G'day all!

I'm new to the forum & currently am setting up my first goldfish tank (yay!) for 2 little fantails which are now in a temporary smaller plastic box. I think I've researched so much about setting up tank and goldfish in general that now i have a very clear picture of what the tank will look like once it's finished. And in my mental picture of the finished tank there will be a couple of bristlenose plecos (mainly cos' that's one of the very few commonly sold pleco in Perth). Naturally I've began looking around stores to find the cheapest price. I've found that the normal black mottled type (at around 1" long) is around 5-8 A$ (which is about 4-6 US$). But what surprises me is that the albino type costs around 120 A$ !!!!
Is that price justified? Is albino plecos such a rarity that it commands such dollars? And is the price of albinos over there in the US similar here in Aussie?

cheers

I've seen some local dealers here in the states selling albino fry for about 8-9 dollars.

Also, I've seen some grown at about thirty bucks each.

my guess is that the store is 'confused'

alot of LFS mistake PLECO's & Bristlenose !!!

they are DIFFERENT in price & size !!

Pleco's are more expensive and grow 10x bigger than bristlenose
my guess is that the albino bristlenose you saw - is actually a Rubbernose pleco or Golden Pleco

isnt bristlenose a type of pleco? however i read in a website that pleco is not a correct name for that type of suckermouths, the correct name is Locariids, or sumtin. ah im confused.
When i was little though & living in Indonesia, i once owned an "armoured catfish" which i think is a type of pleco (looks alot like the common pleco on top of the page), but with much sturdier armour and around 15 inches in length. What's interesting is that catfish is very abundant in Ciliwung River, a river that runs through Jakarta and is one of, if not the most, polluted rivers in the world. How hardy are these fishes!

btw, what is LFS? sorry, goldfish noob

The store is Not Confused.Bristlenose are considered a Pleco.(LFS is short for Local Fish Store). There are literally hundreds and hundreds of Pleco's in many family's/Subspecies. Albino are more rarer than regular,but more & more people are successfully breeding them. I have just found a ton of Albino Bristlenose babies that hatched the other day.Must be over 50! Pleco's are a strange group.Some are extremely hardy,and other's will die at the drop of some water reading changes.It really all depends on which one you end up with. And by the way,Common Pleco's are about the cheapest that you can buy.That's one reason that so many people end up with them.Then later they find out about the huge size that they're capable of growing. The Albino Bristlenose you saw,was just that---an Albino Bristlenose.

Hey,

As for the prices of the albino birstlenoses, yeah, the petshop is not trying to rip you off, they are pretty expensive for LFS (local fish shop) to buy from the wholesalers, they need to make a profit somehow, otherwise, who's gonna import our fishies for us?

They're pretty rare, but I'd say as time goes on and more people start breeding them successfully their price will go down, but until then we will have to pay top dollar for these little guys.

Thx guys, makes things a lot clearer to me . Just went to that LFS a gain today to look at the albinos, sigh...i wish a have one

I haven't seen one. I expect they are expensive because they are a rarity over here. I was thinking of Devs when I read this post, if she could figure a way to ship her babies over here she'd make a motza!

I know that when I bought these guys on Aquabid,that they were barely a half inch long.I have heard that they ship better when small-but that's just "Hearsay" for me. Annette,They're only a couple days old,so I won't know for sure just how many will live through the first two weeks.Believe me,If I knew they'd live,I'd send you as many as you wanted.Free of charge cause you're a friend.Anyway- for the first few months,they deemed to have grown slowly./

Thanks Devs, a couple of albina bristlenoses would be great. Oh, but for the tyranny of distance.

I've just bought an albino bristlenose, they call them Golden in England, but this one has pink eyes so I'm assuming it is really an albino. He cost £7.50 and is about an inch long. £'s for lbs, he's the most expensive fish I've bought, but at that price, affordable. They did have several in the shop.
bw
cupoftea

Just found out the extreme range of prices for albino bristlenose here in perth. Went to several LFS and the prices ranged from $120 to $25!! A good indicator of which LFS are greedy

ive actually only been able to find Albinos here in Jax, Fl, but i bought mine at apprx 2" long and she was 17$ U.S

Ok is a Pleco at catfish? Im confused.
I got an albino catfish, is it the same thing?
he has these funning looking long things around his mouth.
The shop I got him at said he was an albino catfish, another shop I saw that had them called them albino bristlenose catfish
I got no idea what I got now!

This is an Albino Bristlenose. This is an older male,hence the long whisker's on face.

This is an Albino Catfish-otherwise known as an Albino Cory Cat. Now there may be other's that fall into these categories,but these are the ones I know off hand. Does yours look like either of these?

Thanks you Devs!!!!
yes I got an Albino Catfish-otherwise known as an Albino Cory Cat

the pic is identical to my little guy


mine is about once inch big...how big do these guys grow?

also both pet shops had them with goldies and with tropicals ????
the one I got was in trop water so I put him with my trops to match the temp, he sucks all the stuff out the bottom....he a gravel vac LOL
is that ok?

No problem,glad to be of help! Although Cories are considered tropical,alot of people do tend to keep them with their Goldies.Albino Cory Cats seem to be one of the sturdier Cories,and can handle the two tanks.And really,most people that I know tend to use heater's for their Goldie Tanks,and tend to have the temps at least around the mid 70's-which is fine for most Cories. One thing that I'd like to mention is that Cory Cats thrive when kept in groups of at least three or more,so if you have the room I would get him at least two buddies. Their little Bristles on their mouth area are very sensitive to dirty tank bottoms,so it's wise to keep the gravel cleaning frequent so that they don't have any Barbel erosion.Alot of people have no problem keeping Cories & Goldfish together,but you do have to be Careful when you're dosing Salts,Meds to the tank,and when your Goldfish are on the bigger side and a Cory Cat can actually fit into their mouths. I have read of a few instances where Cory Cats got stuck in Goldie's mouths,and end results were not pretty.If I were you,I'd probably keep them in the tropical tank-as you have him now. There are a huge amount of different types of Cories in that family,and they are probably one of my top three favorite fish to own.

Thanks again for the wonderful info!
Yes I will definately keep him with the tropicals. He lovs it in there so far and Id rather not have my goldies choke!
I am planning to get a bigger tank for them so I cant get him any buddies yet. I had no idea they like to be with more of their own kind.
My trops are overstocked already so new tank soon Because its overstocked im doing 30% waterchanges every 2-3 days min and gravel vacuming, he loves the gravel and loves to suck on the river pebbles. thanks for the tip to keep his barbels safe....they are really cute in an ugly way LOL

Im glad you figured out which one you had!! I too love my corys, and actually there really are quite afew different sizes. the ones i have get to be about 2.5" long on average and mine are a little closer to 3" long. I like the little bandit masks that they have around their eyes. BUT the only thing you need to know is that they tend to be sensitive to the trips to the LFS, so you should ask someone knowledgeable there when they arrived, i wouldnt get mine until they had been there over a week, Just to be on the safe side.