L018 or L177 gold nugget?

[fish head )'>]

First of all, I am not a pleco guy. However, I have one in every one of my tanks. I just picked up this beauty (bad picture) I will try to get a better picture but he is shy right now.
I was told that it was a wild caught gold nugget pleco. In doing research I finding multiple names with the L#'s. I thought that cichlids were confusing. Can someone help me with this one explaining how to clear up names. From a novice point of view, how do you determined which pleco that you have if it is wild caught? L018 or L177 or other?

 

[jconley]

There are many potential ways to tell them apart it just takes some practice and attention to detail. I THINK you have L177 but a better pic would be helpful. I'm basing my opinion on the distinct, large gold spots, the darker body color and the thick gold banding on the fins. Wyldfya, Davo, and many others on here may give better i.d. technics, and I will happily learn from them .

 

[WyldFya]

For gold nuggets it depends on the size of the spots. L081 is the small spot, L018 is the medium spot, L085 is an adult L018, and L177 is the large spot.

From the picture I'd say yours is an L018.

 

[jconley]

Really? My gn has tiny spots, much smaller than the one in the pic.
I'm so confused

 

[fish head )'>]

HA! It is more confusing than cichlids!
Thanks, I will catch a better shot of him in time and share. I plan on switching out my common plecos for some of these awesome super cool bottom dwellers that I am now just starting to appreciate.

 

[jconley]

Careful! You'll get addicted.

 

[WyldFya]

Make sure you feed him lots of meats. Gold nuggets are not alga eaters, nor very inclined to eat veggies.

 

[COL]

Being deep water limnivores, baryancistrus need large amounts of vegetable matter in their diet, though not to the extent of their upper stratum dietary analogues. However, as stated, they do need a good amout of protein as well. They are just heavy eaters in general.

 

[davo]

they eat a lot all the time in the wild, its quite hard to replicate their diet pattern to be honest.
How big is it? It looks like a L018 to me to be honest. How much you pay. There is a thread on here if you search that has pics and identities of the 3 spot variants somewhere, but as wyldfya said, its just small, medium and large spots.

 

[COL]

The most devoted hobbyist I know of painted egg whites and spirulina powder+peas onto clay tiles and tried that out for a while with his 81's; a strat I adopted for my fry. Now, if you'd be willing to do that all day, every day, in regular thirty minute intervals (or something), you might have a shot---so yeah, pretty much largely unfeasible.