flatfish

congratulations eben

thats great new firenzenz. Its just keeps getting better. Polka dot Synos (S. angelica) next?

I asked her permission first so it shouldn't be a problem and she did pose for the camera.

sorry about the loss. that really sucks. I cracked a heater not so long ago (the first one I've cracked) and didn't notice it. Luckily the heater cut out but I still lost a pleco from the experience.

Hutt Pets had one but they should still be on the fish lists.

awesome photos smidey. What a great experience for your dad.

Another stunner but maybe a different pattern to what you were after are the big band tiger plecos (Peckoltia 'L288' or something similar, maybe Peckoltia 'Rio Tocantins'). Being a Peckoltia they should be quite breedable and were on the fish list recently. They only grow to about 14 cm so they are a nice size for most aquaria. Females look great but males are a little duller. Heres a female I took a pic of in the petshop.

A Geophagus of some sort? maybe jupari. Not really my area.

I had Melanochromis auratus years ago in a 4 foot tank. The dominant male killed 4 others and was eventually (dare I say it :-?) put in a 6 foot tank with my oscars to learn who was boss. They can be really nasty and personally although they look great I'd settle for something a little more gentle particularly in a tank that size. Maybe a pair of Apistogrammas???

great looking Malawi tank and a nice male ?venustus

I have had two for a few months. I feed them on carnivore tablets, shrimp pellets, algae wafers, and zuchini, and the odd feed of shrimps and bloodworms. I'm also trying them on frozen mussels and fish (salmon) at the moment. They also seem to love eating snails as there are very few remaining in the tank. One hasn't grown much since I've had it and the other has grown 2 cm in 3 months and is territorial. Maybe a girl and a boy

thanks Zev. I'd heard rumours of a new list but hadn't seen it. Nice to know theres a few plecos that will soon be officially allowed (goldie plecos, gold nuggets, and blue phantoms) plus a couple of Hypancistrus: the zebra pleco and the Colombian zebra pleco. Its certainly a step in the right direction.

I just talked to Andrew Stewart fish guru from Te Papa, and one of the NIWA fish experts and they agree its a cod, probably one of the 2 Lotella species: a rock cod or beardie. Andrew said this colour pattern has never been reported before as they have never seen a Lotella this small before. How are the little fish doing?

stunning discus. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome aboard Richard. Looks like your already well into the hobby. Goodluck with the blue guppies

just got mine. Another great issue Caryl.

Hi Zayne, as skippy_49nz says "the L number is assigned to a new species until it is described." As for the more complicated explanation. I'll try to keep it simple and hopefully it will make some sense. Basically in the early days (since 1988) there were lots of new types of plecos coming out of South America into peoples aquariums with no scientific names (they were new to science and the scientists hadn't had a chance to give them a scientific name). It was hard for fish keepers to refer to any one of these new plecos as they didn't have a scientific name or in many cases a common name, so a German magazine decided to call the first new pleco L001 (short for new Loricariidae (the name for plecos) number 1, or effectively new pleco number 001), the second one was called L002, and so on. There are now several hundred L-numbers. A few of these plecos now have a scientific name and many a common name or common names. For example L001 is what we now call the gold spot pleco, or to give it its scientific name, Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus. To confuse things a little more :-? another German magazine decided to do the same thing and started the LDA-numbers. Luckily there aren’t as many LDA-numbers but some plecos do have an L-number and an LDA-number. If this makes sense so far great :-? but what is also confusing is why do some plecos have a few L-numbers? This is because some types of plecos are found in more than one river system/river/creek, etc. and there might be slightly different looking forms of the same pleco in each different river or even in the same river. Each of these forms may have been given a different L-number (just to be safe) even though they are the same species. So the clown Pleco, or Panaque maccus to give it its scientific name is also known as L104, L162, and LDA22. There are several webistes where you can look up the L-numbers. Planet catfish is excellent.

Congrats kiwi plymouth. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Awesome. Keep up the great work :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

great looking fish, I agree the purple grass is a stunner.

great looking fish. Goodluck with the id. Theres a lot of very similar looking Ancistrus.

lovely shot of a great looking fish

If its got a chin barbel (finger like flap off tissue at the front of the lower jaw used for detecting prey in the sand or mud) then that narrows the field down a lot. Morid cods (red cod, rock cod, beardie, etc) have the barbel, and as you say the same snout shape and a large mouth near the bottom of the head. If the tail fin is rounded at the end versus straight then that rules out a red cod. The wide long pectorals are different and the colour pattern but the pectoral fin growth may slow down as the fish get older. Anyway nothing like a stab in the dark.

Just a guess out of left field. The colour pattern and fin proportions could change as the fish grows. The fish you caught has two dorsal (top) fins (the 1st one is very short, the 2nd one very long) and an anal (bottom) fin only slightly shorter than the 2nd dorsal fin. It also appears to have a chin barbel. It also has white/clear edges to the dorsal and anal fin and a white tail. This could change to white fin margins in larger fish. I may be completely wrong but how about a species of Lotella: either the rock cod, Lotella rhacinus, or the beardie, Lotella phycis. Heres a pic of a much larger beardie, courtesy of fish base http://www.fishbase.gr/summary/SpeciesS ... ame=phycis Regardless its an awesone looking fish and I'm sure Te Papa would be interested in the pic and the fish (if it dies)

awesome firenzenz. congratulations. Keep us updated. It'd be great to see pics of them developing over a few weeks.