Our Plecs

[LisaLQ]

Only two of the plecs for now, but I'll see if I can get pics of the others tomorrow I also got a vid, but it's the first time I've made one and uploaded it - and when I went to upload it to Photobucket, it was 59mb! And it turned out a little dark, so I guess I'll have to work out a way of editing it or something. Obviously cant do it in Photoshop like my piccies

It was a good vid too because it was the first time we've seen Rusty and the common sharing a piece of courgette Ok, it wasn't going to win any awards really...

Anyhoo - pics. Here's our common, as yet un-named, he's not really this brown - he's black, very very dark.

And a naff pic of his spotty belly (first belly pic we've got of him lol)

Now Rusty...

Belly shot with common in background

And another belly shot. Would be interesting to know how to sex him (or her).

That's it for now

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Erm isn't the picture of your first pleco actually a sailfin and not a common??? Look at the dorsal fin compared to this pic of a common pleco (unless the below pic is in fact not a common!):

 

[LisaLQ]

Nope, he's definitely a liposarcus pardalis.

 

[morgan]

He is indeed, exactly the same as mine. If you see a Gibby the dorsal is much larger although the Common's is quite large.

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

He is indeed, exactly the same as mine. If you see a Gibby the dorsal is much larger although the Common's is quite large.

So is the pleco in my picture above not a common pleco then as the dorsal fins in the two pics are totally different? This could also mean my alleged sailfin is not a sailfin but a common as I can't tell the difference between my pleco and Lisa's, they both have the same shaped dorsal fin. Yet if you google for sailfin pleco the pics that come up look exactly the same as mine and that of Lisa's above!

http/images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&am...G=Search+Images

 

[LisaLQ]

Mine doesn't look like those google pics though Their fins are much higher and rounder. Mine, and yours in the pic above, are both liposarcus pardalis.

Piccies of my sailfin (past - dont own any any more):

I dont have any pics of De Niro, but shall see if I can find some...but mine is definitely 100% not a sailfin. Completely different species.

Sailfin/Gibby:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=148

Common (liposarcus) - what mine is:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...p?species_id=88

Pics of De Niro the sailfin/gibby when he lived with Kathy here:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=150276&hl=

A lot of LFS sell commons as sailfins. Usually because they're stupid lol.

 

[Joemuz]

I absoloutlyt love all of these pleco! They are fab!!!
Joemuz

 

[LisaLQ]

Are those yours Joe? They're goooooooooooooorgeous! Gotta love those commons. I think we need another common plec appreciation thread *lol*

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

The pic above is not my pleco but a google pic of a common pleco which to me looks different to yours (the dorsal fin). My pleco is this one

Its on the move hence the blur!

 

[LisaLQ]

Yep, yours is a gibby/sailfin. Different species

Edited to add - yours is spotty, mine isnt - and yours has a much bigger sail...erm..fin.

 

[Joemuz]

No there not mine but i wish they where. Im only 14 and my tanks 54 litre so i cnt keep anything that stunning. I have a 5 in sailfin plec.....
....il try get some pics later for you.

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Yep, yours is a gibby/sailfin. Different species

Edited to add - yours is spotty, mine isnt - and yours has a much bigger sail...erm..fin.

OK but what is confusing me is the shape of the dorasl fin. In your very first pic at the top, the back of the dorsal fin is rounded like my sailfins dorsal fin is. In my pic of the common pleco I posted the back of that dorsal fin isn't rounded but is just a constant slant downwards from the highest point to the back of the pleco, there is no rounded shape to the back of the dorsal fin. IE your first pic looks more like my sailfin than it does of that common pleco. Do you see where I am coming from? I am not arguing with you btw, just trying to work out how to distinguish them because I have been going on the shapes of the dorsal fin, not so much their size (see women being obsessed with size again )

In fact just noticed a difference. In my pic of my sailfin and your pics of your sailfin the back of the dorsal fin doesn't attach straight down but has a cut in and then joins where as in your first pic at the top the back of the dorsal fin attaches with no cut in. However its still more rounded at the back then the pics of commons I have seen. Are there different looking commons?

 

[LisaLQ]

Yep. Bear in mind he's not fully grown by a long shot (about 7"), and probably never will be, as he has lived in a 2ft tank for the past 2 years. But if you look at his fin, and the fin on yours and the pics in the links I posted - you'll see that a sailfin/gibby's fin is much taller and rounder. Mine's fin is triangular. It's not as long and shallow as the common plec in the first pic you posted, but it's definitely not as big and round as a sailfin's.

Have a look through the Planet Catfish links and look at the variety on the liposarcus. There's one here that is identical to mine:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=1098

Then look at this one - similarly sized sailfin:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=594

See the difference in shape and size? Difference being that a common grows into it's fin, whereas a sailfin's fin grows with it lol.

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Yep. Bear in mind he's not fully grown by a long shot (about 7"), and probably never will be, as he has lived in a 2ft tank for the past 2 years. But if you look at his fin, and the fin on yours and the pics in the links I posted - you'll see that a sailfin/gibby's fin is much taller and rounder. Mine's fin is triangular. It's not as long and shallow as the common plec in the first pic you posted, but it's definitely not as big and round as a sailfin's.

Have a look through the Planet Catfish links and look at the variety on the liposarcus. There's one here that is identical to mine:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=1098

Then look at this one - similarly sized sailfin:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=594

See the difference in shape and size? Difference being that a common grows into it's fin, whereas a sailfin's fin grows with it lol.

Yep see the triangular shape as opposed to being rounded now, it was the shallowness of the fin on the first pic I posted that threw me as yours is much taller than that one which is why I thought it looked like a sailfin.

 

[LisaLQ]

I think that's probably because mine's so small, compared to the one in the pic you posted - which looks like an adult maybe? Probably twice his size