Need ID on Black medium size CF

[iljasas]

Could u please help me identify the catfish on below photo.
I got this as a present from a friend and never found out it's name/number.

[Richard B]

I think this will prove much trickier than the P albomaculatus in the other post

People may want to know the number of dorsal rays or a [ic of the whole fish. Also. knowing capture location is sometimes the only way of giving a 99% positive ID on some loricariids - bristlenoses particularly

[MatsP]

I'm pretty sure that it's a female

Ancistrus

- but that is a fairly large group, representing somewhere around 10-15% of all known Ancistrinae (the subfamily of Loricariidae [=plecos] that this fish absolutely certainly belongs to), so about 100 out of 700 or so fish. The brown body with brown spots isn't unusual in this group - the spots are almost universal, and it's just a case of if they are white, yellow, green, blue or brown, and whether the body itself is dark brown, dark grey or black.

To make matters even more complicated, their colour changes somewhat as they grow older, and they can change colour depending on how they feel.

--
Mats

[iljasas]

Thanks for the info so far.. I already guessed it's a Ancistrus but due to the size of the group my head went dizzy looking at all the pictures

I'll see if he pops his head around the corner tonight and maybe i can get a better picture with the Dorsal fins etc in frame.
Catching for better pictures would not be a option as my fishtank is made ready to participate for the Dutch Aquarium Championships and don't want to pull out all my plants just before the testing next week .

[Martin S]

Catching for better pictures would not be a option as my fishtank is made ready to participate for the Dutch Aquarium Championships and don't want to pull out all my plants just before the testing next week .

Gook luck for that and let us know how you get on - sounds like you should post some tank pics for us too
Martin

[iljasas]

Catching for better pictures would not be a option as my fishtank is made ready to participate for the Dutch Aquarium Championships and don't want to pull out all my plants just before the testing next week .

Gook luck for that and let us know how you get on - sounds like you should post some tank pics for us too
Martin

I just setup my profile with My catfish and Aquarium and attached a old picture of my Discus Fishtank.
I'll get some new pictures sometime this week to showoff with.

[racoll]

Hi.

Most brown

Ancistrus

are the common one (

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

). However, wild caught specimens of other species do turn up.

Knowing how much it cost, what it was labelled as, and what size it was when purchased also helps.

So, it the absence of any other information, its most parsimonious (because it looks similar enough, and based on the sheer number of common bristlenose in the trade) to assume it is that one.

[iljasas]

Hi.

Most brown

Ancistrus

are the common one (

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

). However, wild caught specimens of other species do turn up.

Knowing how much it cost, what it was labelled as, and what size it was when purchased also helps.

So, it the absence of any other information, its most parsimonious (because it looks similar enough, and based on the sheer number of common bristlenose in the trade) to assume it is that one.

I got this catfish from a friend of mine who stopped his aquarium hobby, also he doesn't know what the name/price etc was.
Only thing i can tell u, it's reaching it's 5th birthday next year.