     

I do have 2 pics that were taken back in April, shortly after he moved to the "The Big Tank", but somehow I never got them re-sized.]

He was sooo tiny when I got him, that it was hard to get hold of him to give him a prophylactic worm/gill fluke treatment.

Angelminx

[Edit:  I just noticed that I forgot to mention That in these photos,  Selleck is hanging out in the opening of the natural "cave" in this chunk of driftwood.  This is where Emmett, the Clown Pleco I used to have, always hung out.  I don't know how deep the hole goes into the wood, but I can't reach the end with my index finger.  I was always afraid Emmett would "disappear" in there, and I would "never see him again"--especially if he died while inside.  Selleck isn't as fond of it as Emmett was, but still visits on occasion.]

[Ameenah]

I too have an Albino BN Plecostamus - hatched in my home from a pair of regular color BN Plecos. I had 6 albinos and about 20-30 regular color. I had kept several of the Albinos but all but one were eaten by my Albino Oscar. So, in a non-oscar tank I have 1 Albino and 1 regular color BN Plecos. I enjoyed breeding the Plecos - and hope that the 2 I kept will breed and provide more Albinos. I have not seen the specific deformity yours has by tail - ever. Does he/she swim, eat and poo normally? If so, I wouldnt worry about it, but for the strength of the species I would not recommend using him/her as breeding stock.

[Deleted]

I really like him (or HER) yellow! So sunny! I know they are actually more pale peach color.
If bristles don't start showing up,then you have a female. The male will even get more bristles if there is a female around (at least this is what I read about long-finned chocolate Bristle-noses). I lucked out with mine as I got females (the females will only get slight little bumps - not too noticeable). I am not fond of the bristles. My son lucked out as he got a male -- he likes the bristles. WE joked that we should get the fish together and see if the hit it off.

Love his name (grin).

Judy

[Deleted]

Hi Angelminx,

I was on another site the other day (one that sells fish) they have a picture of an Albino Bristlenose Plecostomus that was Sunburst Orange (the color of those Glo-Tetras). If I ever see one like that I will buy him/her. So pretty!

Judy

[angelminx]

Hi, Judy!

I hope that the color was natural--sounds pretty--though, fortunately, I haven't seen much in the way of dyed fish recently (I've never seen tatooed fish, though I've heard that the practice was common for a while), and have never heard of it being done with plecos. I wish the butterfly variety was available around here. It took long enough just to find ANY bristlenoses around here, and the Clowns are hard to find, too. I wish places would quit stocking so many common plecos (though I do like they way all plecos look--I've always thought they were cute), although there is a place for them, it's not in most hobbyist's tanks. They should quit carrying Chinese Algae Eaters all together!

Angelminx

[angelminx]

Ameenah,

"He" doesn't seem to be having any problems of any kind--though maybe he learned how to compensate before I ever got him. Other than the odd shape, he seems to be perfectly normal. He did give me a scare the other day, though. I was checking in on everyone when I got home after being gone all day, and he was lying on his back directly on the gravel, below the driftwood (i.e. he wasn't hanging on). Fortunately he was (?)only sleeping, because, before I could reach in to check him, one of the cories bumped into him and he immediately "got up" and swam away.

Any idea how long it takes for the bristles to show? "He" probably is a "she", but from force of habit I'll probably continue to say "he".

Angelminx

[Deleted]

Greetings Angelminx,

My son seems to have the knack of picking boy bristle-nose...
His albino (in his 20 gallon) is only about 2 1/2 inches long and shows the bristles....His long finned chocolate (in his 60 gallon) must be ready for a girlfriend. His face is just full of bristles. The boys do get more bristles when they want to mate. The females will show tiny bristles. I bet his male long finned would like my long finned female. No plans of getting the two together, though.

Edit: I just looked up this topic... The answer is at "sexual maturity" -- around 3 inches.....The males will start to show bristles up the center. The females only show a tiny bit around their chins (like mine does). 

Judy

[angelminx]

Thanks, Judy. I'd never seen that info listed anywhere before.

Angelminx

[angelminx]

I just edited my last December 6th post (a comment on the driftwood).

These 1st 2 pics (the 2nd one taken with flash--ignore the streaks on the glass) were taken at the end of December, or the beginning of January:
     

This photo was taken Friday evening (one of the close-ups I made):


I had placed the clip with the piece of Seaweed Salad into the tank (which started a feeding frenzy shortly afterwards); after about 5 minutes or so, Selleck came over.  He was on the glass, but kept trying to get hold of the seaweed, when  I noticed he finally succeed--he's in between the seaweed and the glass.  I ran to get the camera (I had taken it to the "computer room" to download my most recent photos), and he was off again when I got back.  Occasionally he he tried to chase the angels off, between bouts of trying to latch back on.

[angelminx]

Here is the series of shots I got:

     

[angelminx]

Except for one (which I posted previously as the "close-up"), these are the last of the original shots:

     

[angelminx]

These are some of the close-ups I made, so you could see him better:

     

[angelminx]

3 others:

     

[angelminx]

I picked these 3 to show close-ups of "his" (probably her) face.  You might be able to pick out a couple of "bumps", but that's about it.

     

I haven't been able to measure "him" recently, but I don't think he's grown much since I last did.

Edit:  I was just comparing the pics, and I don't know why the 1st and 3rd ones of these 3 aren't showing up the same size as the middle one (they did on my camera), but at least the previous close-ups show well enough to see fairly good.