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 purchased these fish from a friend, who purchased them as being collected at Altamira, and labelled L173. They don't LOOK like L173, but they also don't look like anything else I can find! The nearest match is the L236 in the Aqualog, which it can't be, as it was collected in the wrong river! Anyone with any useful information in clearing this up would be greatly appreciated!
The entire gallery can be found Here. There is quite a bit of variation among the fish, but they usually don't look as light as the few faded out specimens. They didn't seem to appreciate me yanking all their decor out of the tank and herding them repeatedly out into the open for a clear shot into that quarantine tank for some reason!
This is my favorite picture of the bunch.
*Edited the spelling of Altamira to the appropriate one!*
Barbie
Last edited by Barbie on 27 Apr 2005, 23:25, edited 3 times in total.
Thank you! I had it spelled that way originally and went back to check the email from where I'd received them and corrected it! Guess I should have left well enough alone! I was aware many Hypancistrus are collected there, the problem is determining just which one this is ;).
I think its L333 , Altimira is a huge collecting point for both Xingu and Iriri rivers , You cannot use it as a basis for ID , In Altimira ive seen fish from Jari , Tapajos, as well as the local fish .
The L236 is from Iriri if you look at the map the previous person provided .. The Xingu is a continuation of the Iriri ..
The L236 is a much more bright fish than the one in your
picture ... As he grows the 333 goes more colourful .
I also have L333, IMO these fish are totally different. Their eyes set on their heads a bit differently, they aren't as tall bodied, and the shape is just not the same. The fish in the picture is dark, but the others are not, and they are all similarly sized with quite a bit of variation. L333 is listed as being collected in "Rio Xingu (Porto de Moz), Para, Brasilien". Is that going to be the same place?
From what I see and from what I have seen as real L173, your fish is not L173 that is pretty sure
I agree they don't look much like L333. except maybe for the fish pictured in the topic which I have seen labelled as L333 orange var on a stock list and look similar to what arrived. Regarding the other I also doubt they are l236.
They could be L287 which could be caught a bit up North in the region.
If you go to Shane's world, you'll find that there are several articles, including about 20 of them by Shane Linder, on expeditions of various sort to South America.
The guys that catch these fishes usually know their real identities. Although the fisherman in my boat (Nellio) had perhaps had a tad too much to drink , I think he was correct in his identification of this L 333
and also this L 236
I took these pictures myself in Altimira in October 2004. ENJOY
Yes Sojapat: I agree with the first ID as L333. Regarding the second, I found it to be quite similar to the fish sold as Hypancistrus sp "Belo Monte", still really nice cat...
, I think he was correct in his identification of this L 333 
