PlanetCatfish.com

Hi everyone:

My question may be very general or detailed, depend upon your own methods for identifying a catfish. I would like to know if there is a standard method for identifying a loricariid, and if there is, where would you start? Or, what are some ways we can try to identify our loricariids. Personally, I have one that is uncertain to me because when I bought it at this fish store, there wasn't any proper ID on him(her?). Oftentimes, the people who work in the store don't even have a clue about the fish they sell. All I can say is the fish grew fairly quickly. And what fascinated me when I first saw him at the store was that he had a nice tint of red on the edge of his pectoral and caudal fins. Please help me ID this fish, or tell me ways in which a loricariid can be identified, if possible. Thank you all!

The most common ways of identifying loricariids are (not necessarily in order of importance):

Overall shape of the fish
Color pattern (this usually works fairly well)
Odontode morphology and distribution (if any)
Tooth morphology

If you can post a picture of the fish, the people here will gladly identify it for you.