L173

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:18 pm

What is the difference between a L173 and a L46 ?

madmoroccan · Post by **madmoroccan** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:34 pm

From what I gather not a heck of a lot... The pattern on the tail looks different. But they are the same fish...

Am I also right in saying that L46 parents DO have L173 offspring?

Be careful though... I travelled 50miles to a shop "advertising" L173, only to find what looked like an L66 or L333... And in other cases you may not even get fish that are black and white. There are variations between DATZ and AQUALOG...

Somebody please correct me if you have BOTH books.

Post by **Barbie** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 8:53 pm

They lumped L173 together with L46 when they classified Hypancistrus zebra. There are now rumors that this will be removed, as they are potentially another species. I'm not sure on the particulars about it and I've ordered groups of L173 on two different occasions. Neither one IS L173, nor do they seem to be the L287 they were later classified as. The nearest guess is L399/L400. I took a bunch of pictures of the two groups to work on getting that sorted out but had forgotten to resize and upload them. As I've just had an email from a friend this morning asking about them also, I guess it's a good day to work on that

.

Barbie

madmoroccan · Post by **madmoroccan** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:29 pm

Potentially another species?

I have seen a post here discussing this... And I disagree strongly. Do a search on L173 please (here). Please excuse me if I am wrong I may be thinkg of L98.

Sincerely

Bader.

Post by **Barbie** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:32 am

Bader you're welcome to disagree all you like

. It's not my opinion, it's the new consensus that I was told last concerning the species. I'm just the messenger. I couldn't care less what they call them, as long as my fish get identified with something that I can then feel comfortable selling their fry as

. I think the topic was discussed at planetcatfish.com, not actually here.

Barbie

madmoroccan · Post by **madmoroccan** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:25 pm

LOL...

Sometimes I get a bit carried away!

I agree... The most important thing is accurate identification... Though the comment I made about DATZ and Aqualog is true, there is some confusion because where one book says one thing the other shows pictures of a complete different species.

I am glad there is a maturity to disscussion here, in my experience forums usually cause arguements more than solutions

So it is fair to say that the anwer to this thread will only be known once there is a SOLID scientific definition of plecos ect... which currently only exists in a confused format.

On an off topic note... My L333 which died after 4 days (trapped under my filter) turns out to be an L236 after some investigation, possibly an L399 or L400... Another case of poor scientific definition... One thing is for sure it wasn't L66 or L333.

Maybe we will one day have a dependable system for identification, at the moment we can only speculate... L46 bieng the exception, either is an L46 or it isn't!

Sincerely

Bader.

Plastic Mac · Post by **Plastic Mac** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:42 pm

Maybe we will one day have a dependable system for identification, at the moment we can only speculate... L46 bieng the exception, either is an L46 or it isn't!

I think you'll find that the L number system was only supposed to be used till the fish had a scientific desciption. Once that was the case then the number was supposed to be used for another fish...however it never worked out that way in practise.
Here's a good topic on the matter, one which has been answered by Shane...who is one of the best people to ask IMO.
http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/show ... hp?t=16483

As mentioned ealier, Datz as far as I know assign the L number so if there is a discrepency between Datz and Aqualog I would take Datz's opinion on the matter.

madmoroccan · Post by **madmoroccan** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:59 am

Thanks plastic...

I am aware of the situation regarding the L number system... I.E. that it is only a stop gap until the differnt genus are separated scientifically. But what is the point of that system if we are all costantly confused?

I would love to speculate on when we will have a concrete scientific system for identification... But one thing is for sure, it has taken too long already. Don't you agree?

Thanks for the link by the way, i found it a very interesting read.

King regards

Bader.