help ID this pleco please

[jenste]

Greetings all,

I am a member to a few fish and frog forums...
most of my experience is in keeping and breeding african clawed frogs, and keeping coldwater goldfish setups and tropical set ups. I have only owned bristle nose plecos in the past before.

but now I am the owner of a few abandoned plecs and need some help IDing them


* a coworker quite literally dropped them on my desk today, stating they had outgrown her 5 gallon (shakes head)

I have a 72 gallon and would be comfortable introducing them into if if they are a species I can keep - I don't like the idea of "keeping fish until they grow to big then trading them in"

they are about 3.5" length. one lighter, one darker but they seem to have the same markings.

also, is there a way I can sex them?

 

[matubula]

You are lucky that these fellas are probably fully grown, perhaps an inch more at most.

I can confidently say these are a Panaque, and look similar to Panaque maccus (but so many do)

Planet Catfish info

Overview of the genus

 

[scatz]

i'd have to agree with matt, they look like panaque maccus to me, which would mean they would be fully grown, and possibly a pair too

 

[jenste]

I thought they were clowns but wasn't positive...

any way for me to tell their genders?

 

[scatz]

the male will be very "hairy" all over his body

 

[jenste]

hmm :huh:

they are in the tank now and hiding (as I heard they are known to do) so next time they are out I will take a look to see if one is "hairier" than the other...

 

[Doodles]

Plecoplanet has its own profile for the maccus here

http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1784

One of the photos has a very good example of a 'hairy' male

 

[jenste]

I know what you mean now! I will take a nice close look later

 

[jenste]

do either of mine look "hairy" in the pics I posted - - I thought the lighter one may have looked so...

of course they are hiding up underneath a piece of driftwood right now so I can't see them clearly

 

[scatz]

i thought the paler one looked hairy too but the pics aren't quite clear enough to be sure

 

[Doodles]

I thought the lighter one too:yes:

 

[zeebo]

nice rescue

great ! you rescued some plecs and got a pair :clap: perhaps you will be rewarded with ''little ones'' once they settle in :yes: lotts of luck , Georgie