PlanetCatfish.com

What?s the deal with the L250? Why was there only 8 ever exported? Why aren?t more exported? I was just reading up on them and there is 0 amount of info on them.
If someone had some what would they be worth? I mean I have read threads where people have tries to sell them for $20,000! What is a realistic price figure that this fish would fetch on today?s market? If they where fetching even half that why aren?t fishermen catching these (I know I would be for a few grand a pop)

Supply and demand dictates the price in a free market, so theoretically, if there are only a few available (like , then the price is nearly "infinity".

I guess the problem is that they may be from a very small region, and perhaps no one knows where that is - the overall Amazon is a HUGE place, and even if you know which 500 mile stretch of a river it comes from, it may be hard to figure out the exact 2 mile stretch of that 500 mile stretch.

I don't KNOW, I'm just guessing.

I'd be very sceptic to anyone selling L250 - they are most likely NOT L250.

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Mats

So does no one know where those fishermen got those fish from? They must have some idea where the are found. It is a real shame that we dont.

Well, obviously, the fishermen themselves probably do know where they came from - I don't really know why they haven't caught any more tho'. It is possible that they had an accident, or that they

Most fishermen that catch "unusual" specimens don't tell other people exactly where they get them. Because that makes everyone else from the area go to the same place, which is "bad for business".

We do know which river the fish supposedly comes from, Rio Iriri, but that's not very specific - that river is 1300 km (800 miles) long, which makes for a large portion of river to look in. It may, just like H. zebra live at great depth somewhere in the river. Particularly as Rio Iriri has a bunch of tributaries, and the fish may only live in one small tributary somewhere...

And of course, just because the exporter says that it came from Rio Iriri, doesn't necessarily mean that this is true - it's just the best info we have at this time. [And of course, if every fish-keeper in the world travels to Rio Iriri to look for it, and it's actually from a completely different tributary of Rio Xingu, or may even further away, no one will find it!]

Or the population may have been killed by polution in the river. There's certainly signs of polution in Rio Xingu, so why not in a tributary thereof.

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Mats

Well if they can fetch $10,000 each I don?t understand why there aren?t people out there finding them? I have also been told that they are extinct. This is a real shame though because they make the L46 look like a Common BN!

But CAN they fetch $10000 if you find 100 or 1000 of them? Probably not, since there's only so many people who are willing to pay that sort of money for a fish.

By the way, I'm by no means saying they are extinct, but rather suggesting that may be ONE of many different reasons why it's not available on the market.

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Mats

If you look at the pics of in Aqualog, you can see distinct H. zebra features such as the pure white colour, the pronounced shoulder stripe and horizontal rather than vertical striping on the tail.

This could be a very rare regional variant of H. zebra. All the fish photographed in Datz and Aqualog seem quite variable which lends credibility to this idea.

Perhaps the reason people aren't looking for them is that they are too rare and hard to catch to make it worth it.

The fisherman have to earn a living, and long expensive trips up the Iriri may cost them more than they earn, especially when they can earn steady money close to home catching gold nuggets for example.

Remember the fisherman doesn't get $10,000.

Also there is a possibility that a lot of the attractive or rare fish end up on the Japanese market where higher prices can be guaranteed.


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I read somewhere, maybe even on here, someone suggested that they were caught in a small tributary which was heavily polluted soon after and therefore the fish may be extinct in the wild now. I have no idea whether this is true or not, but I suppose it is possible.

I am sure there are still other beauties still to be discovered.

If I'm not mistaking, the 8 specimens of L250 were imported to Transfish in Germany. 7 of them were shipped to Japan, for economical reasons...

I've been told they were found in a part of Iriri which is an indian reservoir, where there isn't much fish collecting, as collectors are not very welcomed there. This may explain the reason for the absence of this species in the trade.

I have mentioned it before on this forum that a quick look at some Japanese websites will show just how many weird and unknown Hypancistrus species are out there, and for the most part they all end up in Japan. The Japanese firms have their own agents in Brazil cashing out the goodies from the fishermen.

I try to keep a close eye on those websites, but I still haven't seen any obvious L250 there. And if they don't have it, it's not very likely to be found anywhere in the trade I think.

http://aquafin.web.infoseek.co.jp/pleco ... o-top.html

-Haakon

there a guy on plecofanatics that claims to know of someone with some that plans to breed them in australia dont think it true

whos that tadj?

considering there probably isnt any (at least very few) in the hobby i find it hard to believe

sooty, although if my memory serves me correctly he didn't actually say he could get them was just trying to establish market value.

but tbh L250 will be long gone anyways, its only is 8th or so account here

i cant escape you guys lol xingu he said in the thread of him knowing some one that had them iam pretty sure he said that some were on it

This thread sound too much like a description of a painting of a polar bear in a snow storm. But its a Picasso so its worth $10,000.

There was no mention of Sooty actually having them or of them being bred in Aus. Here's the thread to refresh your memories -

http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/show ... light=L250