Leporacanthicus Triactis L91 – “SPECIAL MEGADRAGON”

[Unungy]

Most of these unique variants go to Asia.
I was able to a few of them to USA.

We know very little about these little guys.
Please feel free to comment.

[OlePaulsen]

Most of them loose the nice coloration. Its no special with it. Same with all other "red tailed" plecos. Lot of red when small, but only a handful keep the nice red color all over the fins when adult.
Off course its nice to look at, but for me its the behavior of the species that is more interesting than a single rare colored individual.

When i was younger i always wanted a full red 114. I bought group and only 2 of 15 remain full red fin.

[MatsP]

There is no doubt that these are L. triactis, so I'm moving this to the "Loricariidae" section, as there is nothing to identify.

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Mats

[OlePaulsen]

Have it ever been, Mats ?

[MatsP]

Have it ever been, Mats ?

No, it wasn't before you posted to the thread - my point was that this thread does not belong in "What's my catfish?", as it's not an identification problem.

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Mats

[Unungy]

Most of them loose the nice coloration. Its no special with it. Same with all other "red tailed" plecos. Lot of red when small, but only a handful keep the nice red color all over the fins when adult.
Off course its nice to look at, but for me its the behavior of the species that is more interesting than a single rare colored individual.

When i was younger i always wanted a full red 114. I bought group and only 2 of 15 remain full red fin.

Interesting.

Most of my clients in Asia will be crazy to have one of these individuals swimming in their tanks.
This is not a one off individual, I know for sure that more of a hand full of these species get exported to Asia.

I have 5 individuals that will be going to their new owner soon.
It will be interesting enough to see how they develop and see if we can learn something about this special L91's.

One of the reason why? we don't get "rare" in our countries is because of the way we "look" at things, unlike our Asia countries that get all these variants, special and unique specimens.

I found couple of reasons for this:
1. Because they are willing to pay for them
2. Because they don't overlook special variants, unique patterns, color in plecos like we do.

I bet you didn't even know the nickname of this "unique" pleco in Asia was “SPECIAL MEGADRAGON”
I must admit that it was totally new to me as well.

In most of our countries, these specimens will be seen as deform or not a perfect one to keep.

Interesting enough in other countries it could be as "rare" as gold.

[Yann]

Like you said they are willing to pay the price, I disagree on the fact we overlook them, a lot of people here want to breed the fish they buy...so inveting in a group of odd looking fish it sure come with a price.

Also taking into account is why to invest in such odd pattern fish when you know the offspring is more likely to be "regular", possibly at best you ll have 25% of them looking like this...that is about the ratio an L236 breeder had with his very nice "odd pattern" fish
He had slightly better result on selecting F1 and have them breed together

cheers
Yann

[Linus_Cello]

I'm guessing that since L91s aren't too easily bred, no one has tried to breed the dragon/tiger fins to try to "fix" the trait, or to see if the orange patterning extends elsewhere? Maybe somewhere in east asia?

[Yann]

Still a few species from different species with odd pattern has been bred and they show great variability...nothing more than 25% on first generation and at best around 35% after a few generation...

Also I belive nature has already great variability without the needs of human to creat new variation or try to fix it as to do it, you always lost of the genetic diversity, which I believe is far worst!!

Cheers
Yann

[Jake Adams]

I've always really liked L. triactis but yesterday I finally got rid of my six incher with a semi-dragon fin pattern because he's just a grump and like most 3-beacons, really shy and rarely seen. They make zebra plecos seem outgoing.

Cool score on the dragonfins Saul, I hope to see them grow up into beautiful triactis with fully black-spotted-orange dorsal fins.

[MatsP]

I've always really liked L. triactis but yesterday I finally got rid of my six incher with a semi-dragon fin pattern because he's just a grump and like most 3-beacons, really shy and rarely seen. They make zebra plecos seem outgoing.

Cool score on the dragonfins Saul, I hope to see them grow up into beautiful triactis with fully black-spotted-orange dorsal fins.

Mine are a bit shy, but they do definitely come out when there is food in the tank.

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Mats

[Unungy]

Shy? I never thought possible of these fish can behave this way.
I had a few larger ones and never noticed this interesting behavior or know they had a variant.

I wonder if had to do with spacing.