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I just wanted to share a pic of my new male L333. Purchased from Blue at Exotic Finds. I was looking for a mature male and Blue said he had "A real bull"! Just a hair under 5.5 inches SL. Almost 7 inches TL even with the slight caudal fin damage.

I have had him for about a month now. Pulled the trio today to do a good clean up in their 29. Used the opportunity to snap a few pics.






Don

wow! looks like one of those females is pretty ripe, too! Won't be long until you've got fry, I bet.

He is HUGE!! Good pickup and best of luck with them breeding.

Cheers
Steve

Thanks for the comments. He's so much bigger than my last male that I had to build some new caves. Hope he puts them to good use soon. Both females look pretty ripe.

Don

When I expand the picture of the three fish, I noticed that the male is black and white while the females are black and yellow. I was wondering if that is usual?

I've had L66 which resemble your male and L333 which resemble your females.

They look fantastic Hope mine grow up to look half as good
Shaun

Maybe I am not the only one to notice this but it seems that any L333 that have been imported in the last year or so have been the black and white type while any that were imported previously to that have been the yellow/golden and white type. I don't have any close ties to any importers but I am sure that some of you do. Any ideas ?? and that is one honking big male you have there, much larger than my breeder male. Good luck with the spawning of these guys.

I know Blue is a knowledgeable pleco guy but that bull sure looks like a L066 to me and the females L333. I have both and all my L066 are black and white and approx 5 inches and the L333 are brown and yellow and just barely 4 inches or 3-1/2.

That is a gorgeous male, wow he is huge. Good luck and hope you will have a spawn from them soon.

apistomaster wrote:I know Blue is a knowledgeable pl*co guy but that bull sure looks like a L066 to me and the females L333. I have both and all my L066 are black and white and approx 5 inches and the L333 are brown and yellow and just barely 4 inches or 3-1/2.

I would love to hear from others on this possibility. Personally I do think it's a trip 3. If it is a L66 it would set a new max size. This bad boy is approx 5.5" SL and 7" TL.

This is really two shots cut and pasted together. Poor quality, taken with my webcam and three extention cables. But within a few minutes of each other with no change in the postion or settings of the cam.


Don

Picklefish wrote:Maybe I am not the only one to notice this but it seems that any L333 that have been imported in the last year or so have been the black and white type while any that were imported previously to that have been the yellow/golden and white type. I don't have any close ties to any importers but I am sure that some of you do. Any ideas ?? and that is one honking big male you have there, much larger than my breeder male. Good luck with the spawning of these guys.

I bought all my L333's, about 8 in all this year, and they were all the standard 3-1/2 to 4 inches long. A couple sent were not L333 but more likely L134 by mistake. All these L333 have the standard yellow and chocolate brown patterns.
Now that your jumbo"L333" is set up with the female L333's it will probably be soon apparent if he is a L333 or not. I did not think L333 could get that big. Those that I know with breeding groups have breeders that do not exceed 4 inches.

On that note. It seems that the "new" L333 have "new" trade names like....Royal Alenquer or New Arabesque or Royal Tiger. New species maybe ??

Nice looking fish...he seems to have alot of good stuff...if only he would answer my emails...I want to place and order along with others (group order) but they don't answer...we're now looking in Ohio...and elsewhere in Canada.

Very nice fish! You got a real deal...

I visited exoticfinds' site and I see several black and white plecos listed as L333. None of them look like the more familiar yellow and brown L333 as described within pc. They all look like L066 or in the case of the "new" L333, a different species altogether. I don't see how any of them can be L333.
Maybe Blue could shed some light on the subject?

I have challenged a few people [and not always politely, I'm ashamed to say] calling the black/white [and always larger]
fish a L333. This may have all started with the AQUALOG picture of something black and white and not yellow/brown.

Please, if the black and white super male actually breeds and produces fry with your yellow/brown female L333, let us know...but I'd be very cautious about calling those fry anything but F1 Hypancistrus sp. x Hypancistrus sp.

producing yellow/brown L333 fry from yellow/brown L333 parents ,
Kevin Korotev
Milwaukee, WI USA

The cat-elog shows several black and white L333s. I thought they were color varients of the same species. I also thought his size confirmed the ID. Are there other Hypancistrus that get as large?

I'm really not looking to produce hybrids. If this is a possibility I'd rather break them up and find other mates.

I'm willing, reluctantly, to pull them for more detailed pictures if needed.

Don

These variations in sizes, morphology, color and pattern don't really favor the conclusion that these are all the same species.
It is definitely a problem when you hope to spawn them. I have had to aquire my "two" intended species groups over the last half of this year and from different suppliers. Complicating matters more I have had some severe losses so none of the groups are intact. I always tried to get about 6 at a time to help assure I would have opposite sexes regardless of how many species are involved. In the end I have about 18 fish sold as L66 and L333. I have 4 that have the brown and yellow-tan I consider to be representative of L333. About 4 are probable L318 or Monte?, about 4 are black and white L333/L66, 1 is likely L129/L270 and one is very unique. This is a young Hypancistrus that is black and white striped with very regular transverse narrow bands similar to a Hypancistrus zebra only with the pattern rotated 90 degrees. This one is shy and in a planted 75 making photos hard to get. I'll try to post some photos when I can take them.
I lack the space to do what really needs to be done. Set up all the black and white varieties in one large tank and hope they can sort out things for themselves. I have put all the black and white fish with clear contrasting marks in one tank. The L318/Monte? are in their own tank and so are the traditional brown and tan vermiculated patterned fish. This is the best I can do for now.
The largest group of clearly black and white fish vary in size from 2-3/4 to nearly 5 inches so it will take some time before I'll know what their adult size(s) will be.
If the numbers don't quite add up it's because I'm not sure how many I now have of these fish. I have an accurate reckoning of my H. inspector and L260 colonies.

Glad that I read this thread.
I am getting 12 L333 that will be shipped from other state after New year. 10 of the smaller ones 3 - 4 cm are brown/yellow, while the larger ones 5 - 7 cm are black/white.
When I saw the pictures, I thought that was because they change colour as they get older from brown/yellow to black/white.
Perhaps they are variants of L333? The patterns seem identical.

There both brown and yellow and black and white patterned fish being sold as L333. I have had some that were black and white change to brown and tan. All in all it makes a confusing situation as I try to set up breeding colonies.
Perhaps diet including the availability of driftwood may be factors influencing their various color patterns. Some of the Black and White"L333" have begun to change to black and tan.

IMO, there is no single defined line between the many visually dissimilar fish being identified as either L-66/333; what could be called L-66 one day could very well be known as L-333 the next, and that, amongst them, there are at least 3 or more defined species in the mix. Here, IMO, is a perfect instance in which the L-numeral system just isn?t cutting it, and where scientific officiousism is needed.

Jon,
I couldn't agree more with you.

Hi!

I agree with kevin...I wouldn't bred the Black White L333 with the yellow striped ones...
The yellow striped one looks like the real L333!
The black and white one actually look like Hypancistrus sp Porto Moz which is usually exported also as L333, this "species" varies quite a lot in matter of body pattern!!

Cheers
Yann