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My LFS sold these to me as 'Clown Plecos'. I asked them if they had an L number or species name and said clown pleco was the only way their supplier had for them. Sold 5 of them to me for 35 (minus trade in I only spent 15 usd ), I was confident enough that they were some sort of Panaque that it was worth the purchase; as I have seen L129s going for 20 each online and in other stores.


Their color has lightened during acclimation.

Most likely . Make sure you have some wood in the tank for them to chew on.

Would they do well in a planted tank with an L340?

is the species commonly sold as clown pleco. Unsurprisingly, what you have appears to be P. maccus. These fish are quite common in the pet trade.

They should be fine together, assuming the proper number of hiding spots. Panaque maccus and L340 come from the same river, even. I haven't ever kept Panaque maccus, though, but they might like to chew on plants.

In the store they looked like maccus. Quite glad I found these guys; price was dirt cheep compared to some WC specimens of P.maccus I was considering ordering.

Edit: Also the mouth http://i.imgur.com/UQjql.jpg

Huh, the jaws aren't at an acute angle. That's not something I've seen before on a Panaque.

I did a bit of research, apparently P.maccus is part of a sub genera of Panaque - Panaqolus.

Which jaw angle are you refering to? Is it the angle of the ramus? I'll try and get another pic of the mouth out of water in a few days. I'm going to ask my prof if I can take home a pair of calipers to pull some measurements :3

Also, another pic http://i.imgur.com/Pc8Pa.jpg

I'm referring to the angle of the two dentary bones (lower jaw bones). In Panaque and Peckoltia these should be at 90 degrees or less. The lower jaws in your fish appear to be not that. Which is strange. But your fish pretty much looks like a P. maccus in all other respects.

Calipers are pretty sharp, I wouldn't take measurements on a live fish. Live fish also have a way of not being cooperative!

Could it be that the fish is at an awkward angle? It looks almost exactly like this http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=2059

Not sure. There may be more variability in the jaws between individuals, or their jaws are more flexible, than I knew.