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OK, I have a chance to aquire 3 of these neat looking plecos. The only thing is, I will have to pick them up by Saturday, or someone else will get them.

I cannot find any info on them. Does anyone know of some good quality info about them? In particular; sexing, spawning, diet both young and adult, aggression. All I can find out is, their full size.

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There is always a bigger fish...

L-56 is a psuedancistrus sp. from Rio Araguari, not p. aurantiacus, but the former is quite a bit rarer, so I'm not sure which species you're actually picking up. To my knowledge, neither have bred in the home aquarium--I know of some guy who spent nearly 1000 dollars on his group of p. aurantiacus "Xanto", only to give them up having not bred in prstine conditions for nearly a year and a half. Both grow large; capably past 12", and I have noticed in the psuedancistrus that I've kept that the genus, as a whole, is more herbivorously inclined, and will feed on algae. The true L-56 needs somewhat cooler conditions, while the latter prefers the warm, 82ish degree temps of the Rio Tocantins and is an ardent limnovore, probably relishing animal protein moreso than L-56.

Thanks for the post.

The three offered to me, from my experience, appear to all be males. So I probably won't get them. I was just hoping I was wrong, and someone could point me in the right direction.

My experience with others is that of yours. As well, my experience with others tells me these are all males.

Oh well, maybe next time.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Don't let appearances deceive you! These fish, at a sizeable length, are nearly impossible to sex without papillial study, because both sexes have HUGE odontodes. Thus, see if your seller will allow you to remove the fish from the water long enough to compare genitalia-males have a protruding stump while females have a more flattened vent, laying close to the body.

I assume, then, that we’re talking about parancistrus auarantiacus, correct? I know that said fish is often sold as L-56 as aqualog, in their infinite dishonesty, slapped a picture of a brown mottled parancistrus on to their book, labeled as L-56, because DATZ had obtained the copyrights to the original L number photos.

It was listed as "Chubby Pleco" L56

They came in through our SA shipper.

They all have very long odontodes, and one has a very large amount of pec fin spines. While the other two, which are also about 1/2-1 inch smaller, have very few spines. They are very dark green-black, but one has been fading in and out to a light brown, almost golden/green color (not the golden orangish color of the pics on planetcatfish). All three have a somewhat large girth. And they are about 5-6 inches each. Don't remember any spots, neither small or large, but will look again on monday. He has left on a family emergency, so I won't be able to see them till Monday.

Planetcatfish has not turned up much help.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Ah, I see you've posted on PC. Same username, too.

Don't worry about the girth; they're all pretty big. 5-6" isn't a bad size at all, and if for nothing else, they are attractive and interesting fish, so I say why not shoot for it? Odontodes shed periodically, especially in times of stress. Only when they're in top shape should pectoral odontodes be used to sex these fish.

Good luck with them.



Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Oct-2005 19:05