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I'm pretty sure that's a Sturisoma.

Hi,

Yes, this is a Rineloricaria (presence of predorsal keels and postorbital notches). Rineloricaria parva could match if your specimen was collected in the Paraguay-Parana-La Plata system. Nevertheless, this color pattern on the snout is very common, so, it is almost impossible to identify it at the specific level without locality stated.
Cheers
Raph.

Raph wrote:Hi,

Yes, this is a Rineloricaria (presence of predorsal keels and postorbital notches). Rineloricaria parva could match if your specimen was collected in the Paraguay-Parana-La Plata system. Nevertheless, this color pattern on the snout is very common, so, it is almost impossible to identify it at the specific level without locality stated.
Cheers
Raph.

Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.

Looks like a Sturisoma species to me. Not a Rhinoloricaria species as I conceive them.

Too bad we don't see the whole fish. The front end of a (my) sturiosoma tail (not the fin, the biodypart behind the anal fin) is flattened, top-down, while it is much more rounded in Rhineloricaria.

I think we can see part of this in the pic, and it seems to be flattened, not rounded

I think like Raph, this is a Rineloricaria species and I would say it's a female too. Which species is hard to determine from this picture but maybe one of these; , , .
There are many species or localities of the same species of Rineloricaria which make them very difficult to identify.

Lupin wrote:Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.

What Raph ment is of course the natural locality which should be a river somewhere in a south american country.

Janne

Bas Pels wrote:Too bad we don't see the whole fish. The front end of a (my) sturiosoma tail (not the fin, the biodypart behind the anal fin) is flattened, top-down, while it is much more rounded in Rhineloricaria.

I think we can see part of this in the pic, and it seems to be flattened, not rounded

It does seem flattened to me. Bas, the photos are below. Do they help you?:)

Edit: I took another glance on the fish and the "biodypart" does look flattened.

Janne wrote:I think like Raph, this is a Rineloricaria species and I would say it's a female too. Which species is hard to determine from this picture but maybe one of these;

Rineloricaria parva

,

Rineloricaria eigenmanni

,

Rineloricaria sp`pantanal`

.
There are many species or localities of the same species of Rineloricaria which make them very difficult to identify.

Lupin wrote:Oh, thanks for that, Raph. I know of no one here who breeds them. Is breeding them commonly done? My friend told me that he bought it from a supplier which I assume obtained it from Singapore. It appears a lot of fish I got were shipped originally from Singapore. I believe this might help you answer the exact ID.

What Raph ment is of course the natural locality which should be a river somewhere in a south american country.

Janne

Hi Janne.

The odd thing is that those three links are also the ones I've looked into yesterday and was confused.

Here are other photos. Forgive me for the quality. The pink color was because of my camera acting up.


I seem to have trouble uploading photos in imageshack.us.

I hope you don't mind the watermarks.

apistomaster wrote:Looks like a Sturisoma species to me. Not a Rhinoloricaria species as I conceive them.

Thanks for your views, Apistomaster. I initially thought that way too but when I obtained a Sturisoma panamense, I was beginning to doubt it was Sturisoma especially when I saw more photos of Rineloricaria looking almost similar to mine. I'm not really a pleco expert however I'll try the best that I can to provide you details possible so I can pin down the exact ID of this fish. I would never go on calling it in a false name.

Edit:
@Janne: It looks either the Rineloricaria sp. "pantanal or Rineloricaria parva although I could bet on the former.

I think, especially from the first, pinkish pic, Sturiosoma.

How does it behave: Does it lay in (under) the sand, or sit on stones?

Bas Pels wrote:How does it behave: Does it lay in (under) the sand, or sit on stones?

I don't use sand however it tends to slack (okay, sit lazily) on the gravel under driftwoods and even "perch" itself on a driftwood branch and small stones. It is quite a very active plec as well.

preferring the substrate is not normal - for my Sturiosoma

Interesting cat you have

Sorry, but with this pictures it is absolutely not possible identifying your whiptail accurately.
Take better pictures and we will see.

best regards
Norman

You may find that you get better pictures if you use the camera further from the fish, and if your camera can do 2-3 megapixel photos, you can cut them down in size, instead of using the whole picture.

The pictures you posted are unsharp because the camera can't focus that closely.

--
Mats

Hi,

Mats said rightly, your pictures are very unsharp.
The only we can seen is that your specimen are not a Sturisoma species.
By the round snouth and the large fins it is possible that you have LG6. A species which unite several attributes of Hemiloricaria and Sturisomatichthys and cannot assigned to a specific genus. This is just a possibility, not exacty clear.

best regards
Norman