Rubber-lipped Pleco (Chaetostoma sp)

[Valkyrie]

I recently (about a month ago) bought a tiny rubber-lipped plecostomus to help take care of the algae problem in my 40 gallon tank, which was, at that point in time, well-covered in a thin blanket of green algae top to bottom (except for the front glass). I put that little plec in there, though, and all the glass in the aquarium was sparking clean in a matter of a couple weeks at most, and he had already started on the tank ornaments which had ben covered in algae so long I had almost forgotten what they looked like. Needless to say, despite his not-so-attractive looks, the pleco has become one of my favorite fish in the tank.

What I want to know is what species of Chaetostoma he is so that I can find out more about him. I will try to get a few pics up tomorrow, but until then, all I've got is a description: he's still very young, about 1 1/2 inches long; he is pale grey with a few slightly paler splotches on his back; his head is about half as long as his body is; his armor is not well defined, but noticeable. His favorite place to hang out is stuck to a fairly small speckled rock. He has an almost hyperactive behavior, clinging to one spot for a few seconds only to break off and wiggle all over the place until he finds another spot (as a result, several of the tank ornaments are coated with algae except for a few odd polka-dots).

Any ideas would be great!

 

[Bloo]

Best I could recommend (until you post a pic) is to look at these Chaetostoma on Planet Catfish

 

[andywg]

Identifying Chaetostama (pronounced Kea-toe-sto-ma) is not eay for the professionals, let alone us hobbyists.

Check out Planet Catfish but alway be careful as the differences between the genus are somewhat blurry.