What Leporacanthicus I keep.

[Radim]

In the spring 2021 I bought 4 pcs of some Leporacanthicus. It´s direct import from Rio Ventuari. At first they were presented as L473, but I´m sure my fishes are totaly different. My fishes are from 7-12 cm now. They´r absolutely amazing and I would like to know what species I keep. Please help. Radim

[Jools]

Beautiful fishes. They look like

L240

to me.

Jools

[sturiosoma]

Definitely not L240 as I used to breed those I'm going to venture to say sp1 scribbled

Jeanne

[Radim]

I don´t think they are L240. I keep L240 too, but this one looks realy differently. I see the Leporacanthicus sp1 - https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/sp ... es_id=7556 shows similar orange elongated markes, but my fish are different.... much more beautiful.

[Jools]

If you'd asked is this a new L-number, then it could be a candidate - for sure. But the question was "What Leporacanthicus [do] I keep" and "what species [do] I keep"? I think the answer is the undescribed Northern / Rio Orinoco species that includes L240, and L. sp(1).

So, to write this out longhand, from a species perspective, I'm pretty comfortable that these are the species that

L240

will be described as when that eventually happens. This is because of the source locality and the general shape of the fish. Nice patterns make new l-numbers but I don't think will be used to make these new species - this happens quite often, for example with

Baryancistrus xanthellus

and its many l-numbers phenotypes (colour forms). I created the L. sp(1) entry because it had been bred in captivity and so worth keeping separate but again, I'd bet they will be the same species once the research is done.

When these fishes are collected in the wild, most of the prettier ones are hived off in-country and sold to different markets / price points. For example, before

L473

was introduced in DATZ, the source import had a lot of mixed fishes in it - some very pretty, others downright dull. Some I bought (they, I think, are now with @corywally - the CSG chairman), some Ingo Seidel bought, took home to Germany and were the source of

L473

.

I was in Venezuela and later Colombia and looked at many, many tanks of these fishes in the exporters (they're still mostly lumped as 'punta diamonte') until they reach the exporters where they are graded in a sophisticated way. There is a lot of variety before that point in their journey to our tanks.


Hope that makes sense,

Jools

[Radim]

Yes, very well explained. Thank you. I will be looking forward the youngster. I suppose, because of the calour variation, there must be still more beautiful fisches between them.
Once again thank you and have a nice Christmass !
Radim