I found some info on the disappearance of P. sutonii:
Goodbye Panaque Suttoni
Panaque Suttoni is gone, as reported from a local fish vendor today to me. The Blue Eyed Plecostomus (a blue eyed-black bodied algae eater) is said to be gone from the ecosystem. One of two things seem to be the reason..
1. A parasitic outbreak in the region, that Gov't tried to control but ended up destroying most the life in the little ecosystem because of carelessness.
2. An oil spill wiped out the ecosystem where this pleco, and other things lived.
Said to be the only area where the pleco lives in the wild... let's hope someone is breeding them privately or in fish farms.
Piscirickettsiosis and piscirickettsiosis-like infections in fish: a review.
Mauel MJ, Miller DL.
Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory, The University of Georgia, P.O. Box 1389, Tifton, GA 31793, USA.
Piscirickettsia salmonis was the first "rickettsia-like" bacteria to be recognized as a pathogenic agent of fish. Since the first reports of piscirickettsiosis emerged from Chile in the late 1980s, Piscirickettsia-like bacteria have been recognized with increasing frequency in a variety of fish species, from both fresh and saltwaters around the world. Although the first reported incidents of Piscirickettsia were in salmonids, Piscirickettsia-like bacteria are now being frequently associated with disease syndromes in non-salmonid fish. Mortalities have occurred in white seabass (Atactoscion noblis), black seabass (Dicentrarchus sp.), tilapia (Oreochromis, Tilapia and Sarotherodon spp.) and blue-eyed plecostomus (Panaque suttoni). Piscirickettsiosis and piscirickettsiosis-like diseases have affected aquaculture productivity, profitability, the species of fish compatible with commercial rearing, and transportation of fish from site to site. Piscirickettsiosis and syndromes caused by similar bacteria are an emerging disease complex that will increasingly inhibit fish production.
I'm more inclined to believe that resource mismanagement led to over-pollution of the small region where these cats originate. And, pollution led to reduced immunity to diseases not previously seen in this species. Government intervention was either too late to have any beneficial result or inept to the point of either doing no good or committing additional harm to the species (and possibly others).
