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Please help! just won an auction for 7 wild caught L173's. First of all, do they look like the real deal? I guess they will have similar conditions as regular zebras? will they inter-breed with regular L046'S? Thanks for any advice. Dan

I bought 5 "wild caught L173's"

Planet Catfish tell me they are L400's - and they look like these.

smithrc wrote: Planet Catfish tell me they are L400's - and they look like these.

Chucks! oh well, I'll breed them just the same....

can we have another expert opinion? L400? L173? L098?

Here are a few of ours about 18mnths ago when we got them...
I need to update my sig actualy as the closest thing i could find then were L236's - but now the L400 has been clasified it looks more likely.



And one of them now

[quote="smithrc"]Here are a few of ours about 18mnths ago when we got them...
I need to update my sig actualy as the closest thing i could find then were L236's - but now the L400 has been clasified it looks more likely.

quote]

So, you got me confused now. Are these the images of L173's? if so, I think they resemble mine the most. I got the following from planetcatfish; first is L400; notice that the pattern is a lot finer stripes, rather than thick stripes; the quantity is also a lot more:

[/img]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image. ... 25fe50.jpg][/url]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image. ... 8d25ab.jpg][/url]

the pics I posted are of the "L173's" I bought...

Hold on... its on here not PC that say L400...

Have a squiz over this thread (it deviates a little)
http://www.zebrapleco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2649

Thanks for all the info, Smithrc....now I'm more convinced that I got L173's! did you managed to make yours breed?

So, From my piccys do you think ours are L173's aswell?
As for breeding - they are still too small - although 2 have taken residence in caves since we moved them (see the pics of the one in the cave with the clown loaches at the back

smithrc wrote:So, From my piccys do you think ours are L173's aswell?

Check out this thread:

http://www.zebrapleco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1064

The pics that Adam shows are a death ringer for yours and mine's. Here, Adams believe they are L287, but on Planetcatfish, the L pics don't look nothing like ours. Barbie believes that imports labed L173's are not real L173's. Somewhere else I read that there is a move to void L173 designation, totally (?) and maybe re-name them L400's (?). Pretty confusing, but since you and me got very similar fish, same as Adams, I still stick to the L173 designation. I contacted californiacichlids.com, & they insisted that they imported them & got invoiced as L173's. Oh, what the heck..they're cute just the same...

Forget about L46,L98,L173 they are all the same fish: Hypancistrus Zebra.
Allready 3 L numbers less to remember