armadillo

Ulloooo! We went to a great pet store today (the guy actually knew something about fish, and took ages talking to us). Unfortunately, my boyfriend can't say no to a nice guy, so he's just bought a young Psudacanthicus leopardus (L114, Leopard cactus pleco). He is gooooorgeous. It's still acclimating. It's only about 4cm right now, but I hear they get pretty big.

Does anyone have one of these? Are you happy with them?

COBettaCouple

i'm very unhappy with them - probably because we don't have any though. those are some beauties that i've not seen before. great pickup.

Newtankdude

I've never seen them before, post a pic please...
Your LFS must be pretty dumb, usually the guys at mine (Fish Central) know so much about it. Probably because its a local stor and not a big company like Deathco.

Butterfly

That is one beautiful plec! Heres some pics and info
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...species_id=208
Carol

armadillo

No, this guy was knowledgeable for once, and very friendly. He took sooo much time with us because he could see that we genuinely loved fish. We kept asking loads about his fish. He had a nice selection, very nice selection actually. He just took us apart and said that he had some pretty rare ones. He said he hardly ever got these in and as he'd heard we were looking for a nice pleco, he advised us not to miss out on that opportunity.

I think we've found ourselves a gem of a fish store. Shame it's about one hour away from my house (I have about 5 that are less then 30mins away, door to door).

I can't really show you pictures as they are so bad. I took some in the bag in case he would hide once he's out, and he's half hidden by the bag folds on these. Then later, the bugger has decided to not show his face. I'll have to wait with my camera on the ready. I hope he's not a shy one!

armadillo

Thanks, Carol. That's him alright. We used that link for our research when we got home. Shame that it seems they loose their lovely different-coloured tail as they grow up, and only keep a pink line a the end of the tail. Ours is already starting to have spots there.

armadillo

I was against the purchase as we're about to go on holiday for a week, and I hate to buy a fish without researching the species first. Having read tons about plecos, I knew that he wasn't one of the very few true algae eaters, that he'd be a huuuge waste producer and that he'd grow into a monster, but my boyfriend trusted the storekeeper's advice... No matter how great a store keeper is, they'll only ever have short-term knowledge of their fish. I guess I wanted my boyfriend to experiment this little fact of life for himself. Ah well, I told him: if you get him and he is one of the things I say he is, we're getting a 200L tank. He said OK!!!

armadillo

Right. Here's my best attempt at a picture. He's not showed up since we released him yesterday. The lucky boy had 1.5hrs acclimation (gradually adding tank water to the bag). You'd think that'd make him happy.

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Sabi

wow! he's gorgeous! Lucky you!

COBettaCouple

sounds like a pleco.. you might have to search for him. they can hide so good.. although maybe a veggie slice out in the open would get him to reveal himself.

armadillo

Yep, pleco down to a tee: pooing for England and hiding all the time. I need to go veggie shopping as they havne't had cucumber or anything for a while. Good idea to try him on it.

Here's another attempt at a picture:

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armadillo

Thanks, Sabi. I'll let you know how he goes.

armadillo

Here's another really bad picture I've managed to take. He's really shy. We see him on average once every 2 to 3 days!

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COBettaCouple

He's a beauty!

armadillo

For what you can make of him! Bugger's always hiding.

COBettaCouple

just living up to his name, i guess.

Jim

He is TOO cool! You're right, I'm way jelous...lol As for hiding, be patient. Pleco's are like that. Odds are he's only coming out after the lights are out. You can try looking for him at night with a dim flashlight. Just don't startle him or the other fish. You can also try the cucumber trick.
Anyway it tooks mine a couple months before he was comfortable to come out in the daylight. Trust me, just be patient. You have a really cool fish, he'll be worth the wait.

armadillo

Why, does acanthicus mean hiding or something?

armadillo

Thanks, Jim. That's encouraging. He's still up to his shy tricks (flashing us his tail when we're lucky). The other day, we had to change the decor and I checked and checked again and again that he wasn't in there, but he was. He gave me such a fright as he plunged back in the water. Thankfully, I was still holding the thing on top of the water.

