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I purchased all of these as L173, some do look a little like it, others don't. Might be nice L333 white lines.
Just leave me a comment on your oppinion, thank you!

Hi Johannes,

Oh I hate these challenges. I always have trouble with the wormlines.

That said, they do look like L173 to me. But I see what you mean about some, a bit too wavy.

Good luck,
Eric

Wavy but beautiful ! lol

My experience with the 173 has led me to believe they go through a number of pattern changes from birth to maturity. I have fry, I have grown out a group of F1 fish which recently spawned for the first time. I also received a group of wild 173 several years ago where one of the 19 fish did not look like the other 9 which were clearly similar and clearly 173. Because the fish were on loan to me to try and spawn, I felt that 10th fish was more likely a 236. I was supposed to return the fish to its owned and continue working with the other 9. But when I pulled apart the tank to catch that fish, I could not find it. I had 10 fish all with the same lightning bolt pattern.

I have come to the conclusion that the journey from birth to maturity for these fish is one in which they go through several stages. The fry are a real mix of looks, very few look like they will down the road. This is unlike zebras which are easy to ID from free swimming until the day they die. Most of the fish, but not all bu any means, follow a similar path. Most will go through a stage where their striping looks almost zebra-like. But if one is familiar with zebras, it is clear these 173s are not the same. As they near spawning age/size their stripe go through another change. They start to develop the zig-zag pattern.

The result is it can be difficult to ID younger 173s. The other thing I have noticed with 173 is they are very slow growing compared to the other B&W Hypans I have kept. I would say that 236 spawns the soonest, then zebra then 173. The one shortcoming to the above information and my personal experiences is I am working with a limited universe. My F1 group is 11 fish, the wilds are 10 fish and the total fry I have raised is still under 25 fish of assorted sizes. I am trying to hold onto some of my offspring so that I can watch them all the way to adulthood from birth.

As for the fish pictured in this thread, I would say some are likely 173 and all might be, but it may take some time to see how much they morph. I do not consider myself able to ID younger 173 unless they are born in my tanks. In order to confirm that my F1 group were indeed 173, I brought 1/3 of the group to CatCon 2016 and had couple of the true pros confirm they were 173. I did not want to sell any potential offspring as something they were not. Those fish began to zig-zag their stripes over this past summer and spawned for the first time about 6 weeks ago.

If my experience with how 173s tend to morph over time is a correct assessment, it would help to explain why this fish is so difficult to find. Collectors in the wild are likely to pass up younger fish because they do not look "right." Buyers who are not close to being pleco experts will also have a similar issue. I had to trust the person who sold me the F1 fish because what I got did not look at all like what they do now some 3+ years later. I was just lucky because I was able to watch juvies grow to adults, I got to see the one young adult make the final pattern change and then I got to see newly free swimming fry grow from egg to pushing 2 inches now TL.

I hope the above helps, but bear in mind it is just my opinion and I am not experienced enough to know if I have reached a reasonable conclusion or if I am suffering from an over active imagination.

(edited for typos only)