We've had several batches of these come in during the last half of the year last year. Beautiful fish but very hard to take care of. Water should be pristine, very very clean all the time. They are very delicate when it comes to water. Even if they were at the lfs for more than 5 months, chances are if they were moved to a less suitable environment they would not last more than two months in the new home. Not very hardy.
Macondo2 had a number of these recently but has only one now. Even Plecoman (from the 1st PC forum) had six of them at one point but none lasted. He may have one now but it maybe different because the lfs named it ...negrofasiatum (?). The long pointed lyetails that the microps usually have do slowly grow back but again with the proper conditions and a very cycled tank.
Not so sure how much they're supposed to go for or how rare they are. They went for the equivalent of US$ 50 not a couple of months back for >6"-10"ers. By the way, they are worth the price and are very beautiful.
During the old forum we had the thread named under the "long plecos" thread. Most of the items were answered by Yann
Mike D.