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.
He looks quite a bit like my L287, to further confuse the issue. Could very well be L236 though. We'll have to let the higher authorities weigh in on this one ;).
It's certainly an Hypancistrus species, which means that it needs a meaty type of food. Bloodworms, shrimps (Mysis is excellent), bits of mussel, fish, sinking types of prepared food (Tetra Bits/Prima/Discus).
My guess (based on comparing the images in the Cat-eLog) would be on L236 too.
Barbie suggested L287, which there is no images for in the Cat-eLog (in fact no entry at all). I guess it could be that one too, as I don't know what they look like.
I believe this is a pretty L66 and not L236/L287, the headshape and the body are to smoth, the other are a little more stubbier.
But honestly...I am not sure we should call them L66 either, they are claimed to come from an other tributary then the original but have been giving these L-number of very many persons...just dont mix them in the tank.
Barbie, could you post pics of your L287. I have seen several pictures of L287, and I am with Janne, I am pretty sure it is L066. L287's color isn't like this picture, and in all the L287 I have seen, they have had both stripes and spots on them. And the L236 just doesn't seem right. This guys color is just a more gray/cream where as L236 is black/cream.
Do a search of the forum and you'll find I have posted pictures of my L287. You can find them again listed as the fish I purchased as L173 at http://www.plecos.net, also. Yann said there is a large amount of variance in them, and it seems to hold true when comparing them to the pictures in DATZ, Aqualog, and at L Welse. What were you comparing them to?
And to answer your question toofazt, you'll have a very hard time determining whether your fish is L66/sp. belo monte, L287/L236 it seems. L66 doesn't tend to be so crisply delineated and the fact that they weren't collected from the same area L66 was described in is going to make it just that much more confusing, IMO. Take heart though, many of us have a species or two in our fish room we're working on determining this exact thing on ;).
Here is a picture of one of my L287s..... The early differences I have noticed, the slight lyre tail on mine from others..... My L236 don't show that characteristic and are MUCH larger. Sorry, don't have pics of the L236 pair yet.... I know these aren't the best, I'll try to get some better ones ASAP of both species..... (Love the variations on the species! Very pretty fish in any case!)