Dolichancistrus?

[naturalart]

Here's a fish I've had for a few years. Hoping somebody has more of a certainty of what it is then I do. And if it is Dolichancistrus, what species?

[Suckermouth]

Those little snout tentacles means it's just an Ancistrus, probably a female. The most common species is an unknown one, but we here just call it

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

. Admittedly, the jaws appear to be fairly wide, so it is probably not whatever the common one is. Spotted brown Ancistrus are found in many parts of South America and look very similar, so we may never know what the species is.

[naturalart]

Thank you for your response. Im sure its not a typical ancistrus sp. The fins are too clear.

[Jools]

OK, let's see if we can get to the bottom of this one. Where did it come from? A wild import or something else? It looks a bit like some of the common Ancistrus colour varieties (e.g. an early version of the calico strain) but it can't be that if it's wild.


What makes you think it's not an

Ancistrus

?

Cheers,

Jools

[naturalart]

Thanks Jools. Oh I believe its an ancistrus sp. It does have a few snout tubercles, so I think its a female. The pics dont show it but the fins are pretty clear. I purchased it labeled as dwarf ancistrus sp. from a lfs in Seattle Washington around 4/'11 . The owner said it was wild caught and raised the price on me. I could tell he didn't want to part with it but I really wanted it. I also purchased another 'dwarf' ancistrus that was in with it. This fish was a little 'honeycombed' or net-patterned fish similar to L393 or Rio Tocantins.

[Jools]

Are you sure it's not

Delturus sp(l238)

? Can we have more pics?

Cheers,

Jools

[naturalart]

If you look at pic 3 above (ventral) you can see the tubercles around the mouth. I'll try and get some better pics... its going to be tricky catching her.

[Jools]

I'm not sure I can tell much from these pics (they're not bad pics) but it I'm not sure this is a wild caught variety at all. We know that it was in a tank with wild caught Ancistrus and that the retailer sold you it as wild caught at a (slightly?) higher price.

If it were me, I'd label it as common (albeit not the normal form - note that several of the new forms have clear fins) but there is no way I can rule out it's something else at all.

Maybe more pics would help, maybe not. Sorry I can't be more definitive.

Jools