Hola Juan, El secundo corroncho si es Hypancistrus inspector . Ancistrus xenocara no es un nombre cientifico valido. Ancistrus es un nombre de un genero cientifico y Xenocara es el nombre viejo de el mismo genero. Me parece que tiene un especie de el genero Ancistrus pero es casi impossible distingu...

Jools is correct. There is a "black" form of C. venezuelanus that comes from the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia. The best photo of this fish can be found on pg. 44 of Seuess' "Corydoras." There is also a dark form of C. melanotaenia that comes out of the southern llanos of Colo...

Small tentacles should start appearing in males at around two inches total length. Some spp. only have tentacles during their breeding season, so their development will be dependent on factors other than size. When I first collected Ancistrus sp. "Rio Chirgua" in Venezuela I thought they w...

My largest is about 7 inches total length. They do not seem to fight with anything and are fairly inactive. They prefer to hide during the day. Not a great show fish.
-Shane

HH,
Believe that I have some photos of these. I'll scan them in and post one.
-Shane

T,
You can also kill this stuff with a single treatment of BINOX from Jungle products. I do not like to medicate unless I really have to, but Cyanobacteria is very hard to get rid of.
-Shane

Taratron, I have seen people saying this all over the list as well but I have no clue why they say it or believe it. Ancistrus is a very confusing genus and some of the spp. in the hobby have been a around a long time. That said, there is no reason that I know of to make the statement that "......

Yann,
About 5 inches total length for the L 106/L 122 from the Orinoco.
-Shane

Two suggestions: 1) I divide loricariids into "fats" like Hypostomus , Panaque , etc and " flats" meaning Farlowella , Rineloricaria , Sturisoma , etc. I recently set up a tank that I am really enjoying. It is a 39 gallon tank that is fairly heavily planted with Amazon Swords. Th...

Yann, The fish may need to grow a bit before we can tell for sure. As regards L 200 "Normal" and L 200 "Hi Fin," they are two completely different spp. assigned the same L Number. I placed mine altogether in a 55 and they are clearly very different spp. My biggest L 200 male is n...

Catching fish by hand is probably practiced worldwide in some form or another. I have written on this a bit (see the Venezuela Diaries). Grabbing a big flathead would be a rush, but I have seen people in Venezuela do this with pims! Can you imagine the chances of getting stung? Fishermen on the Rio ...

Let me add to the confusion: In Datz L 106 and L 122 were the same fish. This fish comes from the Rio Orinoco. I have seen some various differences in fin coloration depending on where the fish came from originally along the Orinoco. In Aqualog both L 106 and L 122 are young Chaetostoma guairensis ....

I have never figured out what causes outbreaks of cyanobacteria outbreaks. People will tell you that it comes from poor tank maintenance and this is probably true in most cases. That said, I have fought it in tanks that received 80 percent water changes every 4-5 days. Once it is established it is a...

Barbie, I know that Spokane tap water is really horrible, but there are some very key advantages to hard water. First of all, you are very unlikely to have deadly pH crashes. You are also better off for spawning many spp. because by adding rain or RO water you can massivly change the water's conduct...

Last weekend I had a snorkel fitted to my Land Rover for river crossings while out collecting. I was looking for information with regards to how deep I can safely take my truck and came across this photo. It never ocurred to me that I could just drive in and collect directly from my vehicle! http://...

Feliz Cumpleanos Dave y que tengas mucho mas.
-Shane

Panaque is a Venezuelan (Spanish) word. It is pronounced PAH-Na-Kay. The PAH is accented most strongly when pronounced, the "na" is Nah, and the que is kay just like the Spanish word "que."
-Shane

Yann, I have not checked the original description, but I wonder if Sturisomatichthys "Colombia I" is not actually S. leightoni ? I have never seen the fish we call S. leightoni in the hobby in shipments from the Magdalena. Also, the key Miles ("Los Peces del Rio Magdalena" 1947) ...

Three of these showed up recently at a major exporter here. Very pretty fish but they do not travel well and the exporter lost one of the three before I could arrive. It is in the Cat-E-Log and in Evers and Seidels' book on pg. 550. http://eheim-uk.com/albums2/Shane/Loricariacolombia1.sized.jpg http...

Jools, In the Leticia area you can not really define Colombian versus Peruvian versus Brazilian. The river is the only thing that separates anyone and they all cross it and move as they please. The language is also very distinct (and hard to understand) as it is a mixture of Spanish, Portugese, and ...

Jerry, I noticed the same thing in a group of C. leucomelas I brought back a few months ago from the Rio Yavari, Peru. About two weeks later I noticed damage to their barbels and that they were sitting on the sponge filter and ignoring the substrate. I think that this may be an early warning of Cory...

Yann is right on in his description of the biotope for your black and white Ancistrus . As rule, I have NEVER encountered any black loricariid with white dots outside of black water habitats. This color/camouflage pattern seems to be a specific adaptation to hiding in black waters (hence, so many lo...

Paul is correct. This is L 201 or H. inspector. There is a thread on this fish somewhere around here...
BTW. Paul, happy to see you here and I hope all is well with you and yours.
-Shane

Barb, L 189 is a confusing case because the original DATZ article assigning said fish that L Number said that the fish was from the Puerto Ayacucho region in the upper Rio Orinoco. L. nationi was described from a small Caribbean drainage (Rio Yaracuy) on the other side, and belonging to a completely...

Lampy, You are correct. Good thing I did not check Aqualog! It is a totally different fish. L 201 arrives here mixed in with batches of Panaque albomaculatus . Most local exporters think that L 201 are baby Panaque albomaculatus and so they just mix the two. If you (or anyone else) is serious about ...

This is L 201 from Colombia/Venezuela. A very common fish here. I have not really looked closely at one to determine a possible genus.
-Shane

Peacock Bass, I think the confusion here is that you are not familiar with taxonomic terminology. I do not mean that in an offensive way as most hobbyists probably are not familiar with many taxonomic terms. HH said, Leiarius longibarbis (L. marmoratus is a junior synonym). Perrunichthys has fewer d...

LZ,
I am not sure that I understand what it is you want to know. What exactly are you looking for?
-Shane

LZ, You are correct that ther two fish are different, but until someone describes all of the various striped Panaque they remain "lumped" under P. nigrolineatus . You could call it Panaque cf. nigrolineatus . As far as local classifications.. all Panaque in Venezuela are called panaque and...

Mike, I always keep low technology planted tanks and always have very good luck. The tank above is 55 gallons. Filtration is from two powerheads (Penguin 660s) each with a Penguin sponge filter attachment that is rated at 40 gallons. That gives me two powerheads each producing 175 gph of current. Th...