Dragon Fight

These are Green Dragon and Albino Green Dragon males fighting for dominance in my 75 gallon tank. Green/Albino Dragons are how Greg Sage/Select Aquatics market his strains of bristlenose plecos which were bred for extra long finnage and a particular shade of green.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8x4cXBibIA

I got these fish courtesy of Dario. They grow slower than BN's and appear a little less vigorous. My batch is mostly males, hence the frustration... Anyway, the best part of Saturday afternoons in the Fall is watching meaningless college football games while messing with social media. Hope the link works!

Was really cool until those Discuss got in the way : )

Thanks for sharing Willie.

P.S. You always want more males than females with plecos. Female can spawn with a second male while the first guy is still watching fry. Unless you're Tom, then you get two spawns in the same cave.

If you look closely at the video, the two bristlenoses fight by pushing the sides of their heads against each other. They are using their opercles, which are bony plates on the side of the head. Among Plecostomus, only bristlenoses have evolved this bone into sharp little maces that can really sting your fingers when you grab them. When they die, the opercles stick straight out (and can still hurt your fingers if they touch).

I've never paid attention to this before, but these guys fought for about a minute right after a water change. I saw the albino in the cave after, so it looks like he won. In this way, bristlenoses appear have evolved a structure similar to Corydoras (from an unrelated order), which also hurt like hell if you grab them around the head.