Mystery Pseudacanthicus looking for true identity

Judazzz · Post by **Judazzz** » 06 Apr 2007, 17:20

Hey all,
yesterday I stumbled upon one of the best deals I have found so far: I've always wanted more Cactus Pleco's, but they are very hard to come by in my area. So to my great astonishment my favorite LFS had a gorgeous 6,5" black and greyish white spotted Pseudacanthicus in one of their tanks, labelled as L160 (which it isn't, me thinks). The best part of it: I only paid 19 Euro's (25 bucks US) for it!
I've been looking in my Pleco books (Datz and Mergus) what species it may be, but I'm still undecided. I found three possible candidates: L097, L282 and L320. The first two are imho. a bit doubtful, as they have very bright spots (yellowish for L097, and white for L282, according to Mergus), and also L320 only has spots when young (I don't know at what age/size they start to loose them). In the Cat-eLog I also noticed Pseudacanthicus sp.(4), which may also be a candidate...

So my question is whether you peeps can help me out finding the true identity of this phantastic-looking pleco.

Here's a few pics: he wasn't very cooperative, and mainly hangs out in the back of the tank. The close-up was possible because he latched onto the front wall for a short while, but too far from either side to get a good profile shot.

Note the pale greyish rather than white spots

Note the tail filaments

Thanks in advance!

Post by **Janne** » 06 Apr 2007, 17:51

I'm quite sure this is , I have seen quite many of them and they are very variable in their pattern. The spots are only white when they are young and turns more yellowish with age and size, some species have very few or almost lack the spots.

Janne

Judazzz · Post by **Judazzz** » 06 Apr 2007, 18:03

Janne wrote:I'm quite sure this is
Pseudacanthicus sp(L097)
, I have seen quite many of them and they are very variable in their pattern. The spots are only white when they are young and turns more yellowish with age and size, some species have very few or almost lack the spots.

Janne

That makes sense. I currently have no internet connection at home, so all I have access to are the information and the few pictures in the books I have. But after searching the Cat-eLog I can only agree with you about the color/amount of spots.
Thanks a lot for your quick feedback!