Picked up some new fish today

[bekateen]

A US mail-order fish store (@Freshwater Exotics) received a shipment of whiptails under the name "Loricaria tefeana." I expected these would be

Rineloricaria teffeana

, which has been on my "wishlist" for a while now, so I contacted FWE and asked for photos to confirm. FWE sent me a photo of the largest fish in the group of five, which turned out to be a Limatulichthys, maybe

Limatulichthys griseus

.

I caught that species in Peru two years ago (HERE, HERE, and HERE) and tried to import them back to the USA, but they died before being shipped. My uncertainty of species ID is that I recall the L. griseus I caught as having pale pigmentation on the fins, similar to what is seen on the photos on the

Limatulichthys griseus

CLOG page, but the fish at FWE have a black margin to the dorsal fin and caudal fin, and a black spot at the base of the caudal fin, as can be seen in this photo here (Direct link):


So I jumped at the chance to get a group L. griseus and ordered all five pieces (that was all FWE received), hoping to get both sexes. The shipping box wasn't full, so I added three female

Baryancistrus beggini

to go with my 6-year old colony of the same, but it was very male heavy (maybe 1 female at most now, and I'm not even sure about that).

When the fish arrived, it turned out the five whiptails were actually three Limatulichthys and two

Rineloricaria melini

(one of my "bucket-list" fish)!

I'm super excited to have gotten these, although I worry that I don't have both sexes of either species because of the numbers. (I have only a 50% chance with the R. melini, and a 75% chance with the Limatulichthys).

Let's hope and pray for the best. The fish are big (biggest being about 9cm SL), but they are not mature. So hopefully as they grow and feed, I find both sexes.

Cheers, Eric

[Jools]

Fingers crossed for pairs Eric, they look in good shape.



Cheers,



Jools

[Fallen_Leaves16]

Congrats! Those melini look awesome, really hope you end up with a pair!

[bekateen]

Fingers crossed for pairs Eric, they look in good shape.

Cheers,
Jools

Congrats! Those melini look awesome, really hope you end up with a pair!

Thanks guys. Yes they do look healthy. After a few days of feeding and adjusting to my tanks, I'll hit them with dewormer as a precaution, then into their own tanks they'll go. The Limatulichthys will go into the 60 gallon breeder in the greenhouse. That will have just tap water. Hope they're okay with it. The Rineloricaria will stay in this 20 gallon long and continue to get 50-50 tap water and RO water.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Update: All fish doing well. I'm keeping the

Limatulichthys griseus

and

Rineloricaria melini

together, feeding them frozen bloodworms. They seem to like it.

Cheers, Eric

[Tony4143]

Wow, those are super cool looking Eric, Good score
-Tony

[Jools]

Oooh, that griseus should be in the pic#1 slot in the cat-eLog. Nice fishes!

Jools

[bekateen]

Update on the two female

Rineloricaria melini

. They're doing well and are fat as can be. They need males!

Here's a rare abdominal view of one of the females up against the front glass.

Cheers, Eric