Pure, P.C., other pleco people.... name this pleco

straitjacket

straitjacket

Large Fish
#21
Mar 21, 2004
495
2
0
Los Angeles, CA
www.freewebs.com
#21
Yes I did look at the pictures. Quite closely. The fish is L. pardalis. L. pardalis is variable in pattern and may have spots as well, the spots may even cover more of the body than striations but striations are present somewhere on the body. H. plecostomus do not have these reticulations or striations in pattern on the body.
Hypostomus aren't so uncommon that they can't be found, there are some at my LFS just now and I have pictures of Hypostomus sp. from past visits, they are obviously different from L. pardalis. Even when young. The fish in question is not uniformly spotted and even blotches on the flanks and toward the caudal.
IMO The body shape of the fish pictured agrees with the body shape of very young L. pardalis, it does not agree with the shorter and slightly taller head of H. punctatus.
 

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Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#23
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#23
Ya know...terribly sorry after. looking at them both a bit closer I do believe you are correct. Now I have a beef with my resource who I will not mention. The majority of the pics on the ID page for that species (even labeled as "Alien!") look nothing like L pardalis.

BTW I edited that post right after I posted it cus I thought it sounded condesending..sorry if the rest of it did too. Wasn't meant that way.
 

straitjacket

straitjacket

Large Fish
#28
Mar 21, 2004
495
2
0
Los Angeles, CA
www.freewebs.com
#28
No beef Pure. I'm cool. :)
You're my plec hero! :D

I'd be crazy if I didn't agree with you about the face of that plec in the last picture. It looks completely off. Might it be a trick of the camera? An odd angel at which the photo was taken?
I still think L. pardalis and while a scrunched head is something hard to overlook I have seen my share of totally gimpy L. pardalis that, I admit, can make them look completely off.
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#29
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#29
Naa not the pic angle. The eye to nose length can't be confused by trick photography. Could even be that the head has summin to do with the sex of the animal. Altho that is a bit of a stretch. Wouldn't be the first time. Even if it is undocumented. With most Hypancistrus this is the dead give away as to what sex the animal is when it is still too young for a female to hold eggs.
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#30
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#30
Well, it is a bowfront, but the bow isn't as steep as most bowfronts. I can't get him out to check his head, when he comes out I'll try to get a good look at his head.

Pure, I figured as much about the sizes, I was hoping he would get rather large, when he is full grown, how bad will it limit the fish he can be around? Despite tank size. I would guess small fish like neons and guppies woulden't be a great idea, but what all should I look into when picking tankmates for a giant pleco? I have never had a pleco over 8" before.
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#31
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#31
Well really the only other fish you wouldn't want to keep with him (unless you have a very large tank) would be other plecos close to or the same size as he is. they normally could care less about other tank mates as long as they stay out of his cave.
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#33
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#33
A 125 would be pushing it, and may not work...They would probably want to take up residency in a cave at opposite ends of the tank. With that bioload in that tank you wouldn't be able to keep much else in there....Maybe an Oscar.
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#34
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#34
Oh, that works, I was thinking I'd want something like a 220 if I got another one, People get rid of them all the time and I feel bad for the poor guys, they really should at least warn people when they sell them, I can't afford to rescue them all.
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#36
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#36
Yeah, I hate that, I want to rescue everything LOL, I have a houseful and I am nowhere near done, we're looking for a bigger place. Everytime I see people giving fish away I want to take them, like this tank I bought, a commet, pleco, and 10-20 snails in a 7 gallon tank. Someone would have most likely kept them in that tank untill they either died, or coulden't turn around. :(
 

Pure

Pure

Elite Fish
#37
Nov 1, 2005
3,216
7
0
Jacksonville, FL
#37
Indeed...Ya know a good friend of mine has over time built her entire fish room of 60+ tanks from garage sale buys. That is no joke. She just gave me (have no clue to the brand name) a 30 gal sump filter with media, pump, over flow, and UV sterilizer. Cause she didn't want to bother with learning how it worked. She scored a 220 gal tank that had this filter for 80 bucks. :eek: Now out of all her tanks most are 30 and 40 gals with only a handful being 10s. She did tell me that 10s are the most common ones found, but just turned her nose up at them unless she needed one. This does take some time. She spent the better part of 3 yrs collecting these tanks. But has only spent a fraction of the cost I've spent on my tanks. So if you have the time this is a really good option for us fish nuts. Me well I didn't have the luxury of time so all of my tanks are new, but now that I know this and do need more tanks you can bet your a** I will be going to garage sales in the future.
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#38
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#38
LOL I do garage sales, but I surf craigslist and freecycle while I'm on MFT and doing other things online and I find alot, I have 7 tanks up and running from 5 gal to 75gal and the 2 at my mom's and I have 2 with snakes in them, and probablt 10 sitting around empty from 10gal to 47gal LOL. I just sold one of my 3 47gals friday because it had a leak and I didn't want to deal wiht it. This guy had 2 cane toads (4" a piece) and expected them to live out their lives in a 10gal, so I cut him a deal and threw in some extras.
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#39
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
4
0
Michigan
#39
I forgot to mention, most of these tanks were free, some with filters and decor and all, the others I paid minimal ammounts for.

My 75gal was on E-bay and just so happened to be 20 mins. from my parents house, the buy it now was $150 but the bid was up to $200 so the buy it now was gone and he had 20 people who were watching the auction. I told him I would pick it up that weekend if I could pay the buy it now price of $150. He made the deal and canceled the auction. This is how I got it, tank, nice stand, full hood with lights and an extra light, heater, UGF and HOT Maginum filter, bunch of decor, lots of extra media, parts, everything and more. Even at $150 that is more than I have paid for any tank by a landslide.




There was a woman who moved into a house with 2 tanks she said were 6'lx3't and 8'lx3.5't (didn't tell how wide they were) and she filled them with water and let them sit for a few days, said they had no leaks or scratches, but she didn't want them, so she was giving them away for free, I jumped at that, but she got over 800 e-mails about them, go figure! LOL
 

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