Why Bristlenose Pleco

[itiwhetu]

I was being hypothetical

And speaking from what I have seen in the past when visiting pet shops that have fish and seeing the poor blighter having to label the aquariums (for ID and pricing) and struggling to get the generic names (and pen names etc) of fish not just onto the label but spelt correctly too

I stopped labelling tanks and had a Sheet on the wall. Each tank was numbered and the fish names where on the wall with their prices and a little information about them and the tank they were in.

 

[itiwhetu]

Tbh......apart from size (although a juvenile Pleco is small) when you look at a BN or a Pleco from underneath (as in glued to the glass) they look the same, so calling them all "Pleco" is totally understandable

It isn't til you get closer to them and can differentiate them and when the Pleco's have their growth spurts that maybe you can tell them apart.

There is obviously an identification issue otherwise people would not be sold a Common Pleco and be told its a BN...and vice versa.

This point is valid and maybe why we need to be careful. It would be very easy for someone to go away from this site and go down to their LFS and ask for a pleco, where they are sold a common pleco rather than a Bristlenose which is what they thought they were getting.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I stopped labelling tanks and had a Sheet on the wall. Each tank was numbered and the fish names where on the wall with their prices and a little information about them and the tank they were in.

You have to remember that not everyone is as knowledgeable or as efficient as you obviously are though

When you first started fishkeeping, had zero experience or knowledge what anything was.....did you know the difference tween juvenile Pleco and BN?

I know I struggled to tell them apart when they were young and I am not ashamed to admit/say it

People who are starting out on their fishy journey see a fish and think..."that'll be good" or "that's a cool fish"

They don't know that it could grow to 2ft long or if its a BN or a Pleco.....they just see a cute little fish stuck to the glass and the pet shop worker calling it a Pleco

 

[itiwhetu]

You have to remember that not everyone is as knowledgeable or as efficient as you obviously are though

When you first started fishkeeping, had zero experience or knowledge what anything was.....did you know the difference tween juvenile Pleco and BN?

I know I struggled to tell them apart when they were young and I am not ashamed to admit/say it

People who are starting out on their fishy journey see a fish and think..."that'll be good" or "that's a cool fish"

They don't know that it could grow to 2ft long or if its a BN or a Pleco.....they just see a cute little fish stuck to the glass and the pet shop worker calling it a Pleco

I must admit that even on here sometimes when I look at the photos I sometimes take a second look.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I must admit that even on here sometimes when I look at the photos I sometimes take a second look.

There you go then.

Point made....and your own question answered

 

[Deleted member 149562]

@itiwhetu

There is a far more potentially dangerous mislabelled/incorrectly identified fish that still gets sold wrongly and can cause way more issues than a mislabelled BN or Pleco. Largely you can identify a BN from a Pleco fairly early on and prevent problems before they start

But what about the CAE and SAE?

Same as the BN and Pleco misidentified...but with a far worse endgame.

 

[itiwhetu]

@itiwhetu

There is a far more potentially dangerous mislabelled/incorrectly identified fish that still gets sold wrongly and can cause way more issues than a mislabelled BN or Pleco. Largely you can identify a BN from a Pleco fairly early on and prevent problems before they start

But what about the CAE and SAE?

Same as the BN and Pleco misidentified...but with a far worse endgame.

True in New Zealand shops usually have one or the other, and I stay away from both.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

SAE are fine....easy to keep happy and healthy

CAE will grow out of algae eating stage and get a natural liking for your Gourami (or similar slab side fish) slimecoat and stalk said prey at night, latch on, steal slimecoat, infect the wounds and your slab side fish dies a horrible death......(and eaten by that Common Pleco you thought was a BN)

 

[NannaLou]

Names change...we now have Black Ruby Barbs, whereas we had something else not that long ago.
Names also change within the scientific community. I remember Hypostomus replacing Plecostomus plecostomus.

Not just fish names change, who remembers, Marathons and Opal Fruits…?

 

[NannaLou]

@itiwhetu

There is a far more potentially dangerous mislabelled/incorrectly identified fish that still gets sold wrongly and can cause way more issues than a mislabelled BN or Pleco. Largely you can identify a BN from a Pleco fairly early on and prevent problems before they start

But what about the CAE and SAE?

Same as the BN and Pleco misidentified...but with a far worse endgame.

Please can I ask that you use the full name before reverting to abbreviation/initials? I have no idea what a CAE or a SAE (other than stamped addressed envelope and that’s totally out of context). Then those of us who don’t have the knowledge base that you do can extend their reading/’Googling’.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Please can I ask that you use the full name before reverting to abbreviation/initials? I have no idea what a CAE or a SAE (other than stamped addressed envelope and that’s totally out of context). Then those of us who don’t have the knowledge base that you do can extend their reading/’Googling’.

CAE = Chinese Algae Eater
SAE = Siamese Algae eater

 

[NannaLou]

CAE = Chinese Algae Eater
SAE = Siamese Algae eater

Thank you

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

To me Plecostomus isn't a genus.

But asking myself why there seems to be a need to put a lot of people in the "uneducated Joe en Josephine - corner"

Personally I think this forum evennis about educating, sharing experiences, helping others etc... and not to tell people they're stupid and uneducated.
Hardly anyone will have had this educated at school / university. Most members who do will have learned by selfeducation. Even LFS's even often sell them under these false names.

So please stop with comments like these and don't ask rethorical questions but explain members why they'd better use different names than they do and how these misnaming / labeling is / was caused.

I think the members on this and any forum will have quite a bigger respect for that than calling them stupid and uneducated.

Thanks

So where, exactly, did I call anyone 'stupid'?
I didn't.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge.
Stupidity is that condition refusing to acknowledge readily available and undisputed information.

 

[noobfish]

I wouldn't consider myself not properly educated or that I need to simplify the world around me for my basic understanding. I just don't have the time to spend hours on the internet concerned over what the proper name is. When my LFS has them labeled as BN Pleco and I go home and google search for BN Pleco and it provides me with the additional information on care and specs of the species that I need, I have no reason to believe them otherwise.
It would be greatly helpful if they were called the correct name at the shop, but it seems with a quick search of the internet that calling them pleco is fairly normal in the industry.

Let me ask this... All these what I thought were pleco's, that begin with an L-***. Are they on the pleco side or the catfish side?

 

[Ichthys]

Why do people refer to Bristlenose Catfish as Plecos?. Considering they come from the Loricariidae Family, of which Plecostomus is one of the genera but doesn't include the Bristlenose which is an Ancistrus.

I was wondering about the history of its name.

We don't call Whiptail Catfish Whiptail Plecos or do we??

My thread is a genuine question, and I thought someone here would know the history behind the Bristlenose being called a pleco, where it clearly isnt

A Bristlenose clearly IS a plecostomus. As are all species in the Ancistrus genus.

“Plecostomus” is not a genus. The original plec was (assumed to be) Hypostomus plecostomus (in fact a few Hypostomus spp were involved there). Since then all loricariids of similar shape are colloquially called “plecs”. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a useful name to group them by.
Ancistrus, Hypostomus, Pterygoplichthys, Panaque, Pseudacanthicus, Peckoltia, and many more. All the loricariid genera with that ‘plec shape’ are ‘plecostomus’.

Not to be confused with Hypostomus plecostomus which was the origin of the term.