I need some help iding the specific pleco this guy is, he doesn't match any common pleco that i have seen and currently has an injury on his body nearer to his tail (he may also have damage to his spine because of this injury). He is 2.5-3 inches long and about 3/4 from pectoral to pectoral over his head. His head does not have the standard angular shape of most common plecos. He is a brown/rusty color with darker spots the length of his body. Stressed he is the same color as my counter top. His dorsal is 7-8 rays in it, his body from halfway up his body has spines out from the tail. @chromedome52 any help?
Dorsal is wrong for that (face shape also doesn't match, his suction is not very wide nor is the head that broad).
Sorry, not a clue. Time for you to look at the files over at Planetcatfish; I'd suggest starting with genus Hypostomus. It does have the classic body shape. Of course, there are a lot of other genera with the same body shape, I'm just considering probabilities. Color pattern might have something to do with age, too. Good luck.
Hypostomus sp. `RIO URARICOERA` seems to be the closest as far as head shape (he has a more rounded head shape than most of the spotted hypos), dorsal spine/ray count, body spines on the tail, tail shape, and spot pattern (small over the head/face, larger along the body, and almost mottled in the fins).
This is what he currently looks like, he has grown some kind of growth on his tail, but otherwise looks healthy, his wound healed and he has maybe put on a half inch of growth (at most). He has solid spots all the way to his tail (faint spots and slightly see-through for fins), he has the spikes along his body, which you can sort of see in this shot, his eyes under flash are a copper or gold color for the iris )body does not show up the same color under flash). He has seven dorsal spines not counting the leading spine.
