I bought this albino brittle nose at 2”. Now she is 13” and lives in my pond. With the regular size Pleco’s.Is this the elusive albino pleco?shes HUGE

[rosie g]

so I bought a 2 inch albino brittle nose Pleco from LPS like three years ago, and she’d began growing very very fast. I have a 55 gallon and it got to the point where she was so big and powerful that she would incidentally kill my smaller fish when she flipped around at night 😭 she would literally annihilate the poor little corydoras with her big a$$ tail 😬 i moved her out to my outdoor heated cichlid pond where all the huge adults live. she loves it out there.

by the way i’m in south florida so i only need heaters from late nov-march. with the heaters, so far the coolest it’s gotten is like 68° and these adults are well fed and very “meaty and muscular” so they have all survived the past 3 winters 🙃

anyway, is this a super large albino brittle nose or is it the elusive albino Pleco?? this girl is huge!!! I measured her and she’s 13 inches head to tail!!! The 8 inch blood parrots are in the foreground, and this big lady is in the background. Don’t let that distance fool you. i’m starting to truly believe she is a regular albino Pleco. Which is super cool because I don’t hear much about them!!

 

[NoodleOfDanger0]

From the pictures, it doesn't look like she has bristles yet. Bristlenose Plecos get their bristles at around 6 months old and will only really get to be 5-7 inches so it's definitely not a Bristlenose Pleco. I'd say she probably is an albino common pleco.

 

[DoubleDutch]

From the pictures, it doesn't look like she has bristles yet. Bristlenose Plecos get their bristles at around 6 months old and will only really get to be 5-7 inches so it's definitely not a Bristlenose Pleco. I'd say she probably is an albino common pleco.

Females don't / hardly get bristles but agree it probably is a different species.

 

[itiwhetu]

That is not a bristle nose they just don't get that big. My guess it is an Albino common.

 

[Colin_T]

Either an albino gibbiceps or plecostomus.

If you put bubblewrap on 90% of the pond surface in winter, it will help trap the heat and reduce your power bill.

 

[rosie g]

Females don't / hardly get bristles but agree it probably is a different species.

yeah she’s almost 3 now and last year i had to move her out of my 55g bc she would whip her tail and hurt the corys. i was under the impression only males produced prominent bristles and females are more subtle. thanks for your answer though. i bought her at a LPS as a tiny “albino brittnose” but now i have my doubts. she’s a giant and almost as big as my dark common plecos. she’s a treat!