Update: On Supposed Rhino Pleco

Auto_Girl25 · Post by **Auto_Girl25** » 23 Mar 2006, 23:24

Well do I have a story for all of you.
I mentioned before that about a month ago we bought what was sold to us as a Rhino Pleco. After seeing alot of the pictures you all have left for me here I realized that there is no way what we have is a Rhino Pleco. We took our little mystery fish to the new Big Al's is Oakville, which around here is known as the high athority in fish.
The nice man working there took one look at our fish and laughed. He said we were really lucky to go into a place that very obviously knows little about the catfish family.
He even showed us in his store the exact fish.
In fact the catfish in question was not a member of the Pleco family at all.
We had bought a Whiptail Catfish.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/lo ... /744_F.PHP

This is our fish.
It made me laugh. The store we were at sells baby whiptails for around $35.00 canadian. We bought him for $8.00 Canadian and he was fully grown.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 24 Mar 2006, 07:40

I doubt it is , as these fish are rarely seen in the trade. Jools will know, as he took the picture.

A more common species in the shops is .

Big Al's is Oakville, which around here is known as the high athority in fish.

They obviously aren't that much of an authority, as the whiptails ARE a member of the pleco family Loricariidae!

Auto_Girl25 · Post by **Auto_Girl25** » 24 Mar 2006, 21:29

The exact scientific name is Rineloricaria Microlepidogaster.
So says the Catfish Keeping and Breeding book by Richard Geis.
The other name is what they call it in planet catfish.
It's the exact same colours, length etc. If I had a properly working digital camera I'd prove it to you.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 25 Mar 2006, 15:42

I don't disbelieve you, but even experts struggle with IDing the whiptails. There are dozens of species, which all look the same.

What's more is that each species can vary greatly in colour and pattern depending on where it was caught.

Also, most books on the subject are either inaccurate, or out of date.

Auto_Girl25 · Post by **Auto_Girl25** » 25 Mar 2006, 17:08

Could be I've already found one book that doesn't spell it right also.
That's why I came on here to see if anyone had any idea what I have? All I know is that it is a Whiptail catfish. And he's handsome

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 27 Mar 2006, 09:55

As Racoll says, the difference between diffferent whiptails is often difficult to tell apart from just looking at pictures in a book or some such.

Does your book have several different species of Rineloricaria, or just the one? There are about a dozen different species.

Also, these fish can change colour quite a bit, just like many other of the Loricariidae species - depending on mood and perhaps also the surroundings.

So unless you have a specific key that says "Only R. microlepidogaster" has <some special feature> which is unique among Rineloricaria species, I'd say that the ID is very tentative if it's just based on the pictures in a book.

I wish you did have a way to get a photo on to this site...

--
Mats

Auto_Girl25 · Post by **Auto_Girl25** » 27 Mar 2006, 16:54

The book has 6 different species. I'm trying to get a pic but can't get a clear one and I know it'd be better to get a clear pic so you can see his markings

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 27 Mar 2006, 19:17

There are about a dozen different species

More like 25 (Wels atlas I). Even more if the old Hemiloricaria has been lumped with Rineloricaria. Don't forget the multitude of undescribed species.

Auto_Girl25, the scientific community keep changing their mind as to whether to call these fish Rineloricaria or Hemiloricaria. From a aquarists point of view, they are essentially the same. Confusing I know, but there used to be two different genera, now there seems to be only the one.

ID can only usually be certain if capture locality is known, or if more reliable morphological characters can be used.

Ventral plates are one such example....

http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/r_parva.htm

Get some really good photos of this, and I would love to help you ID him.