# type of BN?



## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Have been searching the internet for a few hours trying to track down what kind of BNs I have.
One is a very pink one with an orangey patch mid back and the other is brown with lighter brown markings on him and yellow /beige spots. it has the yellow mark at the top of its tail.
The closest I can come to the brown BN is L107 but the pics do not show any lighter markings. My guy has a butterfly pattern behind its head as well as aband just before the tail and a light pattern on both sides of its face. Any ideas? No i cannot get a picture as he only comes out for food first thing in the morning and then gets into a squabble with the SAE.


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## smark (Dec 2, 2008)

What is BN? Is this it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I42qXFpdSaU


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

BN is a bushynose pleco


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## smark (Dec 2, 2008)

Thanks and sorry.


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

not a problem


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

the pink one is just the albino variation of the common brown bushynose.not sure if it is Dolichoptris or not though as there are quite a few species.i also have the browns with the light trim on the top of the tail and spots.try searching www.planetcatfish.com 
you should be able to find it there.


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## CukeTheExile (Nov 26, 2007)

my b/n has a similar coloration to the light brown on brown with beige. As best I can figure its a L089.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

tried planet catfish. That is where I thought it was an L107.
Will check out the L89 too.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

mousey said:


> Have been searching the internet for a few hours trying to track down what kind of BNs I have.
> One is a very pink one with an orangey patch mid back and the other is brown with lighter brown markings on him and yellow /beige spots. it has the yellow mark at the top of its tail.


ms:

Probably what you have is one of the many variants of *Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus (aka Common Bristlenose Plecostomus)*.

I have five of these wonderful fishies in my tank and no two have the same background color or markings.

TR


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

THANK YOU!!What I have looks very similar to picture 20/56
A piebald variety.
Do you have your 5 together in the same tank?
I have the albino one in a community tank. He looks to be a few years old as he is pretty big and has lots of bristles.
My piebald one is only about 6-7 months old. It is just starting to get a few short stubs on its top lip so i don't know if it is male or female.
if I put them in the same tank would they likely fight?
I am having a spot of trouble in the piebalds tank as the SAE keeps eating the pleco's food.
I do not really want to get rid of the SAE but I will if she keeps pigging out. The pleco can generally hold his own but once he leaves his food, the sae goobles it down. I notice that the BN likes to drag his food to the corner of the tank and leave it for later but miss piggy always finds it.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

mousey said:


> THANK YOU!!


ms: TY!: see us old dinosaurs are occasionally good for something every now and then! (please do not think anything less of me but I did not post earlier as other folks headed you the correct direction and you had apparently spent a ton of searching which I believed to being good experience but were having no joy.)




mousey said:


> Do you have your 5 together in the same tank?
> if I put them in the same tank would they likely fight?


While not published much on the IN I have observed these fishies to be quite social and have mine in one tank*. I have never observed them "fighting" but I have observed the two largest males getting into a serious discussion over a clump of one of my home made recipes.




mousey said:


> I have the albino one in a community tank. He looks to be a few years old as he is pretty big and has lots of bristles.


Don't count on the "few years old" business as they will grow to full adult size (at least two of my five) [or over the published adult size] in like nine months in pristine water conditions, an aquascaped tank which they enjoy*, and being fed home made recipes as well as other foods.




mousey said:


> My piebald one is only about 6-7 months old. It is just starting to get a few short stubs on its top lip so i don't know if it is male or female.


ms: I do not either based upon your description but please refer to my *'ed items as well as comment.




mousey said:


> I am having a spot of trouble in the piebalds tank as the SAE keeps eating the pleco's food.
> I do not really want to get rid of the SAE but I will if she keeps pigging out. The pleco can generally hold his own but once he leaves his food, the sae goobles it down. I notice that the BN likes to drag his food to the corner of the tank and leave it for later but miss piggy always finds it.


ms: I am kinda at a loss here as I have three very large true SAE's in my tank and have never observed this condition*.


*As I have indicated to Chris (Suess), my experience with Pleco's and with Loaches is that they enjoy a planted tank with 3D aquascaping where they have rock and wood holes to enjoy from the top of the substrate to mid-depth of the tank.

