Question about Brown Colours

At the risk of seeming completly stupid.....

I have a question about browns..

Is there more than one colour of brown Bn..??

The reason for asking is that I have what I thought/think are 3 Brown adults, 2 males (one about 6" one abour 4+inches) and a female (about 3 inches).

The two smaller ones are brown with yellowish spots with greyish-lightbrown patches. The big one is brown with yellowish spots, but the patches are definately more Yellow/orangey than greyish-lightbrown.

So my question is are they all common browns or not..??

I know I need to try and post a couple of pictures with this question so that you can ideally see what I mean.

What would be nice is if some one could post a thread/sticky with some good sample pictures of each of the common types, (ie brown, calico, super red etc... ) with a brief description, so that the less informed/knowledgeable of us can see and understand what the differences are between the specific colours/types.

hope this hasn't made me seem too thick, :roll:



Jon

nope, thats actually a good question.

in short, yes they are all commons. There are lots of different things that lead to the slightly different colours seen on common or brown birsltenose and there is a lot of variation in the patterns that are seen on them.

the pattern is highly variable. there are some which are almost back with lightish splotches on them in random places. then there are those who have what i call the saddle which is a band of lightness over the 'sholders'. the other thing is that the pattern will change with age. Generally when the fry are you and well fed they are between brown and jet back. but as they get older they lighten and their spots become larger until the look like an adult. This lightening can begin even before you see them while they are still in the cave with dad.

Colouration is an interesting one. there are some fish who have a yellowish hue. this is common and is most often diet related. Feed your bristlensoe on pumpkin for a few weeks and have a look at the colourt they turn. The brown bits stay brown but the lighter bits take on a mustad sort of colour...as does their poo! Feed them high protein foods and they will often darken up a bit. the colour of their substrate will also have an effect. They do have a bit of an ability to blend in with a substate, being darker on dark gravel and lighter on light gravel.

other than the slight variation in colour and pattern observed in commons there is of course the marbles and the super reds as well as a few other variations. these are very distinctive. the marbles replace the lighter colour spolges with redish/orange colour and the super reds are red with darker patches over some bits of their body. Both of these distinctive and quite easy to spot.

Your idea of a sticky is a good one...will see about it