ID help please

[Daragh]

Hi, these were sold as Ancistrus tamboensis, but I think not. Any ideas? The male is about 4 inches, total lenght and the female about 3 or 3.5 inches.

Male



Female



and finally, close up of males head.

[bronzefry]

Daragh,
I apologize for not being helpful, but the photos are smashing!
Amanda

[Daragh]

Thanks Amanda, unfortunately not good enough to get an ID though

[Janne]

The pictures is good but maybe this time too good Try to take some new pictures from little more distance so it will be easier how they really look, Ancistrus species is difficult to id so as much information you can give the better...it's not A. tamboensis that is clear.

Janne

[Jackster]

Could they be

Ancistrus stigmaticus

?

[Daragh]

I don't think it could be stigmaticutus, the female lacks the rubbery lip extension. Also the stigmaticus seems to have a greenish sheen, mine is definitely blacky brown. I have tried to get some more photos but they have not been very co-operative lately. I will try again today.

[Jackster]

Mine thought was just a guess. I know I have at least 3 species of Ancistrus that are unidentified.
Take a look at this male and maybe you can help me figure out what it is.



He is about 5" long and has an overall brown coloration with very small white spots even on his bristles.

[Daragh]

I am afraid I don't know what yours is either.

I thought the rubber like lip on the female may have been identifiable.

Whatever they are teh male is now guarding a pile of eggs so hopefully I will have lots of little unknown ancistrus soon.

[racoll]

Daragh, without a capture locality, IDing a plain brown

Ancistrus

with any certainty is almost impossible.

However you fish does visually match

Ancistrus triradiatus

or

Ancistrus sp`rio_chirgua`

.

Both these species are available in the trade I believe.

[Daragh]

Cheer Racoll, I think A triradiatus is the best suggestion and a good match and the catelog photos.

unfortunately it is very difficult to get across on a photo and I assume it was the same for the catelog photos, my fish is not so much brown as back, with the sides almost glossy black. Another thing I noticed tonight is the eggs are much lighter in colour, almost white compared to the bright orange or SP(3).

I will go with A triradiatus for the moment anyway

Thanx

[Shane]

A. sp Rio Chirgua is not available in the trade. It is restricted to a handful of Andean streams in Carabobo State, Venezuela. We should see a description of it in the near future...
I agree with Janne that a good full body shot would be more helpful but the truth is that without collection locale data we will really all just be trying to match the animal to known descriptions.
Identifying Ancistrus spp is really hard as, despite the many spp already described, there may be 2-3 times more valid spp that have yet to be described. The thing that amazes me about Ancistrus (and what makes them so speciose) is that that can live in every environment. I have captured Ancistrus like A. sp Rio Chirgua in cool, clear fast flowing mountain streams alongside Chaetostoma and captured them in stagnant blackwaters in the Amazon basin alongside Otocinclus. While the difference between Otocinclus and Chaetostoma is huge, the external differences between an Andean Ancistrus and a blackwater Ancistrus might be a slight color variation and, with some luck, slightly different fin ray counts.
-Shane

[Jools]

I agree with the comments on Daragh's excellent shots - they're too good for ID. Need something more like this:

Ancistrus sp(1)

.

I would however like to "store" both these species in the cat-elog in case we ever do ID either of them. If so, please email them to me direct, full size, you know the drill.


Jools

[Daragh]

As soon as the male is finished babysitting suties I will get some more photos. Thanks for tha additional info.