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These fish are being sold as "Ancistrus tamboensis". Is correct this ID? A. tamboensis = L089?






Thanks in advance

HI!

It does look quite a bit like it. IT would be better if you have a picture of your fish while ha has his pattern when settle in/down...

Here is a pic:
http://www.welskeller.de/angebote/photos/089.jpg
Cheers
Yann

Even though its not 100% clear I would be in faviour of A.tamboensis.

Your fish might be A. tamboensis OR it might be L 89, but it can not be both. A. tamboensis comes from the Rio Ucayali in Peru and L 89 was shipped from Manaus, Brazil.
-Shane

Shane is there any way to differentiate between the two without location information?

Magnum,
The truth is that I do not know as I have never collected either fish. I am just saying that given where L 89 and A.tamboensis originate from, they can not be the same fish. Part of the problem is that people always want to attach scientific names to Ancistrus spp. based on guesses. There is a chance that A. tamboensis has never been imported. Aquarists love to use the names A. cirrhosus and A. temmincki even though both of these fish come from locations that have probably never exported aquarium fishes.
On a side pet peeve (no pun intended) aquarists (and aquarium magazines) often refuse to change their old habits. The last Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine issue had a photo showing Farlowella vittata captioned as "F. acus." never mind that F. acus is almost extinct in the wild, is limited to a few streams in a small area, and has certainly never been exported. Hobbyists still call the blue-eyed Panaque P. suttonorum (or worse P. suttoni) when we have known for sometime that it is actually P. cochliodon. People make mistakes when identifying fishes (as a certain scientist did when mixing up these two Panaque) and that is just a fact. That said, I see no sense in running around trying to attach scientific names to fishes based on guesses alone. I think that aquarium club breeder's award programs (BAPs) are one of the reasons this happens so often. Many BAPs require a scientific name in order to give out points for spawning a fish so the aquarist just makes a guess.
-Shane