Hypostomus but which one?

[tRiP]

Howdy folks, this guy was sold to me as a common pleco when it was a baby approx 2 years ago, but it's markings and color are different than the "normal" common that I see on here. I've got it down to the Hypostomus family, I'm just not sure what species. Me and Liz (Red Devil)have been trying to figure it out today, Liz came up with punctatus and I thought it looked like ( this ) L356. Any help would be appreciated, thanks

It used to eat mostly algae wafers, zucchini, romaine lettuce and other greens but since April he's been ignoring all veggies and just going after meatier foods like market shrimp, shrimp pellets, haddock pieces, gold fish, and he ate through one of my honey gouramis gills straight to the skeleton the other day. Also goes after my JD every once in awhile. Just mentioning this incase diet and attitude help with ID'ing.

If anyone needs a mouth shot to help ID let me know and I'll try to get one today. Thanks.

 

[davo]

With these "common" looking plecos, within the Hypostomus family, it is really very, very hard to distinguish one from the other. I'd agree that it looks similar to both of the plecos you've mentioned, but there are probably a couple more you could add to the short list as well, including H. plecostomus (either from the Orinoco basin or elsewhere). Location now a days is one of the best tools for the hobbiest to help distinguish between species. Do you know if it's wildcaught and where from? Commons have also been farm bred, and there has been mixing of species while doing so, confusing the situation further. Heres a bit on the taxa for Hypostomus: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/res_area/loricariid/fish_key/hypostom/hypos.html

 

[tRiP]

Thanks for the reply davo. I have no idea if it was wild caught or from where it came from. I bought it when I just had a couple of 10gallon setups and didn't know much about fish or what questions to ask.

If I ever see a tank of these guys again @ the same store I will see if I can get some info, no guarantees that the new batch would be from the same area as the batch I got mine from, but it could help. I'm going there tomorrow so will see if there's any info I can find out.

Going to go through that link you posted now, thanks again for the reply

 

[davo]

Could ask them if they know where yours came from... if they remember your purchase. Unfortunately a lot of places don't bother to find out, and a lot of places get them from wholesalers that don't know themselves. It looks like the old commons you used to get ten years ago, the plecostomus. Just wondering, how big is it?

 

[tRiP]

I'd guess around 7" I gotta feed them soon so when I go down I'll try to get a measurement. Most of the fish go to the back of the tank when they see the measuring tape though lol.

 

[davo]

well put a bet on with liz. If it gets past the 12" mark, it's not a punctatus lol

 

[tRiP]

lol

Here's some new shots of him after I put some shrimp in the tank.

 

[guppy breeder]

ahh look at him/her its so cute joke but nice pleco

 

[tRiP]

thanks guppy.

Forget to mention in my post last night that I measured him while he was chowing down on some shrimp and he's close to the 7" mark. The tail was turned a little bit so I couldn't get a really accurate measurement but to be safe I'll say 7"