Candy Striped Plec?

[Firestorming]

I bought two of these as surprise surprise "Candy Striped Plecs". They were in horrible shape when I got them and after 2 months I have re-conditioned them to a stage I am happy to put them together in the hope of spawning them. I figure the best way to do this is to ID them and from there provide optimal conditions.
The fish I photographed is 130mm TL and even when captured they don’t show stress colours. They were very washed out when I got them so they will stress under really bad conditions I assume. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[MatsP]

Does look like one of the "Peckoltia vittata complex" fishes. There are, unfortunately, several similar ones, so unless you know where they came from, it may be hard to figure out exactly what it is...

--
Mats

[Firestorming]

Thanks Mats, I kept going back to

and thinking body shape and pattern is quite similar, just the colours of mine seemed really vibrant.

[Mod edit: inline picture... --Mats]

[Borbi]

Hi,

this fish makes me think of L 243 (http://www.l-welse.com/reviewpost/showp ... roduct/258).

Cheers, Sandor

[MatsP]

Our data is here

Peckoltia sp(L243)

.

It is certainly an option. Do you know what country the fish came from?

As I said earlier, there are several different species that are all fairly similar. Subtle differences can be hard to spot, as they are also quite variable between individuals.

Edit: Other potential candidates include

Peckoltia sp(L211)

,

Peckoltia sp(L140)

,

Peckoltia sp(L080)

,

Peckoltia sp(L049)

and more... Some of these may be possible to rule out if you know what to look for, but if you can't find out which country or river the fish came from, I'm pretty sure we will not be able to say for certain what the species is.


--
Mats

[Borbi]

Hi Mats,

"problem" with the fish in the eLog under L243 is, that they don´t look like "typical", adult L 243.
Hence the link to the other, more typical pictures.

They are not L 80 (too large) or L 49 (too colorful), otherwise, at least a country of origin would be helpful.

Cheers, Sandor

[littlebristlenose]

Price would be main bearing as some haven't been for sale hear for 4 years and the candy is most common from all the above choices.
2 haven't come up for sale in 7 years and i dont think are hear at all due to strict import rules.
The candy is breed by many breeders hear and i would put money on it being a L015.
The L140 and L080 only been small amounts for sale from time to time all the rest only once and never by my records not to say under ground dealings away from web sites haven't happened or other dealings.
Its could be a cross as we have very limited supply of fish in a small market place due to above reason this can become a problem in its self.
It appears to be a Candy what are your water parmaters, temperature and what are you feeding as this can have a bearing on colour and condition.

[Firestorming]

They are not hybrids/cross as I know they are wild caught, they came in a few months ago. I am well aware of the limited species available here. Our import rules have never stopped anything from coming in, it's just those willing to take the risk to get things in dictate the prices we pay, which hurts as these guys cost $35ea in Hawaii.