If you could provide me a link to photographs of your tanks I might could help a little further.

TR


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Guess what- I am one of those old fogies too and if your info is correct I am quite a lot older than you
I have recently read an article on Practical Fishkeeping about "true" siamese algae eaters.
If you look at the old standby article on the difference between the so called algae eaters She is 'true' There is a picture on www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sae.php that looks just like her.
However according to the author on PK even those that have been classified as true sae's are now being found to have some minute difference and are in fact called mainly scavengers. When she was small she did eat algae rather well and now she is 2 years old she prefers fish food and shrimp pellets but has been known to graze the plants. i gave one of the females away to a friend- he has her in with yellow 4-6 inch cichlids and she is doing well but is unable to boss anyone around.
My male sae was a gem- he minded his own business but the female used to beat him up too.

I was in Big Al's yesterday as it was boxing day sales and saw that someone had turned in a really old looking sae. Its fins had gone yellow and looked a bit raggegedy. She (it) was in with the cichlids also.
I dunno- I am quite fond ofher in a way but she is going to explode at the rate she eats.


Both my pleco tanks are planted and have nice bits of plant coated mopani wood in them. The older pleco at times redesigns my decor-- I find plants uprooted and holes dug in the gravel despite him having a log. In fact he has uprooted the jungle vals so often they have decided to drop their leaves.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

mousey said:


> Guess what- I am one of those old fogies too and if your info is correct I am quite a lot older than you


Well shoot. Bitter disappointment I tell you! Bitter disappointment!

I anticipated that I was the dinosaur here (well maybe except for John).




mousey said:


> When she was small she did eat algae rather well and now she is 2 years old she prefers fish food and shrimp pellets but has been known to graze the plants.
> 
> Both my pleco tanks are planted and have nice bits of plant coated mopani wood in them. The older pleco at times redesigns my decor-- I find plants uprooted and holes dug in the gravel despite him having a log. In fact he has uprooted the jungle vals so often they have decided to drop their leaves.


ms:

You and I are really observing different behavior.

My SAE's do indeed scavenge but are principally algae eaters and are large adults (maybe two or three years old). Mine also enjoy sinking shrimp pellets but also the other fare which the BN's enjoy.

I have several areas in my tank with different species of Val's in each area and not once have my BN's bothered the Val's. (Please note that I have an improved substrate with aggregate overlaying and underlaying laterite.)




mousey said:


> Both my pleco tanks are planted and have nice bits of plant coated mopani wood in them.


Does this not make very enjoyable aquascaping?

I have removed my Anubias' from my driftwood centerpiece and have it tied to my rocks or floating.

I am attempting to grow moss on selected areas of the driftwood for aquascaping.

This comment is really coming from "out in left field" but does your driftwood have holes? My driftwood has holes and my rocks have holes as well as caves in the holes where my BN's hang out quite a bit. Could your BN possibly just be attempting to generate a hole to "hang out in"?

TR

BTW: Are the BN's not wonderful fishies. They each have a personality and I very much enjoy watching two full adult size BN's sucking on the sides of the tank for algae which is not observable.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

yes, I am quite enjoying the BN's. 
The one who has been digging oddly enough has a nice big hollow in his log- he can get right inside it.Actually now I look at it, it is an artificial log and the real mopani one that I added to the artificial to make more caves has been moved yet again. he did dig under an artificial plant attached to a heavy stone base and managed to get himself stuck on his back. Found him panting and seemingly unable to get out from under it.
that was the day that I found my jungle vals floating about.
perhaps he doesn't like them?
In my other tank with the piebald BN , he lives up the side of the wood which is on end and he is under the roots of a huge java fern. Totally different personality to the other BN.He carries his food all about.
I begin to think that too many bottom feeders are not great in a tank. I have 3 cories in with the pink BN and the Sae in with the other.

