Impostor clown pleco?

[Froeschli]

I've got 3 clown plecos, or so I thought.
Im pretty sure their stripe patterns look near identical, but the tail fin on one of them is different.

Naturally I just did a water change and they're all in their caves so I can't get full body shots.
Is this a normal occurrence or do I have two different kinds of clown plecos?
It's quite possible - the original one came with the tank and no proper ID. It looked enough like a clown pleco so I got her some company....

[bekateen]

It's a clown. Healthy well conditioned clowns will have short threads on their tail fins. Really nice looking.

I'll try to get some photos of my clowns soon to show you. But alas, mine spend all day in caves too.

[bekateen]

Actually, I already have photos uploaded here: Sexing Panaqolus maccus? Spawning at last! Check out these pics from my old breeding group. Some of them have very nice threads on their caudal fins.

I no longer have these adults. Now I'm working on F3 spawning to make F4... not intentionally, I just always find a few babies from one generation remaining in my tanks after I think I've gotten rid of them all. I remove them, then a few months later I find some residual fry that have grown up and now they're spawning... and so on, and so on...

Cheers, Eric

[Froeschli]

Ah, thanks. Well two of them have it, the third doesn't.
I'm reasonably certain the one that doesn't is the first one I got from my friend. The other two came from big Al's.
That's why I was wondering if the first may be a different kind. Maybe just a somewhat different genetic origin.

Still looking for a male. The girl at the local pet shop said they may have more in six or so weeks. Big Al's are so small, I could buy a dozen and not have one male in the bunch. Besides, last time I went, there were so many dead fish in their tanks, I'd rather not try my luck there again.

They're awesome.

[bekateen]

I've seen clowns without the tail filaments also. Yes, there are a couple of L numbers associated with clowns (

L448

and

L465

), so there could be a few species being sold as clowns. We typically call them

Panaqolus maccus

, but I've heard several times that real P. maccus are rarely imported any more, and pretty much everything we get is a related species, L448. I can't attest to the validity of that though, because I'm still not clear on how to tell them apart reliably.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

FYI
download/file.php?id=17829

[Froeschli]

FYI
download/file.php?id=17829

Great, now I want one of each. Or more
Did I say I wasn't buying any more fish?
Hmmm...