FishProfiles.com Message Forums

maybe i missed this. i never understood this. L's are plecos. when did this happen? i have heard of the L's but never paid any attention, i always used there names like royal pleco.

the l numbers are just numbers for undescridbed plecos. A lot of times though the l-number will be retired but people will still refer to it. Theres been l-numbers I think since the 80's.

Some people even use the L-numbers for plecoes they already know. Buy the way, the L stands for Loricariidae, the family's name.

Plecos that have been imported for the aquarium hobby but do not have an official scientific name are given "L" numbers. This aids in the identification of the fish, and gives shops and aquarists something to call the fish instead of "the new Peckoltia with the stripes". In many genera, it is pretty tough to tell one species of pleco from another, especially if the fish haven't sufficiently been described by science. The L numbers are supposed to function as an unofficial designation for each fish; though there are a few species that are confirmed to have multiple L numbers, and there are many more whose status is in doubt. Sometimes a fish that is given a number is just a variant of an already described species, as with the royal pleco Panaque nigrolineatus. L numbers can also become retired if the species in question gets an official designation. I think that Hypancistrus zebra (L046) is an example of this.

Other fish than just plecos have their "numbers" as well. There are C numbers for Corydoras catfish, and I think there are numbers for freshwater rays as well. As far as I know, these classification systems are used only on South American fish. They all work the same as L numbers, they're just applied to different types of fish.

So, yeah. Feel free to correct whatever I goofed on if you know something I don't.

---

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

L numbers retire after a name is designated for a certain species under the laws of binomial nomenclature.