Unknown Bolivian Ancistrus

[Allen Repashy]

Hello everyone.

A friend of mine just emailed me a photo he took yesterday while on a Reptile adventure in Bolivia of an interesting little Ancistrus. He doesn't know anything at all about fish but thought I would enjoy it, which I do. I don't, however, enjoy not knowing exactly what it is, so thought i would share the image and approximate location and see if anybody here can help since I know nothing about the Pleco's of Bolivia.

He stated. " we found it in a small stream not far from "Santiago de Chiquitos" Bolivia.

[Shane]

Allen
Would your friend know what river drainage he was in?
-Shane

[Allen Repashy]

Hi Shane,

I am afraid because he is a Herp guy and not a fish guy, that he wasn't paying any attention to river systems at all. Its a relatively dry area by his description. (near Gran Chaco) and he said they saw what he called "four different kind of Plecos" in the small stream they explored near the road.

Googling the info he gave me of the town brings up a small town in Bolivia but I don't see any rivers nearby or know which way they should flow. Maybe an expert like you can figure it out from the map........

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Santi ... 72e3252740

He is traveling home today so I will try to get any details I can from him once he settles back in.

Thanks for the reply!

Cheers, Allen

[Allen Repashy]

Just for fun....Here is a great photo of what he was out searching for:

Phyllomedusa boliviana (one of the coolest frogs on the planet along with P. sauvagii)

[Shane]

It is the Rio Tucavaca, part of the upper Rio Paraguay drainage. I'll do some digging and see if we get lucky. It is unlikely however as I estimate that only about 30% of Ancistrus have been described.
-Shane

[Shane]

Allen,
Only two described Ancistrus from the upper Rio Paraguay drainage and their holotype locations are a significant distance away in Brazil.

Most likely an undescribed sp. I designate it Ancistrus sp. Rio Tucavaca It also does not appear to have an L Number.

-Shane

[bekateen]

Just for fun....Here is a great photo of what he was out searching for: Phyllomedusa boliviana (one of the coolest frogs on the planet along with P. sauvagii)

Allen, That's a nice specimen. I had the good fortune of doing my masters thesis on P. azurea, P. trinitatus, and P. sauvagii. The phyllomedusines are an amazing bunch of frogs, with their wax-secreting skin glands, weird walking behavior, brilliant colors, and a veritable pharmacia of bioactive skin peptides for toxins... And their unusual habit of laying eggs in leaf nests above water! There's almost no end to the questions you can ask about those frogs.

Thanks for sharing this herp!

Cheers, Eric

[Allen Repashy]

Hi Eric,

Apologies to others for going off topic.....

Breeding herps has been a profession for me for many years. I was partner in a farm called "Sandfire Dragon Ranch" and we bred them on a commercial scale. I absolutely fell in love with this group of frogs and they really are like no other. I was a lizard guy till I found these frogs and discovered that they bask under a light like a diurnal lizard. Their locomotion is almost chameleon like for those who haven't seen it. I still keep and breed P. sauvagii regularly and have spawned P. hypochondrialis, P azureus, P tomopterna, as well as the fabulous P. bicolor.... never had a chance to keep boliviana though but it looks much like sauvagii. I would love to get a copy of your thesis if you can share..... send me a PM

[Allen Repashy]

Shane, Thanks for your diagnosis! My friend said he has some more photo's so I will add them to the thread when he returns and see if I can get a gps location from his camera so you can catalog it.

Cheers, Allen

[bekateen]

I'll send the PM tomorrow. Eric

[Acanthicus]

Heho,

the shown Ancistrus is an undescribed species, which is pretty common in the area your friend saw it in. It's spreaded from the bolivian-brazilian border (and possibly also in Brazil) to the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where we collected it along the whole road going westwards from Santiago de Chiquitos. I am not sure if all the forms/populations really represent the same species, but the variation of colour and pattern is a huge problem in Loricariids, especially in such a successfull genus with many, many undescribed and often unknown species.

Until today we only have 5 L-Numbers from Bolivia, and both Ancistrus species look very different, so it wasn't assigned a number yet. I never took this species home, because they don't look more attractive in a tank than they do on the pic your friend sent you. Unfortunately I don't have good pictures of the fish, will try so this year.



cheers, Daniel

[Allen Repashy]

Thanks Daniel.

I know its just another "Brown Ancistrus" but thought it might have been given a name. Thanks for your clarification!

Cheers, Allen

[Jools]

This is an interesting thread as I have some more pictures of brown Bolivian Ancistrus from a friend who was hoping to ID them. I will post them here, I think there are locations too.

Jools

[Jools]

Sorry, ignore my last post - had the wrong country!

Jools