L236? Can anyone ID?

[rickylbc]

Can anyone ID this pleco for me? I can get them, labeled as L236, but not sure if it is. Thanks.

[husky_jim]

Very interesting body pattern!!!!!

It has the L236 characteristics and i am leaning towards L236 but the body pattern is not the typical.Is there any collection locality info?

Jim

[HaakonH]

These pics are from Basil Aquarium in Taiwan: http://www.basilaqua.com.tw/

The pics have been up on their page for a few years. Loads of fancy Hypancistrus go to the Asian market. The fish in the pics could certainly be L236, but there's plenty of reasons to think carefully before you buy. A quick search around this forum should give you some issues to chew on ;)

Are you offered the very fish in the pictures, or are you offered L236 by a seller who showed you this pic to tell you approximately what they look like?

-Haakon

[rickylbc]

Actually, a friend of mine is good friend of the owner. He is offering him the frys from the ones pictures above. The reason I asked is, even the owner himself is kinda not sure anymore, after being told that they are not L236, collection point is Rio Iriri.

[HaakonH]

Ok, so the owner/breeder has the fish in the picture, plus one or several more of them? And he's offering your friend offspring?

I can honestly say it's not strange that he's unsure - to be sure about L236 is not really easy ;) And how certain is it that the fish in the picture comes from Iriri? I was recently informed that L236 is probably not from that area after all, but from Belo Monte/Porto De Moz (further down the river Xingu)...But then again, the fish in the picture above could of course be from Iriri and then be something else than L236 It's very beautiful nonetheless. Perhaps you can ask for some more pictures of both parents and fry? If the parents look almost identical/were caught at the same spot/imported together (hard details to prove, perhaps) I think you should get some of them even if they aren't L236, because this species is still wonderful

-Haakon

[rickylbc]

I just got a PM from someone, I'm not gonna name him, but he told me that according to Ingo Seidel, they are not L236 and not from Iriri, they are more beautiful than L236 and quite rare. Anyway, thanks for the help, I actually sent a picture to Ingo last night, but haven't gotten reply back from him. Ingo has been nice enough to ID some plecos for me in the past..

[Frode Bakken]

The picture of the fish from your picture is the same fish from HaakonH's link. A little strange don't you think.