Bristle Nose Plecos
It has a wider head and is much shorter fatter and flatter than the common pleco.
Bristle nose plecos. Bristlenose pleco size and appearance. The males tentacles are longer and more. They have a flattened body covered in bony plates and as they reach maturity they sprout tentacle like branches from their head.
The average bristlenose pleco size is somewhere between 3 and 5 inches long. Certain variations such as the longfin tend to be on the shorter end of this range but overall care and genetics impact this the most. When it comes to size these fish are on the smaller end of the spectrum.
In the wild the bristlenose pleco will generally spend the majority of it s day doing two things. Bristlenose catfish average between 3 and 5 inches in length at maturity and rarely grow longer than 6 inches. The name ancistrus is from latin and stands for hook alluding to the pleco s dermal teeth also known as odontodes found on its cheeks.
This makes them ideal for smaller and mid sized aquariums unlike the larger unrelated common pleco hypostomus plecostomus which may exceed 2 feet in length. Bristlenose plecos are part of the ancistrus gensus which currently holds over 76 different species of bristlenose plecos. The bristlenose catfish is one of the smallest aquarium catfish and will grow up to an average of 3 5 inches.