a blue eyed beauty to ID for me please?

I bought this fish a few weeks back at a local fish store...
It was marked up as a female BN & they thought it was 4 months old....lol
I did pay more than normal for it as I liked it...

I paid £8.00 as needed a spare female..
I don't think it is 4months old. I say more like 8mnt-14mnths looking at the size of 5 inch.

You can not get the true colour in the pictures, It appears to have blue eyes, blue circles around the eyes, deep blue in the fins and body when it swims/is not stressed.

It was clearly stressed in the LFS as it appeared to be grey in there.
What do you guys think.

Pic1


Pic2.... clearly shows blue outer liner to the eyes.., and blue between the side fins..


Pic3


Pic4... blue in the holes on what I call the nose holes... lol..


Pic5


Pic6... dont ask me how I got this but pic6 shows the BN after I turned the light on and with least stress.... blue galore...


sorry for so many pics, I know you lot like more for identifying purposes!
I doubt she is a blue phantom or anything, but after all my limited breeding/ BN fish keeping experience, I have not seen these markings before, hence thats why I snapped the her up.

I am hoping she might mate with one of my male ancistrus when she is used to the tank.
Ok, so what do you guys and gals think...

be kind...
many thanks Lj

any of you guys know what this is yet, wanting to show her in some aquatic shows but not sure what to id her as yet?

as fare as i am aware this is a genetic defect, give me until friday and i will post a picture of mine which is the same but is a younger fish. i picked mine out of a tank of 450 common brown ansistrus. someone told me it may have cateracts but i disagree, it may be down to hybridisation or in-breeding but i will say this rare-yes as i have only ever seen yours and mine and i have seen thousands of brown bns, worth keeping hold of- yes will make a good show fish get some prima and some brocholi stems down it and it will be a buet.

im the guy you emailed on AC about plec identification

mine is only young but is a male [i think] keep my email address- if you are local to nottingham or close by when mine matures a breeing attempt might be a good idea? imagine having developed a new breed of bns the babys would be worth ther weight in gold

Lol if only guy's...
The only problem is , is that the Blue Ancistrus already exists Ancistrus Jari...the L-Number is L325 ....

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=1680

Hope this helps......

my exact thoughts I had seen the planet catfish page as I regularly use the site, but
due to my lack of experience with bristles with being fairly new to breeding them thought I would ask
for it's ID on here.

Do agree with notts though... only 40miles away so may be worth a sample any ways :P, just to see what turns out...

doubt it would be very much different from the phantom plec but smaller.

though there are some differences from the page posted

thanks any ways.... I am at west houghton this weekend so make sure you leave some beer in tesco's lol..

on another debate, the L325 link.. appears to be a blue ancistrus peppermint hybrid to me...

it is a beautiful fish isn't it....

peppermints are one of my personal favourites, and the L325 looks like a peppermint with a blue translucent sheen as it swims..

blue pleco's I find tend to be beautiful in their own right since you see so many brown and black one's every where..lol...

and what happened to Andrew Coxon, did he manage to breed his blue one's which no one had seen before?

I doubt it being as sellable as the L325 right now, since most of the time it appears grey, then as it swims it seems to have blue alive inside it... another thing is.. it must be the tamest BN I ever got from a LFS it comes and feeds right where your standing or sitting infront of the tank... :P

many thanks Curby

Hmmm maybe your right the jari is alot more blue plus like you said your's is more common looking....
When i breed my common albino's and browns together i normally get a few odd coloured one's maybe this is whats happened....
Either way keep posting pic's as i would like to see more...

As for andrew he never came back to say how he went on...

was wondering whether she would mate with my L144 but you have more experience of breeding than me..

no offence meant...lol...

what surprised me was the LFS owner with over 50 years of fish keeping experience, and recommended by practical fish keeping said she was about 6 months old... which I doubted straight away...

will post more pictures... doubt I will get any that good for a while coz thinking of putting her in with my breeding pair to see how he gets on with her ;-)

you never know what might happen...

was shocked I paid £8 lol... since that was my money for food lol...

and I dont usually pay over £4.00 for ancistrus where I can help it...

though the clown pleco at £7 was a rare buy for me, though he always plays hide and seek behing the bog wood...

wish he was as friendly as the blue eyed female...

L325 .................. i dont really think so, just wait till friday night when i post the picture of mine. the eyes on mine are a sort of bright duck ege blue, its normal brown bn colours but still being young it has the white tips to the dorsal and the tail, also the two tones of brown are very defined on the body and it has no visable spots unlike the l325 but i will say that i think mine and wolverines plecs may be slightly different. i hope it suvives to adult hood so i can see what it turns out like. please if i forget to post friday remind me cheers

simo notts wrote:

L325 .................. i dont really think so, just wait till friday night when i post the picture of mine. the eyes on mine are a sort of bright duck ege blue, its normal brown bn colours but still being young it has the white tips to the dorsal and the tail, also the two tones of brown are very defined on the body and it has no visable spots unlike the l325 but i will say that i think mine and wolverines plecs may be slightly different. i hope it suvives to adult hood so i can see what it turns out like. please if i forget to post friday remind me cheers

Already looking forward to seeing your pics mate...

nice catch which LFS was it?

Over the last few months I have been keeping my eye on Rainbow Aquatics at Mexborough in South Yorkshire
run by two generally very well experienced guys... one of which I remember being working in the shop over 30 years ago.

Me showing my age now at 39 ..lol..

Must have been more than good at some point as they have recommendations on the wall from Practical Fishkeeping.

They have some good buys in; panda cory's at £2.50 when he gets them in, and occasional Sterbai at £2.75...
though each time he had sterbai in I have been skint..


Bought a albino red tailed shark from there last week for £2.70 and he is looking settled in ok.

Got the clown pleco from him which I entered in last months photo's, though it would have helped me if the owner had told me
the clown pleco is nocturnal... lol

I have to hand it to the LFS, since they also rehome fish for other people who have got fish out grown, or through accidents.

and yes Jag I am LJ off aquatic classified who you emailed about the Sterbai....

kind regards...

wow my LFS range from £5 - £9 each for sterbai even ones less than an inch !

I wonder how long it could take to ID this for me