It does look like an L-129 but I have had a fullgrown one for several years and it's between 2-2.5" which I thought was a max size for this hypancistrus - I have neverheard of one over 3" and certainly not 4".
I also have not seen it eat veggies , as a matter of fact none of my hypancistrus seem to ...

I have set up spawning tanks for them as follows:
My regular tap is PH7.8 and TDS 270, at the present I'm trying to make a push for spawning or abandon the projects if it doesn't work after making a strong attempt.I recently (one week ago) split up the fish into the following tanks - only the 55 is ...

bidewaterkant,
if you look in the cat-elog on L-25 you will see picture #12 is from above , similarly as yours. On that fish the second pair of fins is slightly shorter and more curved then yours. If you put them both onscreen at the same time it seems more obvious. That fish also seems to bulge ...

No expert on L-25s but from a number of other plecos I keep the things I generally look for are this:

Females have a more pinched or narrower profile at the gill area when viewed from above and are generally fatter behind the gills - just as Steve91 said. Your fish looks more slender with a wider ...

The fish in my picture are the same exact size and length.
Now about 2 years later the spots are similar = the small spotted one are small and the large spotted one are large.

Barksten,
it's either L-177 or L-18, hard to tell as the fish are variable but here is a picture I took of some of mine, I believe one is L-177 and the other is L-18. Of course the spots seem to change with age.

Panaque maccus is featured as catfish of the month in November 2001 (I think) with spawning account.

Mine are like round balls now but no spawning - it appears that the person who wrote the article spawned them in PVC caves(?)

Have you checked the cat-elog on this site?
If has a good amount of info.

Scott,
there are many kinds of algae and otos only eat a limited amount, mostly the microfilm.

You have: black beard (siamese algae eaters), green hair (rosy barbs, amano shrimp),green water (wood shrimp), staghorn (?) green spot (razorblade) to mention a few.

Introducing green water into your ...

Congratulations!!

It's a pretty fish so hopefully there will be photos.

I'm not sure if greenwater would be of help to feed otos? Usually it's mostly filterfeeders that utilize green water.

If I remember correctly , the best way I got it going was with a Jobes fertilizer stick or any other ...

I'm not sure if the L-46 is consicered a blackwater species but it would explain why the male keeps kicking out the spawns every few weeks - 9 spawns in a row.
I'm glad I came across this post, thanks Janne.

OK tackar Matte och Janne,

I thought it was actually the opposite with the food - that there is not always ample amounts of food available. I thought that wild animals have to be opportunistic because they don't know when the next meal will present itself.Is this not the case with plecos?

The ...

Oh, and I just realized I keep another type of baryancistrus - L-47 mango pleco which seem to actually shrink from the time I got them. I have also heard form other people that they seem to grow very slowly if at all and I'm pretty sure I put them on metro when I first got them about 2 years ago.

Thanks Janne,
I will try to add some salt and metro in with the fish over the next few weeks and see if it helps.

One other thought on the internal parasite:
If most wildcaught species come in with some form of intestinal parasites from the rivers they are caught and then are put in a tank where ...

OK,
racol, excuse my ignorance but what is the caudal peduncle?

I did a big waterchange yesterday (60%) and used part RO and part cold tap. This dropped the temp by about 8 deg and lowered the TDS from around 300 to about 190. Not very soft but a good difference.

The problem is that the tank is ...

Thanks everyone,
it seems your experiences are very consistent with mine.

SO either this is how it normaly is and all is well or we have to find out what the missing link is (I'm assuming).

Tjena Janne,
#1 - what do you feed them to get them to grow that well?(koldolmar?? :D )
Do you usually medicate all your new fish regardless of if they show signs of disease or not?
If so - what do you use?

I notice that other fish in the tank have not become stunted in growth and all fish are ...

This is a picture - the one in the cave has been occupying it for a while while the other just moved in during the recent weeks (3) and has been keeping nearby for the most part over that time.

According to most descriptions I have read of L-18, L-81 and L-177 (also other baryancistrus though I have not kept others) seem to indicate that most species in the genus grow to around 12" (30cm). Planet catfish cat-e-log lists L-18 as 355mm or 14.2".

I have never seen a baryancistrus over 5" and ...

I have an L-204 occupying a cave and recently a second one has been hovering on top/next to the cave.

Both fish are about 5.5" (14cm)and look well conditioned.

When looking at them for sexual differences I notice the following:

The one occupying the cave seems slightly fatter and rounder, it also ...

Ok, I thought the camera angel is a bit odd and the picture has a yellow tint to it, the pattern looks exactly like the pictures on here and in Datz (at least to me) but thanks for the explanation.

Out of curiousity ,
why would it not be L-316?

I used to have some L-59s that looked just like that - though, as Janne mentioned - there are many species and often confusion about what they are. - Who knows if mine really was an L-59.

I do have the L-129 and have not seen any spots on it - just sparce white stripes.

I have never seen an L-316 in person but from the pictures I have seen it seems very, very similar to the fish in the picture.

All my females have white bellies and males have some pattern on them - though they haven't produced a spawn yet
That is what I have always been told to look for.

rcl,

first off - to make sure you have a male and a female you check the underside. In L-260 the females have white bellies while the males have some pattern on it.

Secondly, they will generally fatten up pretty well and many of my females sport a very gravid look so if it has happened over time ...

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL22/551337/5917687/76071513.jpg
http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL22/551337/5917687/76071504.jpg

This is my scobinancistrus - what I believe to be L-253. It seems to look a lot like it.

Number 2 looks a lot like L-201 but I have also had young L-029s look like that ...

Sorry - I meant an L-368

Thanks,
Janne , I think they are the same species - there is one other one that I didn't post a picture here of but thatI have one of in the scobinancistrus thread.

253 was my guess also but L-268 seems to look a bit like it too.

Ken, your best guess - top male bottom female?(of the two pictures)