Pleco Inspector?

[albertoceronn]

Good morning to all.

Some time ago I published a post asking for help to identify a fish, specifically this one. I had been told that due to stress these fish did not show their true colors. Today it is about 2 months in my aquarium and I would like to know now, what species is it? Is it Pleco Inspector? L102?

[Acanthicus]

Hi

Thats Hypancistrus contradens.

[Fundulopanchax76]

What is the difference between L 201 and contradens ?

[bekateen]

What is the difference between L 201 and contradens ?

Good question. From a hobbyists perspective, as I understand it,

L201

is a smaller fish, both in SL and in "bulkiness" over the body, relative to

Hypancistrus contradens

. But color-wise, they are about the same (L201 may have smaller spots and more dense spots, but from pictures I've seen, the spot size is variable in both, so I don't put much reliability in that).

Then there's the whole other issue of fish sold as L201 "big spot," which I believe is a smaller fish that H. contradens, but it is slightly larger than L201 and it has the bulky body shape typical of H. contradens. It's my understanding that L201 big spot is considered a phenotypic variation of H. contradens. I don't pretend to know whether real (smaller/flatter) L201 is also a variant; I think the general impression is that maybe real L201 is unique and perhaps a different species, or at the very least is a very distinctively different local variant of H. contradens and should not be interbred with regular H. contradens.

It's a mess.
Cheers, Eric

[Fundulopanchax76]

Did somebody make DNA tests of these species and prove they are different species ?

[bekateen]

Not to my knowledge.