Thanks

Sorry, forgot to say, the reason I bumped the thread back up was in the vain hope I could breed from him, but I think the indecision has made that impossible, which is a shame. It was nice to work that out for sure though.

Thanks both of you. The one thing we can definitely rule out is sp. 3. He's definitely not one. The previous pictures, with the exception of the ones the ohter day, were taken months ago when he was a juvenile, and even then he never had the markings of a sp. 3, or the shape. I think the set of pics ...

Cup on PF was hesitant to ID him "properly" but said that L279 was a "distinct possibility" and that for now we'd have to just go with "piedmont ancistrus". Anything further on that from you lot?

Ancistrus sp. 3 (aka Common Bristlenose). And a gorgeous one too

He's not anywhere near "balloon" shaped though - he's the same shape as the L088 pics (on Scotcat) and triradiatus pics (on PC) I've seen. He also doesn't have sp. 3 markings in any form, although I realise that's variable - no spots, etc since he matured. :? Edited to add: Unless you're going on ...

One last try for Poofish - if at ALL possible I'd like to get him some females, so I know I'm probably flogging a dead horse, but I have to give it one last shot. He is 2.5" SL and not growing any more (hasn't grown in 5 months at least). Cup on PF originally suggested ancistrus triradiatus, but I'm ...

I kept my fingers crossed that with me having been offline poorly, I'd come back to an idea of what Poofish is. She looks destined to be forever a mystery, ahh well, never mind. Thanks anyway.

Definitely not a gibby - he looks like the reddish liposarcus pardalis that people keep posting about - loooovely

Hi Barbie Poofish is about 2" now, and has only started growing bristles recently. I *think* there are some new bumps on his/her face coming up but he/she's very fast so hard to get a decent look. A lady on another forum said that Poofish was probably a boy as he/she'd started growing bristles while ...

Ok I'm really sorry for posting again, but do you think his body shape looks more like a juvi version of this?

http://www.scotcat.com/loricariidae/anc ... sp_l88.htm

I realise he's probably not that, but I'm drawing a blank on the commonly kept species.

And more:

A couple more pics to see if they ring any bells:

LOL small world! The Red Pig used to be my regular after The Albert went all cack. I met my ex hubby in The Grinning Rat (he got barred - they obviously saw through him before I did!). It's not there any more, it's a coffee bar thing now The Pig's still good though! My sister used to work there.

Thanks very much Barbie - he's definitely not one of thems then. Looking at your pics, he's completely the wrong shape - much thicker in the body/head and shorter in length too. Sojapat - LMAO! That's it, he's a new species. Ancistrus sp. "Poofish". Oh go on someone with authority, please name him ...

Thanks MatsP :) I think it's going to be impossible to trace him back, as our LFS is rubbish to be honest. They were selling baby liposarcus as BNs the other week. I'm trying not to use them now. I think what I need to do is work out the most commonly bred species, and knock them off the list one by ...

Does anyone know how you go about IDing (if you can) tank bred BNs? Because I'm thinking it's more likely he's tank bred considering I bought him at 1". I'm also wondering if he's an ancistrus claro, as I've seen pics of them online that looks similar? It'd be a shame if he was one because they only ...

Even so, you know more than me and I'm very grateful for your posts

Thanks very much. That would explain how he can look somewhere in between *lol*.

I bought this fella yesterday as a Rusty (L077). Posted his pics on PF, and people have suggested that he's not a Rusty, one pointed out he might be L360. To be honest, I look at his pics against the pics of L077 and L360 on the PC database, and I can't honestly say either way. I'm not really ...

Hi Barbie - no, he's only a baby (under 2") and started developing bristles a month ago - he has some little bumps appearing up his face to add to the ones around his lip, so we think he's a he.

Ahhh that's a shame, but thanks MatsP. I was hoping he'd have some identifiable feature that would stand him out from similar species. Oh well! He'll just have to be Poofish the ancistrus, not Poofish the ancistrus "x". *lol*

OK if anyone can give me any tips on how I can go about researching exactly what species he is (eg. how to eliminate any of the suggestions or validate them), that would be much appreciated - I've had a handful of different ideas, but no definitive ID as yet.

Kathy, We do grow them bigger here in Texas. The photo of the L. pardalis from Calaveras Lake does look to be bigger than my Goliath here in Houston. I have also seen one about 18-20 inches just last night but was unable to get a photo before he swam away. No doubt, seeing is believing. Thanks ...

which your site is saying is the maximum Kathy, For your info., it's my site, I enter the data. I also don't like the word liar - let's keep this civil please. Jools I was using it in reference to the scoffs that were made at me, insinuating I'd made it up - I haven't called anyone here a liar. I ...

Kathy, You are greatly misrepresenting what I said. We have yet to positively identify the above sp and it was not (unfortunately) measured. By way of background: Kathy posted on another forum that PC's sizes for the various "common pl*cos" were wrong and cited, as proof, that 24" L. pardalis were ...

I've got three plecs (Gibby, ancistrus and Royal) in with angels, never had a problem. Why do you think it's a bad idea?

I have more pics if it helps: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/KathyM/Fishies/170706poofish3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/KathyM/Fishies/170706poofish1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/KathyM/Fishies/170706royalandpoofish2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803 ...

I'm sorry, I'm not as up on plecs as you lot - just going on what Shane said on PF which was that maximum SL was 11-12", and that they didn't go over that to his knowledge. I've personally seen what I would class as liposarcus at much bigger than 11-12" (but as I said to Shane if there's a very ...

Hi Jools - Shane said there is no scientific documentation of one over the PC size, and that they don't grow over 11-12" SL as far as he knows - which is why we were trying to find pics of ones over that. this has got to be over 12" SL - way, way over *lol*. It'd be nice if this helped towards ...