I seem to have a bit of a green thumb with plants in tank or out. I am constantly having to strip vals out of one tank and hornwort out of 3 tanks.unfortunately I cannot get my hornwort growing in the fry tank- it is full of javafern and possibly dwarf vals or sagittaria- not sure which. I also have a lot of java moss in my fry tank.
I find that vals do not necessarily do well with hornwort and they sure do not like to get next to java ferns.
In the tank that the pleco keeps diggng I am having trouble with the vals and a piece of swordplant. I got this tank from a lady who moved to New Zealand.She had originally got most of her plants from me. they actaully outgrew her tank and I sometimes went to her house to strip out her plants( she was afraid to do it) Any way I moved the whole tank and contents here and promptly had the plants all die off to the hearts of them. I dunno what the difference is. my water is harder than hers was but vals are supposed to like it. maybe the high levels of ammonia right after I moved the tank had something to do with it? It spiked to 8 for a few days.
One of those mysteries again.
The albino pleco was her baby and he got 2-3 algae tabs daily, When I first got her fish I put them on a diet!
I have never seen fish before with fat deposits on the tails. very odd looking. they are nice and slim for the most part now but the pleco still has a bit of a fat supply on one side of his tail.
Looks funny.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

mousey said:


> The one who has been digging oddly enough has a nice big hollow in his log- he can get right inside it.Actually now I look at it, it is an artificial log and the real mopani one that I added to the artificial to make more caves


So much for my brilliant thinking!




mousey said:


> I begin to think that too many bottom feeders are not great in a tank. I have 3 cories in with the pink BN and the Sae in with the other.


I agree BUT 3D must make a ton of difference.

I enjoy bottom feeders and my main tank is a 110G 30" deep bowfront tank (which is another story in and of itself) with a footprint of approximately 36"x24".

In it I currently have in the way of bottom feeders (fasten your seat belt)
6 adult Sterbai Cory's
5 young adult Orange Lasers
2 adult Yoyo's
5 juvie Boatia Striata
5 small adult Polka Dot Loach's
5 BN's and
1 QA.

I know that this may seem very overstocked with bottom dwellers but I have added them very slowly, all are growing at or in excess of the anticipated rate, all are exhibiting their typical social behavior and most importantly no commotion which I have observed.

No one in their right mind would attempt this level of bottom feeder stocking and I would not recommend it to anyone but apparently the 3D and the plants work.

Another item which may affect my ability to enjoy this level of bottom feeder stocking is filtration. I have a wet/dry and although prefabricated at the factory it is really just a kludge which I am having to work around in order to implement sufficient biological filtration for like a 500G or 1000G tank and hence overfeeding is not a problem.




mousey said:


> I seem to have a bit of a green thumb with plants in tank or out.


I do not and am constantly experimenting with lighting types, lighting durations and dry fertilizer concentrations.




mousey said:


> When I first got her fish I put them on a diet!
> I have never seen fish before with fat deposits on the tails. very odd looking. they are nice and slim for the most part now but the pleco still has a bit of a fat supply on one side of his tail.


I have never observed this condition and this is the first time I have read of it. Did not know that it was possible.

TR


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hmmmmmmm...nobody in their right mind eh...you forgot about me pal..lol
oh...wait..you are right;i am not in my right mind when it comes to fishkeeping.who else would put 200 common plecos in a 20 long?they are doing well and growing like wildfire.
ok,carry on young man.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

110 gallon?
Wow, i have a stand that will hold 110 but in reallity it holds my 10 gallon and a twenty.
Hubby was going to buy me a new 30 for christams but I told him to hold off. We want to go away for 3 weeks and betwwen trying to find a sitter for a dog, 2 cats, 6 tanks of fish and an elderly parent,I am having enough problems trying to get my mind around a holiday.
hubby likes cichlids so maybe I will go for a bigger tank. As it is with 2 10s, 2 15s and 2 20s it keeps me busy cleaning.
the only place I have to put a biger tank is in the spare room and i wonder about the weight upstairs. also I feel that I need to downsize the #. I am currently down 3 tanks to what I had earlier in the year.
havong several smaller tanks allows me a biiger variety of small fish I think-- could be wrong about that.

200 common plecos?? Must be little fry?
Too cute I bet.


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