Panaque cochliodon is in the box!!!

[Kostas]

Last tuesday,i went by a fish shop in Greece and returned home with this box:




Lets open it up and see what in!!!




During the drip acclimation proccess...






And here you go,he was taking a sneak look of me!!!


Some more pictures of him i took at the shop...




A close up of his genital papilla...




...and of his mouth




Enjoy!!!

[Birger]

You seem just a wee bit excited for this one...good luck with it

Birger

[Seedy]

Pretty blue eyes and nice big teeth! Great fish.

[ElTofi]

I guess you can be excited... it's not that often that you can find such a beauty... and at this size...

do you know exactly the origin ? Can you tell us more ? I think I remember it's from Venezuela, no ? No time to check my datas this morning, but I'll be back on your topic... I love this fish...

congratulations for the one... try to offer it the best conditions of "his" world...

Tofi

[andywoolloo]

he looks MASSIVE! How big is he? Is he a boy or a girl?

Congrats!!

[taksan]

That Kostas ...is one MAGNIFICENT fish ...... congratulations

[MatsP]

Apparently, they are being exported from the area where Colombia lies west of Venezuela, rather than the part of Colombia which is south of Venezuela, where most other Venezuela/Colombia fish are being exported from.

--
Mats

[jopbgon]

You are one of the luckiest guys in the world congrats!!!!! , looking foward for some extra-pics

[andrewcoxon]

wow stunning kostas!

keep this thread updated!!!!

all the best,

andrew

[Fantasticfins]

Nice fish. A big one too. Good pics.

[Haavard Stoere]

Beautiful fish, Kostas How big is it? More picture please

[Richard B]

I look forward to seeing some photos of him once established in the tank! C'mon, don't keep us waiting!!!

[andywoolloo]

his eyes are so beautiful! Is his skin rough to the touch?

[N2Biomes]

Magnificent plec, Kostas! Congratulations on the pickup.

[Kostas]

Thank you very much all of you for your replys

I am sorry for taking me so long to answer but when this thread was ''fresh'',i had wrote an extensive reply that took me an hour+ and it was lost when i hit submit...So as you can understand i was very tired to write it again then and i got into bussyness soon later...

Thank you very much for your reply Birger!!!
Yeah,but only just a bit,as you say!!!

Thank you very much Seedy!!!
I am happy you like him!!! These teeth you see do quite a work on the woods and the aquarium is starting to show sawdust piles now...

Thank you very much Tofi!
Unfortunately i dont know the exact origin of the fish,i only know that he was imported from Venezuella,something strange just as you say...Do you have maybe any more info on where he could have been catched?
I will my friend!!! He is a beauty and certainly deserves to be well cared for...

Thank you very much andywoolloo!!!
I am glad you like him so much!
He is about 27cm including the tail but without the fillaments and that makes him the biggest fish i have kept! I dont know his sex for sure unfortunately...I *think* he is a male but time will tell...I expect to be certain in a month or two...
I havent touched him yet but his skin must not be very rough as he was caught and transferent by bare hand to the transportation bag...To get an idea ,touching a Panaque feels like touching a stone...I know that cause i have held other Panaque by hand...

Thanks taksan!!!
I am very happy you like him so much!!!

Thank you very much for the info Mats!!!
What does that mean?Do you think he comes from a different catching locality than the blue eyes that were imported in the past?Could he be another sp. or a different population from them?I ask cause i have found a female for him from a fellow hobbiest but i dont know where she is from...I just know that generally she is similar in appearance,only lacking the shark fin like edges on the fins...Her tail is the same as mine's though with fillaments...

Thank you very much jopbgon!!!
I did was very lucky to find such a fish here in Greece...I never thought i stood chances to ever see one alive...
I will try taking some new ones when i find some more time

Thank you very much for your kind comments Andrew!!!
I will try to...

Yours are excellent too!!!! And even better,you got a pair of a blue eye sp./population that is rarely seen I would never thought one would be so lucky to find a suitable mate for the Pier's blue eye as i had never seen anything like that!

Thank you very much Fantasticfins!!!
I am very happy you like my fish and my pictures!

Thanks Haavard!!!
He is 27cm including tail and without the fillaments...
I will try to satisfy you soon!!!

Thank you very much Richard!!!
You all guys will end up making me going for a photoshoot tomorrow!!!

Thank you very much N2Biomes!!!
I am very happy you like him!!!
I would like to thank you and Lisa(ljd290)one more time for all the help you gave me on bringing this beauty back to health!

For those of you who didnt know it,this fish got numerous broad white spots with a black center on him two weeks after import,while still at the shop...I first thought of Panaque plague but when i ckecked its symptoms i almost rulled it out entirely...Then i checked for black spot disease but didnt found any photo where the black spots were in a white circle...They were always directly on properly colored skin...But N2Biomes and Lisa immediately ided the disease as black spot when i showed them photos and showed me an old thread on plecofanatics showing two plecos with the same symptoms.The thread was a success story with two plecos having that thing healing rapidly with the use of a Japanese anti-parasitic medicine.So,i followed N2Biomes and Lisa's advice on the theapy and used Paeasite Clear which contains Prazi and i had on hand at the time...Prazi containing meds for aquariums are very dificult to get there generally...So now he is back to health again although it tooks him quite some time to recover...But what matters is that he is healthy again!!!

What do you think his sex is going by the vent photos?Any good at vent sexing Panaque?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Seedy]

I am glad to hear you were able to get him healthy again! Any more pictures yet?

[Kostas]

Thank you very much for your reply Seedy
I havent taken any photo of him yet...I had lots of work on the aquarium and great trouble with some new plecos i bought for the 2meter tank...Also i had a serious injury on my male Hemiancistrus subviridis that,too,got any interest i had on photographing any fish...Fortunately yesterday,after about a week from when he got the injury,he has started healing it with new tissue forming and closing the big sore...(most of his right side was a sore,result from my Panaque L190 grazing on him in a fight There were grazing mark and in other places of his body but smaller and i was not so worried for these...).

When i am done with all the problems i have with my fish,i promise you a big photoshoot of everyone and everything!!!!!

[drd]

Hi how is it going with my favorite catfish Kostas ?

You know wen you get boored of it you can allways ship it to sweden

[Kostas]

Its going fine drd Thanks a lot for caring!!!
It has completely cleared from the spots and i did a precautionary treatment with Octozin for sleeping sickness a few weeks ago and he is a bit more energetic now too...(dont know if he did had sleeping sickness but because most fishes from the exporter he came have this disease i thought it would be better to treat for it as a precaution than be sorry one day... )
A few weeks ago he ate for the first time pineapple and cucumber and he since devours them eagerly I will try others veggies and fruits too and see what he likes...
Unfortunately i still have no new photos of him as he stays in an open space that is in the woods where the lighting is not enough for a photo,although it is good enough for me to view the fish with ease...Also the optical access of the camera(and me) is a bit difficult as lateraly he can only be viewed from two holes of the front wood while digonicaly he can be seen from the front but there are other more brightly lighted objects there that prevent me and the camera adhusting correctly to the low lighting where he is...I hope i can catch him somewhere more suited for a photo and with the camera nearby someday soon...

Yeah,of course... But my plans for now is to find him a suitable company!

[Bas Pels]

most likely we will have to wait until:
a) you find it a mate
b) they spawn
c) the fry gets big enough for a nice pic

I don''t mind waiting fot such pics, frankly