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Just got 5 of these awesome spotted plecos. The one in the photo is 3 inches.
Black/Dark Green body with Yellowish/White spots.
L201 or H. Contradens?

This looks like L201 to me because of the smaller spots.

Thanks for the quick reply. I agree, H. contradens tend to have slightly larger spots but it seems to vary from fish to fish. Does anyone know of any other differences between the two?

According to the Cat-eLog: "H. contradens has a higher body than H. sp(L201)."... I will try to get a decent profile shot to get your opinions.

Here's a profile and mouth shot...

It looks like it has a caved in belly in the reflection.


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Doesn't H. contradens have a dark border along the distal edge of it's dorsal fin?

apistomaster wrote:Doesn't H. contradens have a dark border along the distal edge of it's dorsal fin?

Perusing the Cat-eLog shows that this isn't obvious or consistent across H. contradens specimens. You are probably thinking H. inspector, where this character is much more obvious.

Sorry to say, but that fish doesn't look long for this world. See the sunken eyes and belly.

Do a forum search to find some threads on getting these emaciated fish back to health.

In future I would not purchase fish in such a condition.

matti2uude wrote:It looks like it has a caved in belly in the reflection.


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It looks like two of them are a little concave in the stomach area. I hope they don't have any parasites as they are wild caught. I haven't found anything specific online as far as causes or treatments. My only thought is to offer more food.

I have added english cucumber, algae wafers, blood worms, and brine shrimp. Later this evening I will remove any excess food, replace anything eaten, and perform a water change. Any other ideas are welcomed.

Well new fish from the wild often haven't eaten for quite some time before you get them, so a sunken belly may not necessarily be sign of disease.

If the starved fish are eating, then it should recover okay providing it doesn't have any parasites. Warm (>27C), well aerated water will help.

I treat all my newly imported wild Discus and Plecos with a combination of metroniadazole, praziquantel and flubendazole.
These drugs complement each other and cover a wide range of parasites without stressful side effects.
The duration of the treatment I use is 3 to 4 weeks. I replace the amount of medications I remove when I make water changes and have had good results using this approach.

Even though this treatment regime works well I don't save every fish with advanced stages of infestations.

Suckermouth - That is veryencouraging information.

Racoll - I purchased them online so I never had a chance to preview them. I've increased the temp to 83°F (28.3°C) and added an additional air stone.

It's hard to tell who is eating what, but it does look like these guys are eating the blood worms and brine shrimp. Thanks guys for spotting the sunken stomachs, I'm new to plecos and wouldn't have noticed until it was too late.

apistomaster wrote:I treat all my newly imported wild Discus and Plecos with a combination of metroniadazole, praziquantel and flubendazole.

Funny, I just copied this list from your advice in another post from 2 years ago! Good to know your recommendation still stands. In your experience are these usually available at LFS or should I just order online?

I purchased them online so I never had a chance to preview them.

One of the sacrifices of the convenience of online purchases. I would be slightly annoyed at the vendor, actually. Fish in that condition shouldn't be sold until they are better, and they should have checked them before they were sent to you.

It's hard to tell who is eating what, but it does look like these guys are eating the blood worms and brine shrimp.

That's good. A combination of Hikari algae wafers and high quality, fresh frozen bloodworm will be hard to resist for most Hypancistrus.

Later this evening I will remove any excess food, replace anything eaten, and perform a water change.

Good plan. It's easy for water quality to suffer when you are encouraging new fish to feed.

Let us know how how you get on.

AquaticKEN wrote:

apistomaster wrote:I treat all my newly imported wild Discus and Plecos with a combination of metroniadazole, praziquantel and flubendazole.

Funny, I just copied this list from your advice in another post from 2 years ago! Good to know your recommendation still stands. In your experience are these usually available at LFS or should I just order online?

You can buy Hikari PraziPro(praziquantel) from most well stocked fish shops or on line aquarium supply houses.
I buy 10% flubendazole powder from Charles Harrison.
www.inkmkr.com/fish.
Flubendazole powder isn't very soluble in water so I make the dose up as a suspension and then pour it into the aquarium.
I have used this cocktail in planted tanks without incurring any noticeable harm to the plants but I recommend carrying out all treatments in bare treatment/quarantine tanks.
Charles has said in talks that flubendazole also works well in the treatment of Ich and Velvet although I have never had the occasion to try this out.
flubendazole is the best medication for elimination of Hydra infestations should you ever need to deal with them. It takes very low doses to eliminate Hydras.
I use about 1/4 tsp of 10% flubendazole/10 gal of tank water for parasites.

Ok, so it has been a busy week trying to fatten these guys up in a partially-cycled tank. However, after adding some BioSpira and some mature media from a friend's tank I am finally seeing zero Nitrites . I'll try to get a good photo of their new plump bellies.

So now I think they are ready for some preventative treatment. I picked up API General Cure, which contains both Metronidazole and Praziquantel. I plan on starting treatment tomorrow and maybe a round of flubendazole in the near future.

As for the identification, I am pretty convinced they are L201 and not contradens. Thank you all for the valuable information and critical help in keeping these L201 alive and healthy.

I think they are L201 too.