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Hi everyone,
I purchased a plecostomas from walwart not too long ago under the name of, pleco. It looks like a commun pleco except with red blotches instead of the regular greyish colour. I can't figure out what species this pleco is. Can you please ID my pleco.

It's probably Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus.




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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

There are many species of fish that are sold under the "common pleco" umbrella, so it can be difficult to identify each one. I've seen a couple of red-spotted commons before, though they didn't look like the one pictured above. Yours could be an undescribed species, or maybe a color variant of a more well-known one. Is there a picture you can link us to?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Sounds to me like a gibby. How many dorsal rays are there?

what is a dorsal ray? i dont have a digital camera. it does not look like that pleco pic at all

Well, it is rather hard to make a positive ID with the vague description given. Google pterygoplichthys gibbiceps or pterygoplichthys pardalis first, before responding again, and let us know if the fish in question is either of those.




The dorsal fin is the large fin on the fishes back.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 11-Apr-2005 20:47

it isnt any of those, thanks for the help anyways

Then I don't know what to tell you, as wal mart just doesn't stock rare plecos--perhaps it could be an albino version of the aforementioned. Btw, did you do the dorsal fin ray check yet? It would help greatly.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 11-Apr-2005 21:11

try http://www.planetcatfish.com.. After several hours there you should be able to find him. good luck

Last edited by divertran at 11-Apr-2005 21:09

"palnet" catfish? :%)

OK OK, I already edited it

it only has one dorsal fin

How many individual RAYS are there on the dorsal fin, as in the long spines interconnected by finnage?

what is a dorsal ray?

A ray is an individual bone in a dorsal fin, and they can also form spines in the fish that have them. If you look at [link=this]http://www.scotcat.com/articles/proops_spine.jpg" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] link, you will see a fish skeleton. The dorsal fin (the one on the top side of the fish) here is visible without any of the covering that live fish have. Do you see the long, thin bones that make up the fin? Each one of those is a dorsal ray. They are visible in live fish as well, but are covered and not as easy to see. In the picture of the pleco at the top of this thread, you can clearly see its dorsal fin, and its dorsal rays as well.

Hopefully that cleared it up for you.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Is this your pleco, but with more reddish coloration?
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