Polka Dots / Snowball - How to clearly identify

[PhilipAsh]

Hi all.

My name is Phil. I am a new member, just de-lurking.

I was in my LFS today, and they have some Polkadots/Snowballs, they believed to be Baryancistrus.
They arent exactly certain however.

Does anyone have a fairly reliable method of telling these species apart?

I would particularly like to be clear on adult size, and water parameters prior to purchase.

For what it is worth, they were about 2-3 inches in length, so juvenile. They had a few large white spots on a very black body.

Any assistance would be gratefully recieved.


Phil.
PS are polkadots and snowballs interchangable when talking about these fish?

[Jools]

Phil,

First of all, nice to meet you the other day at the catfish convention.

Common names (especially in relation to plecos) are verging on useless for ID purposes. As you will have learnt at the convention, common name differ from dealer to dealer or indeed from country to country or decade to decade.

The two fish most commonly called snowballs (there are tens of species called polka dots) are L102 and LDA33. The first is a species of Hypancistrus and the second a Baryancistrus it would appear.

How to tell them apart?
B has a more gentle slope to its forehead than H. B has more and larger pads of teeth than H which have only a few teeth. B has a flap of skin connecting the posterior base of the dorsal fin to the front of the adipose fin plate. I think I have pictures of this somewhere - it is a feature shared by B, Spectracanthicus and Oligancistrus.

Jools

[PhilipAsh]

Thanks Jools.

I was nice to meet you too. I found the day very interesting. Ingo and Hans were excellent speakers. Please pass on my thanks to them.

I did actually do a bit of digging around prior to asking the question.
I found myself buried under a load of information which led me to believe that if they are juveniles, I am very lucky to be able to clearly identify them.
There are just so many options
Scobiancistrus,Hypancistrus, Baryancistrus etc.

I think i might try and have a look at the teeth. I am interested in the smaller species, rather than say the Scobi.
Just from cursory examination, they dont look like Hypa.

Any idea which ones are most commonly imported to the UK?

Does anyone have a guide size for the Baryancistrus (LDA33) ?

Many thanks.

Phil.

[polkadot]

Sorry to cut the thread, but can I confirm that mine is a LDA33?

[kgroenhoej]

Hi Polkadot,

for what's worth: I think it's a LDA33.

-Klaus

[mokmu]

Here, try this other thread on this same site to make your life a bit moe complicated or a bit clearer depending on where you stand on it:

http://forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=154