Unidentified Chaetostoma(?)

[Martin S]

Found this amongst a tank of fish that were listed as 'spotted bulldog plec', but from what I could see contained a mixture of fish, some with Ancistrus like bristles on the face, and others hard to ID with no tank lights and the tank being at knee level.
This particular one stuck out so after I found out the ridiculous prices of the medusa, angelic and peppermints, I went with this. SL is about 70mm, colour is olive green and the white spots are all over the body and fins. I can't see anything like it under Chaetostoma, anyone got any ideas where I should be looking?

I have a couple more which I'll add to a new post.
Cheers
Martin

[Martin S]

[The.Dark.One]

I didn't think Chaetostoma have evertible cheek odontodes? Looks more like an Ancistrus or Hopliancistrus to me?

[Durlänger]

The mouth points in the Hopliancistrus direction.

[Martin S]

Thanks guys. I guessed it wasn't a Chaetostoma from the shape and the odontodes but didn't think to look at ancistrus or hopliancistrus!
I'll take a look at the latter and come back if I find a match.
Cheers
Martin

[Martin S]

Well, the closest I could find was

Hopliancistrus sp(l017)

, but that has a yellow edging to the caudal, which mine doesn't have.
I'll have to start trawling through

Ancistrus

to see if I can find anything to match!
Thanks again
Martin

[MatsP]

I'd say more Hopliancistrus than Ancistrus, based on body shape and small number of large cheek odontodes.

--
Mats

[Martin S]

I'd say more Hopliancistrus than Ancistrus, based on body shape and small number of large cheek odontodes.

Well it's either missing the yellow edge of

Hopliancistrus sp(l017)

, or it's

Hopliancistrus sp(l422)

but sadly there are no images to compare against! Does anyone have a description for l422?
Thanks
Martin

[Martin S]

Here's a new pic of the mouth and now much more defined odontodes than when it was added a week ago. I'm going back to the store tomorrow to try and find more.

Still no idea whether its a hopliancistrus as can't match it with any of the fish with images present.
Martin

[Martin S]

Still keen to put an ID to this one - went back to the LFS and they have a tank of similar looking fish (though it does look like the tank this one came from is no longer there) but they have them listed as Ancistrus sp. one of the smaller ones had a lot of bristles, but was not 100% sure they were the same fish as mine so did not want to risk coming home with another different fish.
Thanks
Martin

[magdalo]

Last year, I had one too. It came in with a group of Panaque Maccus and I got it only for $10.00. It was around 2 inches long. Initially, thought I had some kind of a Chaetostoma based on its head shape and mouth. It was a very voracious eater, liked carnivore pellets and cory tabs. Doing really well, until one morning I found it lying on the floor lifeless. Make sure you don't have open spaces where yours can jump off. Good luck.

[Martin S]

Yours could well be a Chaetostoma, shame you lost it.

[magdalo]

I doubt it. Nobody here was able to identify it too. Looks more like the same as yours, especially when not under stress colouration.

[Martin S]

Yes, sorry - just realised it was much smaller than mine. Did you ever see if it had evertible cheek odontodes, like those in ancistrus?

[magdalo]

Yes, like that of the Ancistrus Ranunculus.

[Martin S]

Bumping this back up, here's a photo of the fish now - very dark background colour with tiny spots all over.

Are there any known images of L422 to compare against?
Thanks
Martin

[Martin S]

Moot point now as just got home from work to find it had moved up to the big aquarium in the sky!
Be nice to know what it was, based on the photos.
Cheers
Martin