Super red bristlenose coloration

[SpacedCadette]

Hi folks!

I’m just curious about the coloration of my BN Pleco. When I purchase her she was sold as a super red and she had really vibrant, solid coloration. Over the last couple of months as she’s mature, I’ve noticed her color has darkened and she's developed lots of dark marbling on her body. She appears to be healthy and all that and this does seem to just be a coloration change-- I’m only wondering if this is a normal part of her maturation or if she might actually be a different color mutation? She’s a great fish either way and I adore having her in my community tank. This is purely a question of curiosity. 🙂

Here she is the day I brought her home. I think the saturation might be just a bit higher on this image, but her coloring was pretty bright when she was younger.
:
 

And her as of an hour ago. Ignore the white stuff on her face, that's just crap that's been kicked up from the substrate:

Edited May 16, 2022 by SpacedCadette
fixed formatting

[Tihshho]

It all depends on the lineage from Super Reds. I've seen some stay fairly vibrant, others I've seen get the blotching like yours as she's matured. From my understanding the Calico line is also based off of traits like this that are thrown from the Super Reds. 

[SpacedCadette]

On 5/16/2022 at 1:05 PM, Tihshho said:

From my understanding the Calico line is also based off of traits like this that are thrown from the Super Reds. 

Oh interesting! I just looked up the calico coloring and there's definitely some similarities there. Sounds like (and definitely correct me if I'm misinterpreting) she's a Super Red, just with the blotchy color pattern. 

I tried looking up more images of other Super Reds and didn't see a lot of example images with her coloring so I wasn't sure! Thanks, @Tihshho!

Edited May 16, 2022 by SpacedCadette

[Tihshho]

I would say that your's is a super red for sure.