After that little adventure, I reckon his shy month will turn into a year.

armadillo

Wow, we've just moved our fish around and the Pseudo-whatsits is now in a long 13G and he's TOTALLY coming out of himself. It's great. He's really coming out more now, and showing off his fins. Fabulous to see. I think he was too tight in the tall 10G hex. We'd always thought of eventually moving him to the long 39G, but as he's still so small, we figured there's plenty of time.

One question on them: is it OK to give him sand as the substrate?

COBettaCouple

if your fish is coming out of himself, that's skinitus offitus and needs to be treated with duct tape to keep him in himself. !

i'm not sure about sand for that fish but first get him taped up, ok?

armadillo

Waaaarf! Honestly, am a great audience!

Sabi

Glad to hear that his coming out now, armadillo!
fraid i cant help with the sand....

armadillo

Thanks, Sabi. How about yours? Have you decided between Pseudowhat-s-your-face and lovely lovely lovely Algy? You haven't got sand yourself, do you? I'll wait to see if someone knows on that one.

Sabi

My chap's fine! He's out all day eating, eating, eating. If he's not sucking the glass then its the plants if not the plants then its the cucumber! He aws shy for the first few weeks though.
And no, i havnt decided, not that i can. My mom doesnt want to let go of him! So, so long as my water readings stay fine i'll keep them both though when the leopard gets near to its adult size i'll let him go because they get to 50cm!!!
Can you give me any info on zebra plecos? I ,hopefully, will be getting one this friday and have been doing lots of reading so i know how to look after him. i found that they are very shy at first, so to make sure they get food. To feed vegies,tetra prima,bloodworms etc. I have the tetra prima and for; vegies cucumber,spinisch,peas...i'm going to try and get the bloodworms. Anything you guys can suggest that, they might be affected by, or anything thats good to keep in mind?

armadillo

3x to your mom for saving Algy!!!! Yeahie!

So cool that your Pseudothingiebog is doing well. I guess it is true. They just need a few weeks to come out of themselves.

Leopards get to 50cm? You're scaring me. We'd ID'd ours to be a Pseudowhatsamiggick and these only grew to 24cm. Perhaps yours is that type too? To be honest, there's so many on the planetcatfish website that we could well be wrong too.

You're kidding, getting a zebra pleco? All I know is that the true zebras are L46. One of the synonymous latin names = Hypancistrus Zebra.

All I know of them is that:

1/ I am extremely jealous if you get one and I DEMAND pictures immediately if you do

2/ They are terrible algae eaters and rather large producers

3/ They don't don't get too big.

4/ The real ones go for crazy money, like hundreds of dollars, and most lookalike are sold as zebra plecos but are not. We checked on planet catfish and there are a few that kind of look a lot like that.

I'd bet they call it a zebra pleco in the shop, but that it's not. We've had that in the shop once, and it was a queen arabesque in the end.

5/ I like this link: http://www.zebrapleco.com.

6/I also know that there are a lot of 'snubnoses' (i.e. breeding defect whereby the nose is shortened) and that these are not worth as much as 'the real thing'.

Sabi

ok lets go 1 at a time...


I think your lpd plec is different to mine heres the link i think that give info on mine

As for the zebra....

1/ i'll take 1 for you!
2/ I dont really mind about the algae,
3/ Yip i read they get to err 4in?
4/ I asked the manager at my lfs if he can get me one he said he was going to find out today. as for price wise i guess its not as expesive as that, R170 something like $25. Cant be sure if its exactly the real thing but as long as it looks like it....?

armadillo

I would bet it's not the real thing, but if it's pretty anyway, who cares. You can always post a pic and have members identify it. There's a few of these zebra-looking plecos that aren't L46's.

Ooooh, don't think you pasted the link there.

Sabi

sorry here it is http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_pterigo.php
thing is they (my lfs) have a sort of fish encyclopedia booklet and it has a pic as well as some info on the zebra there so i'm hoping it the 'real thing' but then as you sayif it looks v. much like it and is not pricey the 'who care'? i'll come back later have to go!

armadillo

This was a link to your current leopard pleco, right? Not the future zebra, i mean. Then nope, you're right, we don't have the same leopard pleco. Ours is less 'armoured-looking''

Too right: if it looks cool!