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Hello Planet catfish! Im relatively new to the hobby of aquariums (about 10 months), I recently purchased what was sold to me as a L102 snowball (although from pictures i find across the internet he does not seem to fit the bill of a 102 because of how small his spots are. Sorry for such a bad picture but it has been the only good pick i could get (and this was off a video of us moving him from quarintine to main tank) what do you think he is??



link to pic if broken - http://gyazo.com/844c03276f2ed20d296014d9c4f10a01

sorry again for poor photo, i can link video as well if somebody wants to see but don't want to move him around if already stressed.....

and now the HELP part. we had him in quarantine for just over 2 weeks, he dident move much from his "spot" under some drift wood and never seemed to eat. now he has been in the main tank (65gl) for over a week and kind of the same thing. never moves far. i don't know if he is eating and getting what he needs. i have tried to feed him flake, algea waffer, shrimp pellets, cichlid pellets (we have a ram), beef heart, and zuchinni we blanched and froze. nothing has seemed to work. really worried and today i noticed (well my 7 year old daughter haha) that his fins and face are turning GREY! which i guess means stress. Wife tested water and everything was great! with a PH of just under 7. not sure what to do and really don't want to lose him. really hoping i can get this fish happy. thank you for the help and time!

Other fish in main tank

3 small angels
1 German blue ram
2 boarder loaches (angelicus botia)
7 rummynose
8 neons
1 oto catfish

all healthy and no issues. showing great color and eating well

Hard to tell from the picture. Video would be useful.

Hypancistrus are carnivores. Pick up some Repashy Foods (though these require some prep) or Carnivore pellets (My Hypans eat Hikari Sinking Carniovore Pellets). Or you can give him/her some cooked shrimp, using a fork to hold it at the bottom. My L066s, like the Hikari better than the shrimp pellets, i think only 1 or 2 of them eat them, my Apistogramma eats most of it.

Hypancistrus also come out at night, so naturally you should feed them at night. Mine only come out of their hiding spots during the day for food, & that took several weeks; I have 6 L066 & people ask me if the tank is empty all the time. (Was going to put my corydoras in the tank, but surprise! babies.)

Thanks for the reply! i have tried shrimp pellets but ill look into some of the other foods (sorry also tried bloodworms along with the beefheart)

yeah the pic is really bad, and the video will show it a little (and by little i mean that) better. i dident think ppl would actually be able to tell if it was a 102 or not but i figured i would give it a go, and primarly see if anybody had any suggestions about getting it de-stressed.

video - pleco shows at 1 min 13 secs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0jMLlyIXLk


something i thought about as well, the spot our snowball has chosen was a cave area that the loaches liked to fight over, they still fight around the area now and again. wonder if that could be stressing the pleco out? they don't go after the pleco at all thou.

Thanks again for the reply and good luck with the babies!

Also, could be an Angelicus Pleco,

Let it settle in, it could just look different because of the change of gravel color & lighting.

& Don't worry about the loaches. I had , specifically the one in my profile pic, in the one decoration with two of my Botia kubotai before & they were fine. Loaches really only care about other loaches, though more botia loaches might not be a bad idea, as they prefer to be in groups & will be happier and more active with more friends, especially in a 65 gallon tank.

Thanks again, and the l004 you showed me def looks alot more like what i have then a 102. i have always had a great experiance at that store but when looking up info to take care of it best none of the pictures looked anything like mine:) they may have just got this one wrong. and i hope your right about it adjusting and mabye the rocks and all. Its been in the main tank for a week now. just hope its not sick or overly stressed out for some reason

that pleco in your profile pic looks amazing!

DrFree_man wrote:that pleco in your profile pic looks amazing!

She was, unfortunately the heater on that tank went & took almost all the fish, temp was 90+ degrees when I noticed. My Apisto's were the only ones who survived & the female Apisto passed a few weeks later from a subsequent bacterial infection.

Almost looks like an , but without even a semi-decent photo it's impossible to even say the genus.

What temperature are you keeping the tank at?

