Pseudacanthicus spinosus • Loricariidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish

Male
Dorsal view
Head-on view
Juvenile
Close-up of teeth
Close-up of dorsal fin
Caudal fin
Gravid female
Dorsal view
Male trapping female in cave
Egg clutch
Five day old fry
Fry with yolk sac problem
Ten day old fry
Thirty day old fry
Seventy five days
Three month old juveniles

Cat-eLog Data Sheet
Scientific Name	**Pseudacanthicus spinosus** (Castelnau, 1855)
Common Name(s)	Coffee And Cream Cactus Pleco, Coffee And Cream Pleco, L096, L160, Spiny Monster Pleco, Spotted Cactus Pleco
Type Locality	Amazon R., Brazil.
Synonym(s)	Hypostomus spinosus castelnau
Pronunciation	SUE dah KAN thi cuss - spin oh suss
Etymology	Pseud- Greek: False, Acanthicus - Greek: Spiny, Thorny. Literally "False Acanthicus" referring to this genus being similar (but different from) to Acanthicus. This specific epithet refers to its spiny (spinosus=spiny, thorny) appearance.
Species Information
Size	225mm (8.9") SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.
Identification	The distinctive light grey colouration can vary to a darker brown especially with age. This fish appears to have a wide distribution and thus colouration and patterning can be expected to vary somewhat.
Sexing	Unknown
Habitat Information
Distribution	South America: Amazon Basin. Reports also exist from the Orinoco Basin, Venezuela. L096: Pará, Rio do Pará, (Portel) L160: Pará, Rio Tocantins (Cametá-Marabá), Rio Guamá (Ourém) Amazon (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there) Amazon, Lower Amazon, Pará (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there) Amazon, Lower Amazon, Tocantins (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there)
pH	5.8 - 7.8
Temperature	25.0-28.0°C or 77-82.4°F (Show others within this range)
Other Parameters	Can take cooler water for periods of time. Water current doesn't need to be too strong.
Husbandry Information
Feeding	Carnivore although not a predator, prawns and chopped mussel appear favourites and promote favourable growth. Some vegetable should also be provided and thus balances diet.
Furniture	A large stone or preferably wooden hiding place is required, plants are not.
Compatibility	Generally peaceful but territorial from a young age. Some large specimens are aggressively territorial and may cause problems if housed with other large nocturnal fish.
Suggested Tankmates	The temptation with large, tough loricariids is to keep them with large, tough other fish such as Oscars or other brutish characters. This actually works quite well with most omnivorous or mainly vegetarian plecos. Pseudacanthicus however are big messy carnivores, but, like all large plecos, produce vast amounts of waste and as such would require monumental filtration to house alongside non-catfish 'equals'. It is better to think of these catfish as the centerpiece fish and stock their aquarium with medium sized (preferably omnivorous) fish. All sizes of barbs work surprisingly well.
Breeding	See Shane's World article.
Further Information
References	Exped. Amer. Sud.v. 2 - pp45 - Pl. 22 (fig. 3)
Registered Keepers	(1) Cory-Diddi, (2) fish fodder, (3) Daniel Machado, (4) stinger, (5) ani-mal-lvr (k: 3), (6) luis, (7) nettaigyo, (8) Chi-Chi (p: 2), (9) tezr, (10) cwhite67, (11) Dave Rinaldo, (12) Haavard Stoere (k: 4), (13) hotchiliz (k: 59), (14) OlePaulsen (k: 3), (15) PseudaSmart (k: 3), (16) brechtvh. Click on a username above to see all that persons registered catfish species. You can also view all "my cats" data for this species. Add this species to your "my cats" page.
Breeding Reports	None.
More Resources	- Shane's World Reproduction Breeding Pseudacanthicus spinosus - Search Planet Catfish for more on Pseudacanthicus spinosus - BBcode (for use in linking to this page from forum posts) - Look up Pseudacanthicus spinosus on AquaticRepublic.com - Look up Pseudacanthicus spinosus on Fishbase, I.T.I.S. or ispecies search. - URL (for use in linking to the species from anywhere on the web)
Hits	28803 hits.
Last Update	2011 Jul 10 00:13 (species record created: 2001 May 05 00:00)

Cat-eLog Data Sheet

Scientific Name

Pseudacanthicus spinosus (Castelnau, 1855)

Common Name(s)

Coffee And Cream Cactus Pleco, Coffee And Cream Pleco, L096, L160, Spiny Monster Pleco, Spotted Cactus Pleco

Type Locality

Amazon R., Brazil.

