New Ancistrus "Green Medusa":

[craig09]

Hi all purchased these new Green Medusa ancistrus from pier aquatics in february
they came in from a shipment from brazil. After a chat with a friend on facebook whom keeps and breeds many ancistrus species he told me these are Anicistrus sp Tocantins

https://s560.photobucket.com/user/craig ... o.jpg.html


https://s560.photobucket.com/user/craig ... t.jpg.html


https://s560.photobucket.com/user/craig ... z.jpg.html


https://s560.photobucket.com/user/craig ... x.jpg.html


{mod edit: I cleaned up the URL links and fixed the image links.}

[Jools]

Ancistrus stigmaticus

? It has the black spot at the base of the dorsal, is broad and flat and is from the right place. The description says it's meant to be brown, but then given the detail the rest of the paper has and that probably not the live fish (from 1889) I could see why.

Pretty close match for me...

Jools

[craig09]

Very simialr jools but after chatting with Hudson Crizanto who exported them, he told me the fisherman collected them in a tributary of the Rio Tocantins in Northeast Brazil, Maranhão State. ?

[Jools]

Hi Craig,

The upper Tocantins borders Maranhāo and Tocantins state, it's close enough to the type locality of the described species - just depends on the distribution. That said, the original description does mention they are broad and depressed (flat). Without someone going back and finding A. stigmaticus and then comparing it to your fish, then it's hard to say.

Jools

[bekateen]

This fish is now in the CLOG as

Ancistrus sp`rio_tocantins_ii`

. I made sure to include a reference in the General Description to the similarity between this green medusa and

Ancistrus stigmaticus

and comments on the catch location, so that if more information is provided in the future, the two might get united (if appropriate) or solidified as different more quickly. That said, Jools, the few photos we have now in the CLOG of preserved A. stigmaticus specimens do not do justice to a medusa-shaped fish IMHO, if those are among the type specimens.

Cheers, Eric

[craig09]

Ok thanks jools for your opinion greatly appreciated, and thanks eric also

[Jools]

No worries, just important to consider all the old species - one of these days (it's only been 131 years since A. stigmaticus was described) someone will take a picture of a live one. It is likely a most common Ancistrus in the Tocantins basin. Good to shine a light on another of these phantom old species and to see the pictures off your new fish. Without being able to know what all these old ones are, we can't say for sure if something is "new" or not.

We'll be ready!

Jools
PS on the pictures I've seen are there two different formations of head tentacles on the males photographed?