my new catfish

[lucille]

at firts i will say that i'm sorry for my bad engish

i got some nwe fishes - an one of them is a cat fish - from a family who is moving from sweden to another contry. al the other fishes i know the name of, but the catfish is a mistery. no one know what it is so im trying here..

it looks like an ancistrus and all the other peoples on meny swedish forums are pretty sure that it is an ancistrus - but no one know what kind it is.
the body looks like an ordinary ancistrus but the color is deep grey and there are no stripes or spotts. the fins are pretty big och no color. u can se right thru them. before the backfen there is an light stripe. the fish is right now 5cm long and the other owner bought him 8 moths ago. but they nover got him eny food so he is wery thin.

i have some pictures but they are pretty bad. he is shy and difficult to take picture of.
any clues what kind it is??

[MatsP]

I think the diagnosis of Ancistrus is correct. The next level down to species is much harder - I don't believe I've ever seen one that looks like that.

--
Mats

[aledk85]

Ancistrus sp(l088)

Ancistrus sp`rio_ucayali`

matsp maybe can be a variation of these and hibrid?
the are the closest one i think...

[MatsP]

Out of those two, I'd bet on the L088, but I'd not put a lot of money on that bet. As far as I can tell, the Rio Ucayali species is always spotted, and the head shape looks more flattened than the fish in this thread.

--
Mats

[lucille]

ok thats intresting. on an onther site of catfish they also bets on a L088.. is it possible that the color of the fish can change if he get much food and when he grows up? he feels a little bit undeveloped.

any way - is there any information about L088? i have searched on different websites about L088 and i havnt found enything.. any tip?

[lucille]

i found some information about L088 on planetcatfish but not that much. is there any better site?

[MatsP]

i found some information about L088 on planetcatfish but not that much. is there any better site?

I'm afraid it's not a well-known species. It is also entirely possible that there are other, undescribed and not L-numbered, species of Ancistrus.

If there is a better site out there, it's not one that I know of.

--
Mats

[lucille]

i found a picture of the L088..

if u compare the head and snout on L088 and my cat they are not the same at all. the L088 has a much shorter and obtuser head and snout. is thea a lot of variation of the L088 or is mine still another kind ?

picture of L088

[MatsP]

Like I said, there's a good possibility that your fish is something else. But also be aware that the head shape is slightly different between males and females. Do you think the headshape is more similar to the Rio Ucayali that was linked in the post above? Because I thought that had too long and flattened face.

--
Mats

[lucille]

i dont know how Rio Ucayali looks like. i cabnt find a picture.. do u have a link to a picture of it? i know that the shape of the head is different between males and females. but this isnt even close..

tanks for the help

[MatsP]

Pictures can be found here:

Ancistrus sp`rio_ucayali`

--
Mats

[lucille]

well i think its much more like that one but whitout the spots. and the thin fin before the ordinary fin on the side looks like this ones.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=8644

[aledk85]

i still think that is hibrid from a.sp.rio ucayali like said before or maybe is a variation of l392 or l122(grey variety)but the are not on cat-elog and i have see on my book for l-number,but i repeat maybe...
and if is it a chaetostoma sp.?the nose is very similar....

[lucille]

what is chaetostoma sp?? do you have a link to it?

[racoll]

and if is it a chaetostoma sp.?the nose is very similar....

Definitely not a

Chaetostoma

.

i still think that is hibrid from a.sp.rio ucayali

Very, very unlikely to be a hybrid. There is no evidence for this. As Mats said, there are many

Ancistrus

, most of which are not well known to aquarists. Ancistrus are also notoriously similar. It could easily be a poorly known (kept and photographed) L number (the L088 seems to be a good match colour wise, and it has the white caudal tips). It could also be described species or a totally new species.

However, it could also just be a funny coloured

Ancistrus sp(3)

.

What was it called when you bought it, and how much did it cost. Was it wild caught?

[aledk85]

don't look the color but only the shape,in my book i have this kind grey like your,is not in cat-elog

[Martin S]

I agree with racoll - definitely not Chaetostoma
As you can see from the genus Ancistrus, there are lots without images, so unless you can confirm capture location, it's going to be a tough (if not impossible) job to confirm the ID.
More pictures may help.
HTH
Martin

[Martin S]

Is it me, or does the dorsal fin seem to extend back further than sp3, so much so that it touches the adipose fin. Looking at the larger sp3 in the catelog, I'd say it's not a sp3.
Not that I'm saying i know what it is though
Martin

[MatsP]

Yes, I think racoll is more on the right lines than Aledk85. There is no documented evidence of hybrid Ancistrus [not saying it couldn't happen]. But statistics say that it's highly likely to be an unknown species.

As I have posted several times before (in other threads), there are about 125 species listed in the Cat-eLog, of which 63 are "undescribed", which makes 62 described species. Fishbase lists 60 valid (= described) species, Carl Ferrari's Checklist of Catfishes lists 59 [hand-counted, so could be wrong].

It is very likely that there are many more undescribed species out there, just that no one has captured and catalogued them yet.

--
Mats

[lucille]

and if is it a chaetostoma sp.?the nose is very similar....

Definitely not a

Chaetostoma

.

i still think that is hibrid from a.sp.rio ucayali

Very, very unlikely to be a hybrid. There is no evidence for this. As Mats said, there are many

Ancistrus

, most of which are not well known to aquarists. Ancistrus are also notoriously similar. It could easily be a poorly known (kept and photographed) L number (the L088 seems to be a good match colour wise, and it has the white caudal tips). It could also be described species or a totally new species.

However, it could also just be a funny coloured

Ancistrus sp(3)

.

What was it called when you bought it, and how much did it cost. Was it wild caught?

okej.. so a can preper my self that if would be almost impossible to know what it is..

as i wrote in the first post this is a fish who i got for free from a family who is moving to an other country. the had a tank of 50 litres and they had no intresting of the fishes. so they have absolutly know idea of the name of the fishes they had. so i got him for free from an advert.

[lucille]

Is it me, or does the dorsal fin seem to extend back further than sp3, so much so that it touches the adipose fin. Looking at the larger sp3 in the catelog, I'd say it's not a sp3.
Not that I'm saying i know what it is though
Martin

yes the dorsal fin is very long if it helps. i goes almost the entire way down to the adipose fin. just a small space between them.

[racoll]

as i wrote in the first post this is a fish who i got for free from a family

Apologies. Should read the post more carefully...

okej.. so a can preper my self that if would be almost impossible to know what it is..

Maybe, unless perhaps another Swedish member (or anyone else) has seen fish like this turn up in imports.

I would just call it Ancistrus sp.

As far as care is concerned, they are generally much the same. Without further information, keep pH neutral and a temp around 24-27C. Feed lots of veg as well as the odd algae wafer, and he/she should be back into good condition in no time.

[Jools]

It's not a

Chaetostoma

, the shape of the mouth is wrong - I'm 100% sure it is an

Ancistrus

.

This looks like L088 to me, I kept some of them over a decade ago not long after the L number was created. They're actually quite common in the wild and are a brownish grey - in top condition they are more brown than grey. That and the peculiar light colour saddle that comes and gos with mood (many plecos have it) gives it away.

This is a smaller species a bit like

Ancistrus claro

in terms of size and prefers a lower pH but pretty adaptable. Otherwise it's classic

Ancistrus

.

Jools