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Please help me identify this little fella. I was bought it as a present and hopefully it isn’t going to be 24inches in the future!

Thanks in advance.

Additional.

Hi rmclaney,

Welcometo Planetcatfish!

Your fish is the common pleco, . It'll grow about 35cm plus tail, so figure about 42-44cm or so with tail.

Cheers, Eric

Thank you. Guess I will need to upsize! Any clue what the sex is?

I don't know if it's easy to tell with these, unless you can see the vent and the fish is mature. But if you are hoping to spawn them in the tank, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. I've read that they breed by burrowing out caves in mud banks and really breed only in pond-like settings when in captivity. I'm not aware of any confirmed aquarium spawns.

Cheers, Eric

No just curiosity. But thank you!

bekateen wrote: ↑23 Nov 2019, 23:21 Hi rmclaney,

Welcometo Planetcatfish!

Your fish is the common pleco,

Pterygoplichthys pardalis

. It'll grow about 35cm plus tail, so figure about 42-44cm or so with tail.

Cheers, Eric

Sorry "bekateen" I don't agree with your opinion. In my opinion, this is Bristlenose Pleco which will grow up to 3″ (7.2 cm).

If your brislenose refers to Ancistrus - it is not. Ancistrus are rather flat, and this fish is not flat. Further the common Ancisturs has white points in the tail fin which are missing in this one.

Lastly it looks like it is already larger then 7.5 cm, or 3 inches (an inch is 2.54 cm, not 2.4)

dinaharris wrote: ↑30 Jan 2020, 07:43Sorry "bekateen" I don't agree with your opinion. In my opinion, this is Bristlenose pleco which will grow up to 3″ (7.2 cm).

Hi dinaharris,

The fish shown above is definitely not a bristlenose pleco. One photo above (which I've copied here) shows the dorsal fin flared. You can count the fin rays and there are too many for , but just right for .

Also, as a side note, even common bristlenose plecos can easily reach 6" as they age.

Cheers, Eric

Im with P. pardalis, because of the dorsal ray count, the head morphology, the pattern, the colouration and the body morphology.