Rubber Lipped Pleco Verification?

[Orion]

Bought what was sold as a Rubber Liped Pleco today ( yay me), and I asked what other naming information she could give me and she said the L-number was L-146. Well according to www.planetcatfish.com, rubber lipped pleco and L-146 are two different species. Altho under the rubber lipped pleco, there is a picture that looks almost identical to the L-146.

I will post an atatchment of the fish I bought right after this post, will need to edit down size.

Also, planetcatfish was lacking some information on these species and I have been unable to find anything worth anything on the web, so any thing anybody else would like to add would be great. If memory serves, rubber lipped plecos dont get over 5 in or so.

 

[Orion]

Heres the Pic.

 

[Lotus]

That looks just like what I bought as a rubberlipped pleco. From everything I have seen on the web, you have a rubberlipped.

There doesn't seem to be much info on them online. The closest I could get was a Chaetostoma cf. thomsoni L178b, but I am not even sure that's exactly right. They do stay at around 4 or 5".

Mine are cute, but pretty shy. They are very fast, too. If you startle them they go flying for cover. I usually see mine at night on the front glass. They seem pretty hardy, too.

 

[Orion]

Well at least my searching skills havent gotten worse and Im not the only one who has had trouble finding info on this fish.

Thanks Lotus.

Also this week I bought a Clown Pleco, and will go back later this coming week to get some more if they are healthy. ( Some tank mates at the LFS have had some bacteria infections)

 

[Lotus]

Sometimes planetcatfish can be overwhelming when you only have a common name. I must have spent hours on there trying to ID fish.

Those clown/candystripe plecos are another difficult-to-really-identify one. We got two a while back from the same tank, but I am pretty sure they're not the same species as eachother.

 

[Orion]

Couldnt they just start all over with a new naming system?

'Ok, this ones Andy, thats Bob, this is Fred, Over there is Lenny.......)

Then We could ask questions like 'What can I feed Lenny?'

LOL, sorry, just woke up.

 

[Firebug]

Here is a link about rubber lipped plecos...but your's doesn't look like the one in this link! I wonder if you have a Chaetostoma cf. thomsoni L178b, likeLotus said?http://www.fishinthe.net/html/fishguide/fishguide_fish.php?FC=197&nl=&nt=1
HTH

 

[Lotus]

That's the spotted version. The body/head shape are pretty similar.

Most of the time with plecs I just give up after getting a species name From what I understand, a "common plec" is a mix of more than 200 different species. I guess they all looked similar enough that no one wanted to ID them all individually.

Some of the people over on the planetcatfish forums seem to know a lot, though. They do all sorts of things like count the rays on the dorsal fin etc.

I figure as long as they are happy, don't grow bigger than I expected and I see them at least occasionally, I should be grateful

 

[Firebug]

Ooohhh, sorry,my bad then!

 

[Orion]

Originally posted by Lotus
I figure as long as they are happy, don't grow bigger than I expected and I see them at least occasionally, I should be grateful

*sigh* Yeah I tend to agree with you Lotus. It is quite hard to 100% agree about a species.

Well for all general reasons, I will state that I have a Rubber Lipped Pleco. Close enough for me.

Many thanks to both of you!