i have been interested in vampire plecos for some time, but I could never justify the $70+ price tag that the local fish specialty store has them at. Well yesterday I went to Petco and they had a pleco for sale labeled vampire pleco. It had some spots but they weren’t very pronounced, and only seemingly on the front of the fish near the head region. The fish seems lighter blue/gray in color. The sucker pad is much larger than I have seen on my chocolate and royal plecos, and the front of the pad seems to terminate into jagged barbels. The fish is about 3 inches in length. Will it get blacker with yellow spots or is this some other kind of pleco?
Vampire Pleco
- Thread starter Cosmic_surfer
- Start date
And I should also make it clear that this is not a blue phantom pleco for sure... I just don’t know what it could be.
I can snap a photo easy, I already bought the fish. It was unique so the $25 wasn’t a huge loss. I just don’t really think it is really a “vampire” as Petco suggested. I saw juvenile pictures and they seemed to be black from just a few weeks age. This guy definitely is not black.
I guess my initial reason for starting the thread was to ask if it is “possibly” a vampire since it isn’t really black? I know stress can do things to a fish, and he is still fairly new to his home so maybe it will take time, but the plecos I have dealt with in the past didn’t seem to stress all that easily. Plecos from my experience are nearly on the same hardiness scale as bichir (nearly bullet proof and noob friendly). I wouldn’t imagine his colors would change much from his initial add, and if they did the change would be fairly quick. This guy just doesn’t seem to be dark enough to be a vampire unless the community tells me that they start out lighter as juveniles and change color as they age.
there are multiple L numbers I have seen "vampires" sold as. The nicest (IMO) is the L240 but those typically have crystal white spots with a black base. Could be one of the others commonly sold under that name
I have a large vampire, he goes from jet black to mid grey based on his mood, so the fish could just not being showing its full colors yet. A pic would definitely help.
