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Aquafin, Japan, are at it again with a strange Hypancistrus. I used google translate to read the text, and it says Yamunda as origin. I can't remember where this might be, but I believe it's in Brazil...? In Japan they use the common name "Dark Evil Pleco" for Hypancistrus like these. The specimen is 12 cm. Would anyone care to elaborate on what it might be?
Rio Yamunda or Nhamunda is flowing from north to south into Rio Amazonas on the border between the states of Para and Amazonas, and have many interesting species of fish... probably Hypancistrus species too. No commercial fishing of plecos for the ornamental trade but famous for the very nice Discus, there are some Japanese companies that have their own people looking for new fish here in Brazil and I suppose this can be one of their new findings.
The same Japanese folks brought the Hypancistrus sp."Madeira" to Japan, from an area also collected for it's Discus. Seems there are some interesting species out there awaiting the other fishermen...
Kouen, it came to me as L236 from Glaser together with several other young specimens looking more like L333. This one looks more like L173 to me though, and Glaser later aggreed on that and accepted a lower price for it.
Hi,
nice fish. Body shape differs from the Xingu types. It has a longer forehead and shorter fins. Reminds me at Hypancistrus debilittera (Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn, 2007). Old males could look like this. Coloration is of course very different from Hypancistrus debilittera (Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn, 2007). We should always keep in mind, that hypancistrus and other catfish are very difficult to catch with techniques usually used by fishermen specialized on ornamental fishes. I. Seidel writes about strange and dangerous diving techniques with the usage of sticks to catch hypancistrus. So I think there will be lots of variants in the amazon basin, still unknown to the trade.
pleco22 wrote:Hi,
nice fish. Body shape differs from the Xingu types. It has a longer forehead and shorter fins. Reminds me at Hypancistrus debilittera (Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn, 2007). Old males could look like this. Coloration is of course very different from Hypancistrus debilittera (Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn, 2007). We should always keep in mind, that hypancistrus and other catfish are very difficult to catch with techniques usually used by fishermen specialized on ornamental fishes. I. Seidel writes about strange and dangerous diving techniques with the usage of sticks to catch hypancistrus. So I think there will be lots of variants in the amazon basin, still unknown to the trade.
I second this, their diving techniques can be very dangerous and I've heard of some fishmen having complications with their lungs after long periods of time in the water.
I've never seen a pleco like this before, could it be a one off? it doesn't look like any L333 variants I've seen around not a L66 or any other.
A very nice pleco in deed, more pictuers will be awesome at least to see more patters of this nice specimen.
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Saul - Owner
Unungy's Rare Imports - Wholesale Distribution
I just thought I'd share this. Aquashop Fin (Japan) have posted new pics of what they claim is a Hypancistrus from Rio Yamunda (Namunda?). Very nice fish! Any thoughts?
Unfortionately the originally posted pics in this thread no longer exist online, but it seems like the species this thread is about has re-surfaced in the trade. This time 7 specimens were imported by Rare Aquatics in the UK, where it's labelled Hypancistrus sp."Manaus New Tiger". A pic can be seen here: