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A couple of years ago I saw two catfish I fell in love with. They were smallish, the size of a zebra plec. The body was white and they had very thin (but clearly pronounced) black lines running in a zigzag fashion from the nose to the tail (all parallel and very symmetrical). One would think that the lines were almost "drawn" on the fish using a very thin pointed jet black fountain pen.
I got one fish and regrettably I lost it (he got poisoned by a "spurious" medicine along with 4 other fish I had in quarrantine). The other fish was sold when I went back to the shop. The fish were marketed as "queens". Since then I have not seen them anywhere and nobody knows what they are when I describe them. I really want to try to locate them again and get some. Can anybody identify what they are?
Thanks

I presume you are referring to a loricariid. Did you check the Cat-eLog for all Hypancistrus to see if it might be one of those?

Hi guys, thanks for the responses. Silurus, I have looked EVERY single picture on planet catfish and it isn't there! And of course I am referring to a Loricariid. Barbie, this one wasn't a queen aby, I know them very well, I keep a breeding colony. In fact it looked more like a zebra. The markings were very distinct and most importantly queens have white thicker lines over a black background, this one had a brilliant white body (imagine a zebra) but with very thin zigzag black lines. I will try to draw something and post it tomorrow so you get a rough idea.
One think I regret is that I didn't take pics in the acclimatization box - I was hoping to take some later in the quarantine tank and then it was too late

PS by the way Barbie, your boy looks fantastic! Gotta post a pic of mine to compare

Ok here we go. I am pathetic at pc art but I made an effort to give you an idea. Check here:

http://artpad.art.com/?ipwjynlbi8w

hope it helps - its the only thing I have to go by!

PS please be patient with the art programme it takes its sweet time to load and start working.
The pattern is to give you an idea, the lines on the fish were proper zigzag (not with rounded edges like mine) closely together, proper parallels. I tried to give an idea of the pattern at the bottom of the "art pad".

The only loricariids I know with a pattern even vaguely resembling that are Panaque.

Sorry, looks like we may never get to the bottom of this.

The only other catfish with the nick name of Queen besides the Queen Arabesque L260 were the LDA 70 Queen Imperial Tiger Pleco but the stripes are not horizontal as your art would describe.

There is not a picture of it here on planet catfish, but here is a link to one...


http://www.poisson-or.com/fr/dept_1146.html fourth picture down...

Other than that I agree that the only thing that could come close would be one of the panaque species.

Pureplecs there was no resemblence with the pic you indicated, but thanks for your interest.

I am looking for this fish all over for 2 years now and cant find it, nobody seems to know it .. I just thought I would try.

Which panaques did you have in mind? Anywhere I can look?

Thanks guys!

Here is another to try:
http://www.transfish.de/LCode/L250.jpg

As far as the panaque are concerned, in the Aqua-log book it does show a species that is white with black zig zag stripes however it does not have an L number yet so good luck trying to find it. Also, you said it was small like a zebra.... I think most panaques in the royal family that I can see would have that type of markings get much much bigger. Perhaps it was a zebra you had with variated markings? *sigh* Good luck!.....the world may never know.

Hi pureplecs, thanks for your response. It is not the one on the link I got the aqualog - which panaque are you referring to? (page no will help) though I've not seen anything remotely similar in the book.
I think you are right, though it sounds pessimistic, that the world may never know. It was a stunning fish though. I have never seen on a fish such a geometrical symmetry!