Sold as a worm line pleco. It’s definitely not that. Some kind of Peckoltia, but I can’t narrow it down.

[H_M]

Like the title says, it was sold as a wormline. That’s pretty much the only peckoltia I can rule out.

Is it even possible to tell visually? So many peckoltias have basically this same pattern.

[stuby]

Hi H_M,

Your plec looks to be Ancistomus L147.

Take care,
Chuck

[H_M]

Hi H_M,

Your plec looks to be Ancistomus L147.

Take care,
Chuck

Not doubting you, just curious how you can tell it apart from all the other little dotty guys. That was one of the (many) I had it narrowed down to.

I’m going to call the store tomorrow and see if they have any idea. But they’re the ones who labeled it wrong so…

[bekateen]

I've seen some fish like this go through my local store, which I thought might be L387. But if the fish isn't very mature, it's difficult for me to say.

Cheers, Eric

[stuby]

Not doubting you, just curious how you can tell it apart from all the other little dotty guys. That was one of the (many) I had it narrowed down to.

I’m going to call the store tomorrow and see if they have any idea. But they’re the ones who labeled it wrong so…

I have kept (and bred) L147 for about 18 years now. L387 is another one that is posable like Eric stated..... but to me the pattern on the L147 is tighter than I have seen in L387. Your fish seems to have a tight pattern like I see in L147. Pictured is one of my L147's to compare.... I don't have L387.

Take care,
Chuck

[H_M]

Definitely looks like your L147.

[JRogo]

I saw someone selling L159 and in the description they used "worm line" The L159 are Luzia no clue were they got the worm line from.

[H_M]

Finally got an answer from the fish store! The pleco guy has been out with covid, which explains a lot.

“One of our distributors shipped it as a wormline but it’s not. It’s the same genus just a variation. It’s peckoltia sp. the exact L number probably hasn’t been described yet. Possibly it’s also a para worm line hybrid.
Hybrids are looked down on in the pleco world but some people still do it.”

[Jools]

I'm not sure the reply from the fish store adds a lot and it's hard to see on what basis this would be a hybrid.

I too would say

L147

only because it looks like it has a longer body than a

Peckoltia

.

Ancistomus

have a slightly longer body which is easier to see in larger fish.

Patterns are not much use with some of these plecos, for example, in my opinion, the 11th image of

L387

here is the most representative of an adult fish. And looks like yours except for the body shape.

Jools

[H_M]

It definitely wasn’t a satisfying answer.