Is this Parotocinclus spilosoma??

Steen · Post by **Steen** » 25 Feb 2003, 23:21

I bought these small fellows a few years ago and have named them P. spilosoma. But is that their right name. At the lfs they were with a load of LDA25/pitbull's.
It's the last to pic's
http://photo.starblvd.net/Steen?st=album&pg=0

Post by **Silurus** » 26 Feb 2003, 02:07

Most of the pics I have seen of P. spilosoma (that is presuming they are identfied correctly in the first place) don't seem to have spots on the fins.
I can check the original description tomorrow to see if this is true.

Achim · Post by **Achim** » 26 Feb 2003, 10:36

Hi,

the Parotocinclus species imported with Parotocinclus jumbo (=LDA25) is often said to be Parotocinclus spilosoma, but noone ever really checked this afaik.
The picture of Parotocinclus spilosoma in Fowlers description shows no spots at all:

Young fish of Parotocinclus sp. "Recife" (like we call the Parotocinclus that are imported alongside with Parotocinclus jumbo in Germany) sometimes show some spots in the fins, older ones loose them.
I think the species should be called Parotocinclus sp. "Recife" at least until someone compares preserved fish with Fowler's description.

Achim

[edited @ 18:30 CET]

Steen · Post by **Steen** » 26 Feb 2003, 23:31

well Ok thanks, it's always nice to know what's svimming in the tank's. I would like to spawn these fish if I just had some room fore it. They are very cute and peacefully and not seen in the shops that often at least not i Denmark.

Post by **Silurus** » 27 Feb 2003, 00:58

I think there may not be a name for the yellow-spotted Parotocinclus. Lacerda & Seidel (1996) used the name P. haroldoi for the yellow-spotted species, but I checked the original description and it doesn't look like the yellow-spotted form.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 27 Feb 2003, 01:12

Hi!

EVERS/SEIDEL state that this fish is very close to P.haraldoi and checking the pics in the Welsatlis this one looks more like haroldoi than sp. "recife"...to me at least...they also note that the original description misses the spots as they arent found in preserved specimens...

on a sidenote in the sp. "recife" article they mention planetcatfish.com

greetings
C

Achim · Post by **Achim** » 27 Feb 2003, 11:48

Hi,

there are at least 3 different yellow spotted Variants or species of Parotocinclus:
Parotocinclus haroldoi
Parotocinclus sp. "Recife"
Parotocinclus sp. "Pernambuco" (this one seems only to be a variant of Parotocinclus sp. "Recife")

Especially young fish of Parotocinclus sp. "Recife" that sit on a dark substrate look like Parotocinclus haroldoi. This fish looked very much alike Steens when it was young (its about 6 years old on the photo). The fact that Steens fish were imported with Parotocinclus jumbo confirmes that this isn't Parotocinclus haroldoi. Parotocinclus haroldoi isn't in the aquarium trade (at least afaik). Parotocinclus haroldoi's dots are smaller ad more regular.

they also note that the original description misses the spots as they arent found in preserved specimens

Do they write this in the Welsatlas (can't check right now)? Thats interesting, because i read an article where they said they don't loose the spots when being preserved. May of course be true anyway, because as far as i can recall Fowler's fish were preserved quite some time when he described them.

Greetings... Achim.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 27 Feb 2003, 14:16

@achim its written in the P.haroldoi article