L388

[kdrun76]

I just brought home some new fish that I got off a guy on Craig's List.

Nitrates and GH were sky high from lack of tank maintenance. The fish were acclimated to 50% their tank water and 50% a tank of mine that hadn't been cleaned in 2 weeks and are now swimming around.

He said he was giving me a common pleco, its not. My best guess as ID is that its an L388. Its over a foot long.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=1849

Does anyone know anything about these? I will get pictures up in the next few days.

 

[Warborg]

Wow! I can understand the confusion... an L388 does look somewhat like a Pardalis(common).

I trust you counted the rays in the dorsal fin and it came out to about 7 or 8.

Can't wait for your pics

 

[kdrun76]

Ok, here is where I sound ignorant. A common pleco to me is a Hypostomus plecostomus. I just looked up your term of Paradalis as I had never heard of it and sure enough there is more than one genus of fish that goes by "Common pleco". Reason # 7 billion and 6 as to why common names are so lousy. My guy has 11 dorsal rays. You may well be right that he is a "Paradalis". What is throwing me off are the super distinct and clear "V" shaped stripes that are on his flanks near the dorsal such as this fish (L388) has:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=1849
None of the Paradalis fish are even close to having the distinct "V's" that I am seeing. I'll get pictures later today, that will help.

I may need to photograph and try to ID two plecos. I have one that up until right now I was content to call a Sailfin pleco, it has 8 dorsal rays. Looking at some pictures on Planet cat fish, I am not so sure of its ID now either.

 

[Warborg]

Ok, here is where I sound ignorant. A common pleco to me is a Hypostomus plecostomus.

To be honest there are 3 'common plecos' out there.

1) Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus (dark version)
2) Pterygoplichthys Paradalis
3) Hypostomus plecostomus

Disjunctivus and Paradalis look alot alike where as the Hypostomus is a brown color.

Hypostomus are actually getting harder to find over the other two. the Disjunctivus come in a white-ish color vs a dark gray. Thi first link shows the white-ish color. The second is a darker version

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=703

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=767

Edit: Try to get a belly shot of yours. To make things evenn more confusing there is yet another semi- common pleco called a Pterygoplichthys multiradiatus. This one has a broken circle like pattern on it's belly. Which I have not seen very much.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=1967

 

[kdrun76]

They are a little out of focus, but here goes....

The requested belly shot!

 

[Warborg]

Looks like a Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus to me.