Please help me ID this orange and black pleco

[pez gato]

I just bought this lovely fish and I hope somebody can help me get the correct ID. Thanks in advance.

[racoll]

Panaqolus sp(l169)

, or something similar.

[pez gato]

Panaqolus sp(l169)

, or something similar.

Thank you Racoll. Would you say it is definitely Panaqolus and not Peckoltia?

[racoll]

Would you say it is definitely Panaqolus and not Peckoltia?

Yes I would.

[pez gato]

Would you say it is definitely Panaqolus and not Peckoltia?

Yes I would.

Thank you. The reason I ask is because the LFS I bought it from had it listed as Peckoltia vittata. I had the feeling that this was wrong and asked the guy if he was sure of the ID. He said that he bought them from someone in the OATA (or something like that) who is an expert so definitely P vittata.
Interestingly, the shop had 4 fish, two very "orangy" ones like the one in the picture and two with paler colour, almost beige rather than orange. Some appeared to have a longer snout. I asked the guy if they all were the same species and he said yes, and suggested that the differences in colour and face shape could be a difference between male and female. Would you agree with this? If this is correct I might pop into the shop again and get one or two more. Cheers.

[Suckermouth]

"Expert" is relative... It's definitely a Panaqolus; there are a number of species, including undescribed species, that look really similar to this, and so identification can be difficult, especially without locality information. If you know what to look for, Panaqolus and Peckoltia can be differentiated, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too far off since they're closely related.

Photos will confirm whether everything is the same or not. Loricariid males and females are not typically different in color pattern (there are very few exceptions). Snout length also does not have anything to do with male-female differences AFAIK. As far as the ancistrin "pleco" type loricariids, males and females typically differ in the development of external "teeth" called odontodes on the cheeks of males; in Panaqolus, sexually mature males can grow odontodes on their body as well. You can peruse the Cat-eLog to see this in some of the Panaqolus species for which there are pictures of both males and females.

[racoll]

This guy clearly knows absolutely nothing. Twenty years ago all stripy plecs were sold as "P. vittata", because that's what it said in the book. I'd hope the hobby has moved on a bit since then, but it hasn't (even with resources such as PlanetCatfish literally at your fingertips).

Head/body shape may be slightly different for males and female, but not at the size of your fish (it is not possible to sex them at this age). It's more likely that they are just selling mixed batches of different species under the same name.

[pez gato]

Ok, thank you everyone for their input. I am glad to hear that my gut feeling was correct...I have recently caught the L number bug and being able to differentiate between peckoltia and Panaqolus is definietly a giant step!

[racoll]

AFAIK, there are no

Peckoltia

with these narrow stripes on the head and wide bars on the body. That's a good way to tell, but the surest way is to look at the teeth.

[Taz]

He is gorgeous, mind me asking where you bought him?

[pez gato]

He is gorgeous, mind me asking where you bought him?

Hi, bought it from Maidenhead Aquatics Fareham

[Newguy5]

LDA01. I have one myself


Matt