Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
I'd have to disagree on this one. At that size L204 wouldn't have nearly the heavy spiney growth on it's sides, and the shape of the head is wrong. L204 tend to drop off more steeply from the eyes down.
With that said, it also doesn't look like the L316 we have in at the shop at work either, nor enough like the one here at L-welse.
Yes it's L316 you have...a very nice male.
There are not many L316 species that look the same and the pattern is very much variable from a few dots to thick or thin lines but they all have almost the same pattern in the fins...thick black and white stripes.
I was thinking to show some pic's but I couldn't upload to my album tonight to show how much they are variable in the pattern.
If I look on the pic which shows the body from above the whole fish are covered with body odontodes which females not really lack but they are much smaller and not as visible compared to a male. Your pic seams also to be a male but even females get odontodes both on cheeks and pectoral but less and smaller then males, males look more greyish with all body odontodes and females looks more clearly black and white.
To be sure you can look on the genital papilla...male's looks like a tap and females like a bulb when mature and in good condition.
Yes it's a male, it's a little hard to see but in the middle of the genitalpapilla there are a tap...in raped females it will be round and more swollen.
I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but is that fish the same as the one below? I bought that guy some two months ago, but haven't gotten a definitive answer concerning his ID as of yet