Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
I need your help identifying this pleco. After obtaining a Sturisoma panamense, I realized the first one I got did not appear to be a Sturisoma at all. He looks more like a Rineloricaria. I'm stumped at this point. I was leaning on Rineloricaria parva but I'm not really sure about this.
Last edited by Lupin on 22 Nov 2007, 09:52, edited 1 time in total.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
I've looked into the PC database again. I can't pin down what would look exactly like mine. I've tried the Sturisoma aureum, Sturisoma nigrofasciatum and Sturisoma barbatum.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
Yes, this is a Rineloricaria (presence of predorsal keels and postorbital notches). Rineloricaria parva could match if your specimen was collected in the Paraguay-Parana-La Plata system. Nevertheless, this color pattern on the snout is very common, so, it is almost impossible to identify it at the specific level without locality stated.
Cheers
Raph.
Yes, this is a Rineloricaria (presence of predorsal keels and postorbital notches). Rineloricaria parva could match if your specimen was collected in the Paraguay-Parana-La Plata system. Nevertheless, this color pattern on the snout is very common, so, it is almost impossible to identify it at the specific level without locality stated.
Cheers
Raph.
Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
Too bad we don't see the whole fish. The front end of a (my) sturiosoma tail (not the fin, the biodypart behind the anal fin) is flattened, top-down, while it is much more rounded in Rhineloricaria.
I think we can see part of this in the pic, and it seems to be flattened, not rounded
I think like Raph, this is a Rineloricaria species and I would say it's a female too. Which species is hard to determine from this picture but maybe one of these;
.
There are many species or localities of the same species of Rineloricaria which make them very difficult to identify.
Lupin wrote:Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.
What Raph ment is of course the natural locality which should be a river somewhere in a south american country.
Bas Pels wrote:Too bad we don't see the whole fish. The front end of a (my) sturiosoma tail (not the fin, the biodypart behind the anal fin) is flattened, top-down, while it is much more rounded in Rhineloricaria.
I think we can see part of this in the pic, and it seems to be flattened, not rounded
It does seem flattened to me. Bas, the photos are below. Do they help you?:)
Edit: I took another glance on the fish and the "biodypart" does look flattened.
Janne wrote:I think like Raph, this is a Rineloricaria species and I would say it's a female too. Which species is hard to determine from this picture but maybe one of these;
.
There are many species or localities of the same species of Rineloricaria which make them very difficult to identify.
Lupin wrote:Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.
What Raph ment is of course the natural locality which should be a river somewhere in a south american country.
Janne
Hi Janne.
The odd thing is that those three links are also the ones I've looked into yesterday and was confused.
Here are other photos. Forgive me for the quality. The pink color was because of my camera acting up.
I seem to have trouble uploading photos in imageshack.us.
I hope you don't mind the watermarks.
Last edited by Lupin on 22 Nov 2007, 23:51, edited 2 times in total.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
apistomaster wrote:Looks like a Sturisoma species to me. Not a Rhinoloricaria species as I conceive them.
Thanks for your views, Apistomaster. I initially thought that way too but when I obtained a Sturisoma panamense, I was beginning to doubt it was Sturisoma especially when I saw more photos of Rineloricaria looking almost similar to mine. I'm not really a pleco expert however I'll try the best that I can to provide you details possible so I can pin down the exact ID of this fish. I would never go on calling it in a false name.
Edit:
@Janne: It looks either the Rineloricaria sp. "pantanal or Rineloricaria parva although I could bet on the former.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
Bas Pels wrote:How does it behave: Does it lay in (under) the sand, or sit on stones?
I don't use sand however it tends to slack (okay, sit lazily) on the gravel under driftwoods and even "perch" itself on a driftwood branch and small stones. It is quite a very active plec as well.
Catfish and loaches are my passion. Wherever I go, I simply can't think enough of them.
You may find that you get better pictures if you use the camera further from the fish, and if your camera can do 2-3 megapixel photos, you can cut them down in size, instead of using the whole picture.
The pictures you posted are unsharp because the camera can't focus that closely.
Mats said rightly, your pictures are very unsharp.
The only we can seen is that your specimen are not a Sturisoma species.
By the round snouth and the large fins it is possible that you have LG6. A species which unite several attributes of Hemiloricaria and Sturisomatichthys and cannot assigned to a specific genus. This is just a possibility, not exacty clear.
Bas, the photos are below. Do they help you?:)
I initially thought that way too but when I obtained a Sturisoma panamense, I was beginning to doubt it was Sturisoma especially when I saw more photos of Rineloricaria looking almost similar to mine. I'm not really a pleco expert however I'll try the best that I can to provide you details possible so I can pin down the exact ID of this fish. I would never go on calling it in a false name.
