Pterygoplichthys scrophus / chocolate pleco

[chemma]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me, do you think my 5cm chocolate pleco is Pterygoplichthys scrophus. My local fish shop tells me it is a hypostomus, but the little fella has 11 rays on his dorsal fin which seems to indicate Pterygoplichthys. He is mottled brown. He has two ?nasal flutes towards front of head. I have had him since January and (s)he has grown close to 2cm since then.

Sorry I don't know how to make the pictures bigger







Thanks in advance!

Emma (beginning catfish keeper )

[MatsP]

Hard to say from those pictures. Assuming you have bigger pictures locally, you may be able to upload the pictures directly into the post (using the "upload attachment" in the tab below the box you type in the text into).

It doesn't quite look like a P. scrophus to me, and it's entirely possible that it is a genuine Hypostomus species. It's quite easy to tell Pterygoplichthys from Hypostomus, as the former has 10-14 rays in the dorsal (back) fin, whilst Hypostomus has 7 (it's often easier to count these on a sharp photo than it is from looking at the fish - but with experience you can tell simply because the dorsal fin is much longer on the Pterygoplichthys species).

--
Mats

[Silurus]

It looks like either

Pterygoplichthys pardalis

or

Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus

to me.

[chemma]

Chocolate has 11 dorsal rays. Below is a link to bigger picture on my facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1 ... =633064439

[Silurus]

That's not a P. scrophus, I'm afraid. I still stand by my guesses.

[MatsP]

I agree with the master^WSilurus.

--
Mats

[Chrysichthys]

P. scrophus has much more of an "armoured" look to it. It's also a lot more expensive (unless you happen to get lucky and find one in a batch of commons).

[chemma]

Thanks for everyone's help!

Looking at the pictures of P. pardalis, that's who Chocolate looks like.

Thanks again

[Shaun]

The fish being sold as "Chocolate Plecos" in Oz are, as everyone has said, P. pardalis. Just a line-bred colour variation...
The bad news is: yours isn't even one of those! Its just a regular P. pardalis I'd have a word to the shop.
The "Chocolate" ones seem to have dissappeared over the last 5 years or so as well...only seen a couple recently, big and old-looking. No juveniles.
Shaun

[chemma]

The bloke at the pet shop just said it was a "hypostomus spp" when I rang back to check the scientific name. It was a young fella that mentioned it was a choclate pleco. I like him chocolate or not, but it would be nice to know exactly what you are buying