Unidentified doradidae being brought in by Jeff Rapps/TUIC

Hey catfish peeps!? Jeff was nice enough to share some pics of a potential import from Peru he maybe getting in soon with me and I figured I'd share it here and see if anyone's got any ideas on a I.D. as well as gauge some interest. The catfish is a Doradidae of some sort and seems to grow to around 24 inches(my guess by the market pics). Dead specimens pictured in the market seem to be yellow/orange in color running along their bellies with all the trademark dora features such as the armored flanks while from above the body is mottled with spots and having a head in my opinion very similar to Pterodoras or Centrodoras. Here's some pics for you guys to drool over(I know I am).

Sooo any ideas on I.D. or are you like me who cares I wants one? ​

divemaster99 said:

I want one alright! Question is whether I can find room for another 75 gallon to grow one out, my 75 is currently stocked full with catfish.

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Lol! I knew you'd want one, you've become quite the cat fanatic.

krichardson said:

Could this be my long sought after Lithodoras dorsalis?

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Sorry krich, I don't think it's a Litho, though I could be wrong. I've seen people say they kept Lithos including TBTB on here and I don't think these guy are Lithos based on the pictures shared. The Lithos seem to have a white to tan belly and solid upper coloration while these guys have a yellow orange belly and a mottled top coloration which is pretty unusual for the larger doradidae, with Irwini/Uranoscopas being the only one I can recall right now with having a mottled top side. Yet even in that case this species differs as it has a mottled appearance on it's dorsal surface more inline with Irwini's ventral pattern then with Iwini's dorsal pattern and further differs from Irwini in having no pattern on it's ventral surface. Here's some pics of Lithos that I've seen.

Too true, I've seen the orange coloration in dead specimens of Lithos as well but then again I've seen it in some other dead Doradidae specimen pics. I've wondered if it's often because of some preservation process used by collectors who take the pics that wind up on catfish I.D.'s that causes the yellow coloration of the dead specimens. In this case however the pics of the dead cats are at market being sold as food so they shouldn't be under any preservation process that a collector might use I think. Also the first pic is of living juvies in a suppliers holding tank and you can see they have the yellow coloration on their ventral surface as well so the coloration in this case seems to be naturally occurring even in living specimens.