Australian "Peppermint" Ancistrus

[Firestorming]

I know the debate has been going on for ages, so I hoped that some decent photos may help with at least a reduction in possible species that are in the running and perhaps leave us with a smaller group to work on.
As plenty of you are aware the peppermints we have here only maintain the white seams until the hit the 2-2.5 inch mark.

Here are some pics I have snapped this evening of my dominant male, he is approx 14-16cm TL and was kind enough to display his dorsal as I had just evicted him and a number of fry from a cave in my 700L community tank, there is plenty of tannins in the water casing his spots to take on an orange hue, however they are quite white and vibrant.

I have added the pics from imageshack, however if better/bigger ones are needed I am happy to forward them to an admin, I am far from a tech savvy kinda guy












Regards,
Brett

[MatsP]

Dorsal is good to identify

Ancistrus dolichopterus

from other species that look similar. And we can clearly say that your fish is not A. dolichopterus. Unfortunately, that leaves at the very least half a dozen species with small spots...

--
Mats

[Firestorming]

Cheers MatsP, thats one name that was bandied about for a while, I was hoping a soft ray count would assist.

[MatsP]

Yes, there are several books that have A. dolichopterus pictured with fish that CLEARLY isn't that - what they are is a much harder task to solve. But A. dolichopterus is easy to identify from the dorsal rays - it has I,9 -meaning 1 hard and 9 soft rays. Other species of Ancistrus have I,7, just like yours.

A possible candidate is

Ancistrus hoplogenys

But there is also the possibility that it is actually not a pure species, but a hybrid or not a scientifically described species.

--
Mats

[Jon]

It has long been recognized that the australian peppermint ancistrus is not a. dolichopterus, despite its consistently elongated dorsal fin (other known ancistrus have 8-9 total dorsal rays). There have been many attempts at classifying this animal--I've heard names slung around such as 100 or 180, but I'm not convinced myself. As Matt says, the possibility remains that it could be a hybrid or possibly a new species

[racoll]

Ancistrus punctatus

looks like a very good candidate to me, but the pics in the cat-elog are not great, so I will have to wait for my books to arrive before being more certain.

[Jackster]

Ancistrus L100 and Ancistrus L180 are not the same fish in my opinion.
The fish posted here looks like it could very well be L180 and I would suggest
getting a top view close-up of the head and a bottom view of the mouth since
L180 is also called "Round Mouth" Ancistrus. What's sweet is my good buddy in
Florida just ordered some wild L180 last week and they should be in on Tuesday.
It will be very interesting to see what they look like as L180 is pretty uncommon
at least here in the USA. I'll try to post a photo when I receive one from my buddy.

Here's the only photo of any use I could find.

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

well... I count I/8.
Especially on the first pic you can see an 8th small branched ray that seems not to be connected at the basis with the 7th one. If you have a picture of the whole dorsal fin where you can see this would help.
I don't think that this is L 180 this species is more flat.

I would tend to say this could be L 79 = L 181 = L 249. Do you have pics of juveniles ?!

Cheers,

[Jon]

"Ancistrus L100 and Ancistrus L180 are not the same fish in my opinion."

that is correct, they are not. however, these are two numbers that have been considered by others as possible candidates for the identity of the australian "peppermint". I am not well versed in the genus, so I don't really have much of an opinion on the matter.

[Rabbit]

Has anyone got an image of a juvie L100 or 180 as neither appear to have an adolescent white seam as the Australian version carries this until 6cm?.
The head on L180 carries the head of Ancistrus rannanculus nothing like the "Aus Pep"
L183 would be the best in my opinion as all but the soft rays make sense.

[Firestorming]

I will try to catch one of the juvies from my big tank and get some detailed photosgraphs.

Thanks for all the great comment too thus far, I would dearly love to have "our" peppermint pos I.D.ed.