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I just got a new pleco and not sure what he is. He looks like a common except he has dark spots on a grey background, opposed to light or yellow spots on dark. Is it just because hes young or is it a different breed? Been trying to get a pic but he's only about 1" long and pretty skittish so its hard to get a clear one.Any ideas would be great.

mcmullen759 wrote:I just got a new pleco and not sure what he is. He looks like a common except he has dark spots on a grey background, opposed to light or yellow spots on dark. Is it just because hes young or is it a different breed? Been trying to get a pic but he's only about 1" long and pretty skittish so its hard to get a clear one.Any ideas would be great.

By "common" do you mean common bristlenose pleco? Because the common pleco (ie. ) does not have light or yellow spots on a dark background, but the common bristlenose does. If it has dark spots on grey it is probably not a common bristlenose and it could very well be a common pleco, though 1" is far smaller than they usually sell them.

yeah sorry about that, mixing up the common and leopard. I found some pics of a bulldog pleco that looks to have a similar pattern but where he's so small it's kinda hard to tell.

Hi Mcmullen.
Greetings and welcome to Planet Catfish

Try photographing your fish whilst it is feeding. If it is feeding on Cucumber or similar vegetable matter place the food near to the front of your tank; and then its a case of sitting in front of your tank camera at the ready.
Until we can see an actual photograph of your fish it is hard to give a possitive I.D.
Have you also trawelled through the Cat-elog to see if there are any pictures that resemble your catfish?

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I have spent some time looking at him and made an interesting observation. I have a sand bottom in that aquarium and had just added the sand. Now that all has settled he seems to have become darker so I'm thinking he was coated in fine silica dust, thus making him appear silvery. He still looks a bit on the light side, but with the light sand background that is not surprising.Now that I feel like a proper tool, lol, I will try and get a good pic to post just to be sure or at least just to show him off. Thanks for all the help folks.

Without a picture this is just guessing, but based on your description your fish could be or a similar rubbernose. These are pretty common in the trade.