BN pleco stunted?

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user_name

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May 23, 2010
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Hey guys, I've had this one bristlenose pleco for almost a year, and have yet to see any change in size. The weird part is that her (no bristles) brother is exactly the same age, and is a full grown adult. Both of them grew up in a 10 gallon and were moved into a 55 at an inch or so, and I have yet to see any growth from my little bristlenose.

I'm curious as to why this one bristlenose isn't growing, and am wondering if I may just have a stunted pleco, or if MAYBE she's mutated? If so, should I try to breed her with her brother to develop a new generation of smaller plecos?

Thoughts?
 

toddnbecka

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Dec 17, 2004
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Sounds like a random occurence of stunting, I've seen a few individuals among a brood of brown BN fry that didn't grow normally several times. Those seemed to have something else wrong with them, or else simply can't compete successfully, and died off. I'd see one or two 1" fry that were emaciated, as of they had grown normally to that size with the others, then stopped growing and starved to death. Didn't make any difference if they were left in the tank with the parents or moved to other tanks for growout. Even if you have one that managed to survive it's unlikely it's capable of spawning, most likely simply didn't develop/mature properly.
There are already a couple species of normally tiny BN like the LDA-08, so I don't see any point in trying to line-breed something from bad common BN stock.
 

pinkertd

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May 29, 2007
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I have seen the same thing as Todd. More than likely something is wrong with that place. I would not breed it. Rather than creating something new, I think you'd be creating weak offspring possibly carrying double the defects.
 

smitty

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Do you really think that you will creating a new species. No!. Then you want to breed it with the brother. Think!
 

user_name

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May 23, 2010
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Do you really think that you will creating a new species. No!. Then you want to breed it with the brother. Think!
I was thinking that the brother might have a recessive gene for it, and by inbreeding maybe I could get more fry like that.

Thanks guys, I'm definitely not going to breed it now that I know more about it.
 
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