Any ideas on an id for this pair:

The male:


The males head close-up:


The female:


They are much darker, almost back compared to regular sp(3) bristlenose and the female has a rubber like lip extension.

If Drew is reading this, this is the pair I got from you about 8 months ago, they were brought in by a customer. I think you thought they might be A Taboensis ?? But I am not sure now.

Whatever they are, the male is gaurding a big bunch of eggs

Yeeehha! Congratulations.
Sorry i cant help on the ID. Nice plec's

I have a male bristlenose sp(3), there ugly as sin but great characters.

Congrats mate!!!! You know yourself plecs/ancistrus can be a nightmare to ID correctly, nice fish though!!!

ted30 wrote:
I have a male bristlenose sp(3), there ugly as sin but great characters.

No they're not they are little beauties! I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Cheers Drew, yes id'ing ancistrus is as bad, in fact, worse than trying to ID corys, they seem to be adding new species everyday, there are 125 different ones listed on PlanetCatfish!!

One PC regular suggested A.triradiatus and I think that is a pretty good match, I am unlikely to get anything more definite, one noticeable difference from the regular Sp(3) bristlenose is that the eggs are much lighter in colour, almost white instead of bright orange.

Yeh that would make sense as they are a common enough species, best of luck whatever they are!!! If im correct they get bigger than most we had them in a while ago and were 6-7" very agressive towards eachother!!!!