Panaque with excessive fin

[matthewfaulkner]

I've had my

Panaque cf_armbrusteri`tocantins`

for about 4/5 years who is now about 18cm/7", and every so often has gone through a phase of growing excess soft fin rays and membrane on it's dorsal and caudal fin.

The amount on the caudal fin has started to reduce, but the extra on the dorsal fin is still quite prominent. In the dorsal fin you can see where it's supposed to stop as there is change in the colour of the membrane. And it only appears to effect some of the soft fin rays. I've seen this a couple of times in other Panaque, both were Tocantins also.

Can anyone offer an explanation for this?

[Janne]

It's not uncommon in nature either, many species of pleco's grow "extra" long fins but the environment is harder for the fish, in an aquarium they are more protected special if they are alone in a tank. Most plecos we collect in nature have damaged fins somewhere, shorter or smaller than if they was untouched, they just have a harder life with more competition. To not missunderstand me, there are no vailtail ancistrus in nature I have no other explanation than it's natural, when it reach a certain size it will start to "fall off" or just go back to normal, with this I dont either mean that all specimens will grow these extensions of the fins. If we find it in nature we will find it in an aquarium, thats all I mean.

Janne

[m1ke715m]

your fish looks way off from the one you id'd it as

[nvcichlids]

your fish looks way off from the one you id'd it as

If he says that's what it is I wouldn't doubt it. Read the description in the link supplied. Based on knowing nothing about them and what the adult coloration explaination says I dont see a reason to doubt the id.

I think Matthew is one of
the panaque experts

[m1ke715m]

was just going by the pics in the cat-eLog i know next to nothing about panaques

The young fish is very light in colour with black lines. The caudal fin rays are solid colour and the tail is all black. As adults the fish darken to a mid to dark green base colouration with black lines.

looks like you're right.. didnt even read it lol my bad

[Jools]

Maybe it is a reaction to water current levels? We know that younger

Panaque nigrolineatus

are found in relatively shallow water in less current than the deeper water occupying adults. They don't make that shift overnight, so maybe it is something to do with that albeit exaggerated by the lack of challenge in living in a good aquarium.

Just a guess.

Jools

[Richard B]

I'm sure I posted a pic of a very small specimen with a complete but enlarged dorsal fin a fair while ago - i will see if I can find it

[Richard B]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... lit=Dorsal

This was a little 2" specimen in a tank of a dozen fish. There was one that was a better example but I couldn't get a decent pic