Different between Blue eyes Panaques

[msafdel]

Hi
What is differents between Blue eyes Panaques:
- Blue Eyed Royal Pleco
- Colombian Blue Eyed Pleco
- Venezuelan Blue Eye Panaque

how can i determin which?

thanks

[SLIMESLAYER10]

pretty sure blue eyed royals and Venezuelan blue eye's are the same species. Colombian is the different one i believe. theirs articles with pics on the site so i would read those/try and look for differences between them

[DHarris]

As I understand it, Blue Eye Royal is basically just a common marketing name.

Venezuelan Blue Eye is Panaque Suttoni. It's far less common and potentially more expensive. I've heard it's more aggressive but I've not owned one so can't speak to that.

Colombian Blue Eye is Panaque Cochliodon. Somewhat readily available.

When seeing them together, the differences are apparent.

This is the Suttoni (not my picture). Slightly deeper body, smaller eyes and rougher or more spiny sides.

This is Cochliodon (mine). A sleeker body, though I think mine may be a female and I've seen what I thought was a male which had a bit deeper body - I could be mistaken on this. Either way, still not as deep as Suttoni. The Cochliodon is a darker grey/black. Larger and brighter blue eyes, higher dorsal, longer tail extensions and smooth sides.

There are likely other differences but this is typically what I look for when comparing.

[Jools]

Just to note there is a lot written about this elsewhere in the site including a long thread getting to our current view on the species.

Panaque suttonorum

(P. suttoni is incorrect) has likely never been in the hobby. The higher bodied fish shown in the post immediately above is

Panaque cochliodon

from the lower Rio Magdalena / Cauca, the other on is

Panaque cf_cochliodon`upper_magdalena`

.

Jools