PlanetCatfish.com

Please can u help to identify this plec which was sold as a peruvian butterfly plec!

Looks like

?

Martin S wrote:

Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus

?

I'd say P. gibbiceps - it's got the large sailfin dorsal of gibbiceps.

And of course, butterfly pleco is one of these , which it ABSOLUTELY isn't - if you just bought it, I'd take it back and say "That's not what it is, can I have the right one/money back". Of course, if you bought it small and it's grown to 8+ inches now, then that's a different matter.

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Mats

omg it is a p gibby, lfs i was told it would only grow 9" and was a butterfly plec now it seems it will be over 17", lovely fish though good excuse to get a bigger tank in the future!

uknavynigel wrote:omg it is a p gibby, lfs i was told it would only grow 9" and was a butterfly plec now it seems it will be over 17", lovely fish though good excuse to get a bigger tank in the future!

Not all will grow to 17", but it certainly should [given suitable care and space] grow past 9".

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Mats

MatsP wrote:

Martin S wrote:

Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus

?

I'd say P. gibbiceps - it's got the large sailfin dorsal of gibbiceps.

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Mats

Yes, OK I see it now
Thanks
Martin

Where are my manners, a great big thanks to you all for giving up the time to id the fish, youre grrrreat.

uknavynigel wrote:Where are my manners, a great big thanks to you all for giving up the time to id the fish, youre grrrreat.

Thanks for the thanks, but this one is about as easy as they get (once you've been around here long enough to have seed several dozen at least - it's a different story with those Hypancistrus from around Rio Xingu and around the same area on the northern shore of the Amazon - they are HARD to tell apart).

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Mats

MatsP wrote: Thanks for the thanks, but this one is about as easy as they get
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Mats

Hey
I can only answer the easy ones

the dorsal fin of a healthy joselimaianus is also big and sailshaped
check here: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=7868

there is a far more easy way to seperate these 2, and it's quite obvious too: the coloration.

a brown fish with orange 'network' superimposed over the brown background color (reticulated pattern) -> gibbips

a brown fish with orange spots -> joselimaianus


actually this makes these 2 species like 1 is an inverted version of the other!

is the gibby perhaps an orange fish with brown spots?
or the joselimaianus an orange fish with a brown network?


you can already see this in 1" fish.......

MatsP wrote:

uknavynigel wrote:omg it is a p gibby, lfs i was told it would only grow 9" and was a butterfly plec now it seems it will be over 17", lovely fish though good excuse to get a bigger tank in the future!

Not all will grow to 17", but it certainly should [given suitable care and space] grow past 9".

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Mats

Mine did in a year (in a big tank)