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Hey Guys

Am new to Pleco's and this forum (can't even spell Pleco right on my registeration )

My husband and I just bought a new Pleco and we asked for 'Clown Pleco' what we got didn't look like what we thought but we were advised it was an L168 Clown Pleco.

I discovered this website and looked up an L168 - found a picture under this listing that looks EXACTLY like our fish but states that an L168 is a Butterfly Pleco? When I questioned this I was advised that in Australia a 168 is a Clown Pleco??

Am happy with the fish we have but am confused about what exactly to call it??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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L168 was known as Peckoltia pulcher but now it's usually called chameleon pleco or butterfly pleco. L168 carries more meaning now. Clown plecos are usually Peckoltia maccus, L104, this is by far the most common "clown Pleco" in the OTF trade. It is not as attractive, IMO, as L168, and another difference is price. Common clown plecos are cheaper than L168 because they are imported in huge numbers and are pretty plain looking as fancy plecos go.

Thank You for your reply

We have today been out and about checking out pet stores and different aquariums in Brisbane - ALL are of the opinion that my fish is definately an L168 Butterfly and that many people in Australia have been mislead as to the 'common' name of many pleco's available here.

Will be sticking to the 'L' number or scientific name next time I order one - although I think I'll have to start saving for the list is getting bigger & bigger ...

L-number aquisition syndrome claims another victim. Apparently works on the brain like cocaine.

Being new to all this how else would you suggest we do it??? I tried saying 'I saw a clown pleco on a website the other day and would really like one - I ended up with a Butterfly' so clearly that doesn't work. Should I be using the scientific name ??

Am certainly eager to learn and can only do so when people share their knowledge.

For now, it would seem, the L-number system is the best recognized method for speaking the same language.

I believe there is an aussie wholesaler who got the clown and butterfly names mixed up. I'm aware of at least one retailer who was sent the wrong fish (P. maccus instead of L168 'Butterflys'), so that's quite possibly the cause of confusion in your case.

snowball wrote:I believe there is an aussie wholesaler who got the clown and butterfly names mixed up. I'm aware of at least one retailer who was sent the wrong fish (P. maccus instead of L168 'Butterflys'), so that's quite possibly the cause of confusion in your case.

Yup - am thinking that is the case. Have spoken to a couple of fish importers in the last few days and it seems these fish have been mixed up for some time now. Something to do with AQIS not checking the species correctly?? Even last night (online) I found a wholesaler advertising 'clown plecos' but the picture & L168 reference begs for it to be a Butterfly ... not good when us non-knowledgable people rely on the 'experts' to get it right.

The information available on this site (forums, cat-elog, pictures etc) has helped immensley and I am now positive that my pleco is a Dekeyseria brachyura and not a Panaque maccus.

NEW2PLECO wrote:Being new to all this how else would you suggest we do it??? I tried saying 'I saw a clown pl*co on a website the other day and would really like one - I ended up with a Butterfly' so clearly that doesn't work. Should I be using the scientific name ??

Am certainly eager to learn and can only do so when people share their knowledge.

Unfortunately, there's no surefire way of achieving delivery of the right fish other than "knowing that the wholesaler/LFS knows their stuff" - which of course is fine as long as you know your wholesaler.

Of course, in areas where you can walk into a shop and look at the fish before you pay for it are an advantage - then it's only YOU that needs to know your thing - if the shop does or doesn't really isn't important at that stage. But for mail-order or when you ask the shop to get something on your behalf, and you aren't 100% sure how to identify a particular fish, then it's more difficult.

However, as long as you get something that is around the same value (don't know about Australia, but in England, is definitely less expensive than , and in most aspects just as nice if not nicer....

Bear in mind also that sometimes the staff in the fish-shop or wholesaler will make mistakes. My LFS got some much more expensive L148 instead of L187 on one occasion - supposedly because the wholesaler bagged the wrong fish...

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Mats

MatsP wrote:However, as long as you get something that is around the same value (don't know about Australia, but in England,

Panaque maccus

is definitely less expensive than

Dekeyseria brachyura

, and in most aspects just as nice if not nicer....

Found that to be the case in the 4 Aquariums we visited over the weekend (Brisbane) that actually had or could get these guys ...

Saw a Zebra in one store - $895 !! Lucky my bank balance doesn't have that much in it or I would have come home with one ..

Have spoken to a couple of fish importers in the last few days and it seems these fish have been mixed up for some time now. Something to do with AQIS not checking the species correctly??

Oz allows the importation of Peckoltia pulcher as the "clown pleco." The issue is that exporters from Colombia down through Brazil call any small striped loricariid a clown pleco. This has been a boon for Aussie hobbyists since in the last few years shipments of several spp of Panaque, Peckoltia and Dekeyseria have been legally allowed in as clown plecos.
Just as "common" pleco means pretty much any nondescript Hypostominae, "twig" catfish any sp of Farlowella, "whiptail" cat almost any Loricariinae, clown pleco just means any small pleco with contrasting stripes.
-Shane