PlanetCatfish.com

What is the main diffrence between all the diffrent types of Zebra plecos.
L46,l333,l236,l173 Etc.

That is easy there is only one zebra pleco which has been identified/described as a species. All the others are not zebras and only have L numbers. I have kept and bred zebras, L236 regular and super white and L173b and the real L173. I have one of the few wild caught groups of L173. I also kept some L333 but they did not breed in my tanks. I had to sell them to accept and incoming group of 13 proven breeder zebras and a few of their fry..

L236 and L173, both the B and regular, get much bigger than zebras as doo the L333. The True 173 also grows extremely slowly it takes a few years before they reach sexual maturity.

While some of the L number plecos are called zebra something as a common name, I do not accept that name as being close to valid because they are not even close to being a true Hypancistus zebra.

If you go the site page for any Hypancistrus at the top of the page is the scientific infor, At the end is a white box with a drop down menu. Click it and all the various Hypans. will appear. Almost all of them are L numbers. At the top of the list are some of the identified species at the start of the alphabet. And then at the bottom of the L numbers are thoae species named as well which is where you will see zebra as the bottom of the alphabet for described species mamed is there.

Check out this thread L066, L236, L287, L333, L399 & L400 = Hypancistrus seideli and L174 = Hypancistrus yudja https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=53185