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Hi all,
Jools has certainly been mining away on Spectracanthicus . A heck of a project. Way to go Jools!

But I must put in one thought: Image number 28 sure reminds me of a Leporacanthicus sp. Anyone else thinking in this vein?

Lee F.

Hi,

number 28 is an Oligancistrus, or "Spectracanthicus".

cheers Daniel

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your comment. It is appreciated.

From your answer am I correct to assume that you do not accept the synonomy of Oligancistrus with Spectracanthicus ?

Lee F.

Hi Lee,

definetely not, to synonymize Oligancistrus with Spectracanthicus was lumping at its best and I am sure it will change back more or less soon. Both genera are clearly distinct from each other and same will happen with "S." immaculatus (L 269) one day.

cheers,
Daniel

Hi Lee,

Good thought. The head does look like it, although the little raised plate all have atop their head isn't as prominent as it should be. The killer feature is that "pic 28" shows a fish with a dorsal fin joined to the adipose.

I suspect the thing you are noticing here is the long, long head shape of this specimen. These species could be a bit like snouty or round nosed corys (currently all in one genus, but soon to be split out) in so far as they are coloured the same (once you get past the fact the size or density of the spots don't matter within broad limits) but may be different shapes depending on where in the river they spend most of their time and (perhaps) what they eat.

Time will tell, and we'll be around to make the change.

Jools

This is what fishermen call the "bicudo" (snouty), AKA L315.

They have a long pointed snout, small eyes, small spots, and a low number of long teeth. Very easy to to tell apart from the rest actually, but you need specimens in the hand to see the differences.

Very similar indeed to a .

Hi Daniel, Jools and Racoll,

Thanks to all for the information provided on the Spectracanthicus punctatissimus (aka "long nose, or snouty (L315))." It has been an enjoyable, and definitely informative, exchange.

Jools, the close physical relationship of the dorsal fin and adipose fin was a well made point. The head morphology and the few longer teeth was what had me going - and maybe just "blinded" to the back end of things.

In the revision paper the numbers of upper jaw teeth for Spectracanthicus punctatissimus was given as ranging from 3 to 25 in Table 2 (and somewhat confusingly as 12 to 17 in the key to the species). In the two instances that it is mentioned the head is noted to be rounded. In the 2013 book "Loricariids of the Middle Rio Xingu" (Camargo, et al.) there is a nice photo to the underneath of the head of L315 that nicely shows the elongation and apparent low number of upper jaw teeth. In that one of the authors of the revision paper is also one of the authors of the book it is strange that this fish was apparently not considered in the revision. But as Daniel notes that there should be more to come with these loricariids maybe we'll get more information at that time.

Take care for now and thanks for the stimulation.

Lee

BTW, meet Racoll for the first time in years today, great chat and this stuff was much discussed!

Jools