What type of pleco do I have? Hypancistrus sp. L411?

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FishaPrice
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What type of pleco do I have? Hypancistrus sp. L411?

Post by FishaPrice »

Need help to ID some plecos. I bought these 3 fish as L260 queen arabesque from AquaBid a while back, but I don’t think that’s what they are. I have a large group of L260 and these look very different from my L260. Where L260 is a very dark (near black) fish with highly contrasting fine white lines, these fish are much lighter grey but do have similar arabesque patterned lines. The small lines on these fish are not bright white as in L260. They don’t have the sharp color contrast that L260 has. They grew another half inch or so since I got them, but recently they haven’t grown much, so I expect there are full adult size or close to it. I think they range between 3.5"-4" long. They seem to be just a little bigger than my L260. I keep several types of Hypancistrus species, and for many reasons (general appearance, body shape, mouth/tooth structure, preferred diet) I believe these are a Hypancistrus species. My best guess is that these are L411, but let me know what you think!

They were purchased from a popular AquaBid seller who appears to directly import lots of plecos. Unfortunately the seller wouldn't respond to me when I started asking questions about their catch location and if they were actually L260. I wasn't trying to get a refund, I just wanted to know what L number I actually have here. I realize that sometimes exporters send you the wrong fish, but knowing what river they came from would have been helpful.

In these images they are displaying a little bit of stress colors, but not too much. Even when they are settled down and happy in their aquarium they pretty much look like this.
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bekateen
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Re: What type of pleco do I have? Hypancistrus sp. L411?

Post by bekateen »

Hi @FishaPrice,

Those are nice looking fish. Yes they are Hypancistrus, and I see what you mean about them not looking like . I still can't rule out L260, and I'm not acquainted with , but that seems reasonable. Hopefully someone else can confirm or refute.

Cheers, Eric
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