Description

The Green Dragon Bristlenose Pleco is a member of the Ancistrus genus. These nocturnal catfish are more commonly referred to as bushynose or bristlenose catfish, where the most commonly found fish in the aquarium hobby are descendants from the Ancistrus cirrhosis.  

With so many different types of Plecostomus, an L-classification (L being short for the fish's family name: Loricariidae) system was created by the German aquarium magazine DATZ in the 1980s. The classification system is still widely used today, but don't expect to find every pleco species in this classification system. The Green Dragon Bristlenose does not have an L-number, making the species a bit more difficult to locate.

While this species in particular is line-bred, relatives of the fish can be found in Panama, the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and further south in the rivers and floodplains of the Amazon basin.