Well...here's another picture to stir things up. It comes from page 133 of the new hardcover Aqualog "All L-Numbers".
I have circled the area of the pectoral fin in each picture for comparison.
Does this show (prove?) that the multiple photos of L173 in the book are not all the same species...and that the left image is Hypancistrus zebra while the right image is something else altogether (possibly L236 or L287 as Janne and Pandadosmares suggest)?
All of the fish I purchased as L173 (the corpse pics at the beginning of this thread) have the alternating black and white pattern at the leading edge of the pectoral fin ray NO MATTER WHAT THEIR INDIVIDUAL BODY PATTERN. As a matter of fact, all of my L174 do too and these fish are said to co-exist in the same locale of the Rio Xingu. NONE of my Hypancistrus zebra have this pattern. Their pectoral fin rays all look like those in the lefthand picture=white.
Y'know...maybe all of you already knew all this and I'm the last to catch the train.
If so...my sincere apologies for taking up all this space and time.
Kevin