H. zebra, was exported in large numbers under the 90's but no one really knows exactly amount since they first was exported as Peckoltia spp. later they was allowed under their correct name Hypancistrus zebra until 2004 when they was moved to the red list of endangered species in Brazil. At that tim...

Perhaps some of the board experts could provide input on the biology behind size and maturity?

It's more about age than size, depending species you can count that plecos get mature when they reach 1/3-1/2 of fully known adult size if the growth is normal.

Janne

Not totally impossible that the L273 male guard eggs since the L65 he fight with is a female.
If the L273 male would take over a cave with other pleco's eggs or fry he would eat them as snacks, very good protein source.

Janne

To be fair to the authors on this occasion, the reference to aquarium trade was one sentence in the abstract (and nowhere else), while discussion of the hydro-electric dams occupied the entire final paragraph of the paper. Yes, I may sound unfair in this case but little frustrated over the general ...

(2) exploit: to make use of meanly or unfairly for one's own advantage Is a very common view among researchers and biologists in Brazil, sometimes it's of course correct but many times is not and have become like a general frase in to many papers. There are so many other threats and very serious th...

I don't think it's fair to take the authors to task about the subtle meanings of a specific word, especially as they probably aren't native English speakers. Their use of the word was entirely proper and correct, however. Perhaps aquarists shouldn't be so defensive! It's fair, and I'm not talking a...

Is it exploited? I suspect we are looking at two different understandings of the word exploit. It is French, I think, in origin and a complex word. One might take it to mean to use for profit, correct in terms of this fish, or on might also take it to mean, to make best use of, also, indirectly, co...

I hope you understand that 90% of all researchers use "exploration/exploit" in a negative way, they have now idea how much a specie are exploited or even if it really is exploited. Also fixed L10 = Loricaria birindelli while I'm at it. Not sure this is correct, L. birindelli look quite dif...

"a species exploited by the international aquarium fish trade." What a nice way to end a paper. What's so funny? They are. From 1st January 2012 Peckoltia feldbergae is not allowed for export, it's also a specie of low value not interesting for the illegal trade. Earlier year the export w...

I'm surprised how low their target is, $2500 isn't much at all. Yes, I agree and since I'm not working with raising founds I also feel the target is misleading. There are some other contributors to finance the work that is far higher than these U$ 2500 to fill the gap. But if I check the last 5 yea...

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with International Rivers.

Why not? It's one of few organisations that does make something good.

Janne

The odd pattern is natural for L29 and even L007, this pattern shows when they are stressed and at night, they can change to this pattern very quickly. I know some was offering this "pattern" as a "new" specie last year... even IBAMA didn't know better and confiscated the shipmen...

Panaque armbrusteri = Rio Tapajos, all other is different in Brazil, thats the reason they have the cf between genus and specie name.

Janne

Yes, here is both Araguaia and Teles Pires, .
When I took the pictures (8-9) in this entry I didn't know better, but picture 5, 6 and 7 is Araguaia and all other is Teles Pires.

Janne

But I'm unsure of the Amazon Aquatics one. It could just be the angle of the picture but the head looks quite rounded and dome shape, whereas a Xingu head shape at that size (I'm guessing about 20cm+) would be more elongated and have a more pronounced nuchal hump. The shape and layout of the lines ...

The exporter won't disclose the river of collecting Typhoon, they hold this gold mine as secret. It's no secret where LDA105 are from in nature, but all of them are illegally collected and smuggled out from Brazil to Peru and Colombia since this specie is not allowed for export and are protected. J...

The pic of L287 in the Cat-elog is not the mimic, the eyes are too big and the snout has the wrong shape. I'm sure Janne got things mixed up a bit when he wrote his answer

I agree... was probably a little confused when I wrote that and I don't remember why I should have wrote it either.

Janne

Last night there was a lot of very loud frog activity coming from the pond. Went down and checked this morning and spotted a dozen clusters of fresh frog eggs, so we'll have pollywogs too. Maybe you should take out the frog eggs if you want to save the fry from your fish... I like frogs but not wit...

The experience I have of the genus Ancistrus is, that they are very very stable and show very low variation in color and pattern over many generations, generation after generation look the same as the original couple... if wild cought. Similar looking species but different species of Ancistrus will ...

I am not proposing that - I am proposing funding the US based collaboration effort.

Ok, if they need support and help locally we maybe can be of help, let me know when times comes.

Janne

Funding, it's not so simple to just provide some money for fieldwork to Brazilian researchers, even to these with a reputation by their names. To not go to deep into this issue it can be extremely expensive and sometime waste of money, I think some of the foreign researchers that have been in Brazil...

If I understand correctly this means that L46/66/333/174 are the only species of the genus Hypancistrus we can identify with any certainty ? Yes. This means we can confine the swamp to L 173/236/399/400 ? Yes, and you can add L287 and H. sp "Gurupa" (I think it was that name or a similar)...

Maybe we can have a discussion if someone has an idea how we can escape from this swamp … Since these L-numbers L046, L066, L173, L236, L333, L399, L400 with "species" from lower xingu complex and probably some I forgot occur in same location (not directly all side by side in the river bu...

Look at L 333 for example. There are more that 3 variations (and now L 401) stuffed in one L-number. Could be, that L 333 ist one species. L401 is at least from another river system quite far away from Xingu, but for L333 there are at least 3 locations in Xingu but all locations show similar appear...

Whats wrong with a nice L66?

Janne

We know the L114 comes from the Rio Demini, but does anyone actually know the collection locality of the "real" P. leopardus (aka L600) in the trade?

Yes, far away from Rio Demini, they are from the rivers in upper Roraima close to the border to Guyana.

Janne

EDIT: I also kind of wonder if the Brazilian opponents of the dam couldn't sue the government for breach of the legally binding Convention on Biological Diversity. I Am Not A Lawyer, but to me it seems that endangering "several hundred" species is hard to reconcile with this legally bindi...

L 201 x L 333 and L 28 x H. debilittera are also known to interbreed. So why shouldn`t these? Because what we discuss is what happen or can happen in nature, not in the aquarium... the fishkeeper make them to interbreed and the conditions in nature is very far from what we provide in an aquarium. T...

Yes and since LDA 19 and L340 are considered as the same... But they do look different and the pattern of an LDA19 will not change to look like L340, color maybe and that we know change with mood, water parameters and some other factors. Why mix very nice LDA19 with L340 when it's possible to breed...

By mistake I closed the window with my reply and now I need to sleep, before that, just shortly, both H. debilittera and L340 are collected in rivers in Colombia and also in different rivers and not in the same river, far away from each other floating from west to east into Orinoco. H. contradens an...