Synonym(s)

Hypostomus spinosus castelnau

Pronunciation

SUE dah KAN thi cuss - spin oh suss

Etymology

Pseud- Greek: False, Acanthicus - Greek: Spiny, Thorny. Literally "False Acanthicus" referring to this genus being similar (but different from) to Acanthicus. This specific epithet refers to its spiny (spinosus=spiny, thorny) appearance.

Species Information

Size

225mm (8.9") SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.

Identification

The distinctive light grey colouration can vary to a darker brown especially with age. This fish appears to have a wide distribution and thus colouration and patterning can be expected to vary somewhat.

Sexing

Unknown

Habitat Information

Distribution

South America: Amazon Basin. Reports also exist from the Orinoco Basin, Venezuela.
L096: Pará, Rio do Pará, (Portel)
L160: Pará, Rio Tocantins (Cametá-Marabá), Rio Guamá (Ourém)
Amazon (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there)
Amazon, Lower Amazon, Pará (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there)
Amazon, Lower Amazon, Tocantins (hover or click on these areas to show maps or find other species found there)

5.8 - 7.8

Temperature

25.0-28.0°C or 77-82.4°F (Show others within this range)

Other Parameters

Can take cooler water for periods of time. Water current doesn't need to be too strong.

Husbandry Information

Feeding

Carnivore although not a predator, prawns and chopped mussel appear favourites and promote favourable growth. Some vegetable should also be provided and thus balances diet.

Furniture

A large stone or preferably wooden hiding place is required, plants are not.

Compatibility

Generally peaceful but territorial from a young age. Some large specimens are aggressively territorial and may cause problems if housed with other large nocturnal fish.

Suggested Tankmates

The temptation with large, tough loricariids is to keep them with large, tough other fish such as Oscars or other brutish characters. This actually works quite well with most omnivorous or mainly vegetarian plecos. Pseudacanthicus however are big messy carnivores, but, like all large plecos, produce vast amounts of waste and as such would require monumental filtration to house alongside non-catfish 'equals'. It is better to think of these catfish as the centerpiece fish and stock their aquarium with medium sized (preferably omnivorous) fish. All sizes of barbs work surprisingly well.

Breeding

See Shane's World article.

Further Information

References

Exped. Amer. Sud.v. 2 - pp45 - Pl. 22 (fig. 3)

Registered Keepers

(1) Cory-Diddi, (2) fish fodder, (3) Daniel Machado, (4) stinger, (5) ani-mal-lvr (k: 3), (6) luis, (7) nettaigyo, (8) Chi-Chi (p: 2), (9) tezr, (10) cwhite67, (11) Dave Rinaldo, (12) Haavard Stoere (k: 4), (13) hotchiliz (k: 59), (14) OlePaulsen (k: 3), (15) PseudaSmart (k: 3), (16) brechtvh.

Click on a username above to see all that persons registered catfish species. You can also view all "my cats" data for this species.

Add this species to your My Cats species list

Add this species to your "my cats" page.

Breeding Reports

None.

More Resources

- Shane's World

Reproduction

Breeding Pseudacanthicus spinosus

- Search Planet Catfish for more on Pseudacanthicus spinosus
Link

- BBcode (for use in linking to this page from forum posts)
Look up AquaticRepublic.com

- Look up Pseudacanthicus spinosus on AquaticRepublic.com
Look up Fishbase

- Look up Pseudacanthicus spinosus on Fishbase, I.T.I.S. or ispecies search.
Link

- URL (for use in linking to the species from anywhere on the web)

Hits

28803 hits.

Last Update

2011 Jul 10 00:13 (species record created: 2001 May 05 00:00)

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