What is in my tank?! The Infamous "Common Pleco" Debacle

[Mr. Ritter]

Hi fellow Pleco Fans :hi:! I'm new here but I've got a few question for yuh regarding Pete, the absolute cutest little pleco . He loves to play "Sink the Leaves" on the artificial plants I got him and occasional he plays "Firefighter" on the air stone hose . However one day I began to realize that my adorable little Pete didn't really look anything like the species I believed he was (Common Suckermouth Pleco, Hypostomus plecostomus), and after studying his Dorsal Fin my suspensions were confirmed. Pete has 12 rays in his dorsal fin, far too many for a Common Suckermouth... so that then begs the question: what is he?

I've come across a few likely candidates but I can't seem to find a conclusive fit to Pete's uniquely beautiful color scheme. His most distinguishing features, to me at least, are the bright gold eyes, thin semi-transparent red colored fins, vermiculated belly pattern, and elegantly curved Caudal Fin. Here are some pics of him, sorry I don't have too many of him actually in the finished new tank, he only really comes out when the lights are off and my camera just isn't good enough to take good photos in low light situations.

I first tried MFK, of which I've been a member for quite some time, but no one seems to know enough about Plecos there to confirm an identity for this little guy, and since I heard you guys were the experts on all thing pleco I figured ya'll might be able to help :thumbup:

For those of you interested Pete's full story is on MFK presented in an article of the same name as this. Here's the link to it in case any of you want to check out his tale <3.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/what-is-in-my-tank-the-infamous-common-pleco-debacle.680985/

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

hmmm has traits of a gold spot pleco but then in a couple pics it doesnt....

some nice out the water pics in good light would help... but thats prob not an option

 

[Mr. Ritter]

Thanks for the input Bigjohnnofish, but unfortunately no, Pete's a trained fish so taking him out of the water would definitely break quite a lot of the trust we've been working on. He was labeled as a "Common Pleco" and was purchased at PetSmart at about 1.5 inches in length. Personally I'm feeling that he may be a multiradiatus, but there's just not enough pictures of that species to be sure

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Looking at the stomach pattern (reticulated, rather than spots), and provenance, Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus would be my guess.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mr. Ritter]

I certainly don't think that Disjunctivus isn't plausible, but I do feel that it might not be the best fit so far. Pete's patterning has started to open up more over the past few weeks and he's forming black spots on his dorsal side; whereas in P. disjunctivus the dorsal side seems to maintain a similar vermiculated pattern to the underbelly, albeit much more compressed.

Does anybody know what the belly pattern of P. multiradiatus looks like because I quite literally can't find a good pic of it. I did find one pic however of a multiradiatus mouth, and the skin around it does look vermiculated...

And a good shot of the dorsals for P. multiradiatus:

Not doubting you're knowledge at all, it's just that there seems to be limited available information on this one particular species from the big three sold here in the US (P. pardalis, P. disjunctivus, P. multiradiatus). Any input would be awesome, thanks

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Does anybody know what the belly pattern of P. multiradiatus looks like because I quite literally can't find a good pic of it.......

Apparently it is "hollow circles".

(P. pardalis, P. disjunctivus, P. multiradiatus). Any input would be awesome, thanks

I think that it is much more likely to be P. pardalis or P. disjunctivus, P. multiradiatus is a much rarer fish.

Have you tried posting the images on PlanetCatfish?

cheers Darrel