question for Loha

mousey · 12-20-2012, 12:56 PM

Hi, I have a male harlequin bushy nose who spends most of his time in his log.
I rarely see him and he is quick to hide if i come near the tank. I've had him since he was about 1/2 inch long. He has a long thin body and a long tail area.

When he grew up he spent a lot of time eating algae and i think he still eats a lot as well as his cucumber and algae pellets. I wonder if he eats a little of the mopani wood as it is getting thin( this is his hiding place).
By contrast I have a female bushy nose. She is totally different. She doe NOT have any speckles but is a solid pink, with pink eyes. Her body is very short and oval shape- and a very short tail area. I got her when she was still at the larvae stage. She seems to eat a lot of wood-( mopani) going by the amount of poop in the tank. She also cleans out the algae, shrimp pellets and algae tablets.
She is very bold and doesn`t scare easily.
A previous albino bushy nose I had was also very sociable and would come to the front of the tank when he saw me.

Dumb question, I know but I begin to think that pink bushynose are more sociable than the dark ones. Yes?? No??
Would the fact that she eats a lot of wood be indicative of the kind she is as opposed the the harlequin who eats very little?

weedkiller · 12-20-2012, 01:39 PM

i have a mega clown pleco that you never see, some times i wonder if its still alive lol, i checked and it is their nature, only come out when its dark, dont know if yours is the same, then i have a bristlenose that is very active and sucks on everything, is out all day every day....
the clown cost £20 and the bristlenose £5, hows that for value for money lol

C. King · 12-20-2012, 03:07 PM

My little bristle nose:not shy. at all.

**lohachata** · 12-20-2012, 03:56 PM

harlequin....calico..same thing i believe...yours is possibly a long fin...the female is most likely the same species as the male ; just a different color variant...and she is a "short fin"...for most of the plecos , the male usually hides a lot ...the females mostly hang out under a rock or piece of driftwood and are out and about quite a bit more.....
people always say " i never see my fish eat" are you watching that fish 24/7 ?they will often come out at night to feed..but males tend to be more skittish then females...they both will eat a fair amount of driftwood.while it might be kind of fun to see your pleco eating a slice of cucumber or squash , they really don't provide much nutrition...commercially formulated foods such as shrimp..earthworm...and other meatty type pellets and algae wafers...veggie and spirulina sticks are much better for them..