How Do You ID an unknown or uncertain Loricariid catfish?

Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
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SurWrathful
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Joined: 25 Jul 2003, 13:17

How Do You ID an unknown or uncertain Loricariid catfish?

Post by SurWrathful »

Hi everyone:

My question may be very general or detailed, depend upon your own methods for identifying a catfish. I would like to know if there is a standard method for identifying a loricariid, and if there is, where would you start? Or, what are some ways we can try to identify our loricariids. Personally, I have one that is uncertain to me because when I bought it at this fish store, there wasn't any proper ID on him(her?). Oftentimes, the people who work in the store don't even have a clue about the fish they sell. All I can say is the fish grew fairly quickly. And what fascinated me when I first saw him at the store was that he had a nice tint of red on the edge of his pectoral and caudal fins. Please help me ID this fish, or tell me ways in which a loricariid can be identified, if possible. Thank you all!
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Silurus
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Post by Silurus »

The most common ways of identifying loricariids are (not necessarily in order of importance):

Overall shape of the fish
Color pattern (this usually works fairly well)
Odontode morphology and distribution (if any)
Tooth morphology

If you can post a picture of the fish, the people here will gladly identify it for you.
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