Definitely not L102. I don't think it's a Hypancistrus either. This looks to be , which in my opinion is a really cool fish too! If you can tell, Parancistrus have a wider and rounder snout than Hypancistrus, which typically have pointier snouts. Also, the teeth of Parancistrus are different, and the obvious trait is that Parancistrus have huge gill slits when you view their undersite; most other loricariids have much smaller gill slits. Click on the name for some care information from our Cat-eLog. It should be noted especially that Parancistrus diet is completely different than Hypancistrus, however they do live in the same habitats. Algae wafers should be a good option.

If you want to be assured your fish is eating, I do like to use quarantine time for that. Quarantine is not just to get the fish away from others to make sure they're not sick, but also to get fish from others so it can learn what's food, what the food schedule is, and to come out and eat. Loricariids can be shy so this is important especially if you have other hungry fish that are already used to eating in captivity.

It is notable, though, that most loricariids of this group do in fact pick a favorite hiding place and stay there most of their time. They are generally nocturnal. I will also note that I usually don't see most of my loricariids eat, they are quite shy. If you keep it in quarantine without a whole lot of decoration, then the consumed food and especially the poop will become more obvious. I do like using zuchinni, but in my experience it's not necessary to blanch it, although it might be good to provide options. In any case, non-blanched zuchinni can last quite a long time in the tank, so I'd leave some slices in overnight rubber-banded to a rock and see if it goes for that.

yeah the pic really sucks, if i can get him out of this funk he is in ill try to get some good pic's. but don't want to move him if he's feeling stressed already

the tank we keep at 78 (which we figured was more then ok thinking it was a 102)

Suckermouth -

Thanks! if my wife was not sitting here next to me i would swear she typed this up lol, she has said sense we questioned it that she thought it was a peppermint lol only reason i dident think so was the dorsal fins are almost see threw on ours, where as they seem much bolder on pics we have seen (but everything else looks similar)

and thanks for the tips! we planed on putting some zuchinni in tonight (dident know i dident have to blanch) we have been feeding on a rotation of foods diffrent days trying to see what he goes for. also are you suggesting we take him back out and put him back in quarintine or to wait and see first?

In quarantine, you don't have to worry about it being scared of other fishes. With zucchini I don't think you'd have to worry about direct competition, but loricariids can be pretty shy. So in my opinion, yes, it'd be good to keep the fish separate from others, just to be sure. Getting a new loricariid can unfortunately be one of the tougher times; once they learn how to feed and are healthily eating then the worst is over. If you've already taken down the quarantine tank, make sure you that you don't have to re-cycle the tank by transferring over some of the gravel or filter material from your established tank; if you're not sure about what I'm talking about feel free to ask.

If you can take a shot of the underside that would help identification; the mouth would get it down really easy but it's hard to get a clear shot of it for a lot of people, and if I'm right the gills should be big and obvious.

If you've got bloodworms on hand, that might be something to try as well; Parancistrus have been noted that they eat insect larvae, so it's not entirely out of the question for them. Just another potential option.

our quarintine is still up, we have some rummynose and baby cardinals in there now (we like to keep it going for when we get new fish so they have an established tank to come home to)

tommorow is our day to do a small water change on the main tank, we can move him then so as not to add extra stress on the other fish as well. we still have fish bags so we will transfer him in that and try to get some solid pics of his mouth as well as whole body.

well he might just be really scared right now, he at some small pieces off a algae wafer (zuchinni) so im gonna let him go for a few more days, he may finaly be getting comfortable in the tank. sadly i was the one who scared him away eating. my wife sat there watching and seen him start, whispered to me. he heard me tip toeing over

I wouldn't be too worried then if it's started feeding! As long as it's started it'll keep on doing it. Just leave it alone a little and keep providing food.

I for one definitely tip-toe and move slowly as I approach my tanks when I want to make sure not to scare my plecs!

DrFree_man wrote:the tank we keep at 78 (which we figured was more then ok thinking it was a 102)

Regardless of whether it's , or , I'd say that water is too cold, which might explain why it is not active or feeding.

I'd slowly increase it over a few days to at least 84-85F. Keep the oxygenation up too, as they can be very delicate at this stage