What Kind Of Hoplo Is He?

[FishBlast]

He has this tail with a stripe formed from the dots and he also has those pointy pectoral fins with white underneath them. He is also very spotted and is 13 cm long.
Is he a Thoracatum or something else?
Can someone identify his actual species please? He was always different from my other hoplos.

 

[envious]

looks a little like callichthys callichthys but i dont really know that much about catfish

 

[FishBlast]

looks a little like callichthys callichthys but i dont really know that much about catfish

According to some pictures I've seen on google images, a Callichtys has a longer tail.

Tzuppy has a shorter tail and a lot of spots like a Megalechis Thoracata but he has some features that don't match (such as the odd fins and the bar on the tail, but he doesn't look like a tail-bar hoplo either).

 

[tribalbrit]

Megalechis Thoracata is the one to the rear and callichthys callichthys is the lighter coloured one. I think yours is Megalechis Thoracata



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[FishBlast]

Megalechis Thoracata is the one to the rear and callichthys callichthys is the lighter coloured one. I think yours is Megalechis Thoracata



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The thoracata looks somewhat like him and I suspect him of being one, however, the thoracata looks more like my other hoplos I've had long ago.
This one is somewhat lighter in color and has those weird tips that none of my others had and most of mine were males. The one that lived 8 years never grew those weird things, but this 9 year old one that I have left grew them at the beginning of 2011.
What could those things be?

Also, the other ones had somewhat of a bigger head, this one has a not-too-flat but not too tall head.

 

[tribalbrit]

males develop an edge to their pectoral fins, these can be sharp and used for cutting plants to bits when building their bubble nests.

 

[FishBlast]

males develop an edge to their pectoral fins, these can be sharp and used for cutting plants to bits when building their bubble nests.

Wasn't that the thickened orange fin ray that you are referring to?
As I don't see a piece of the soft fin able to cut anything. (the thing I am referring to).

The usual thoracata (not my pic):

Bigger head, rounded pectoral fin.
Tail quite similar but mine has more spots that form a bar.
And seems to have shorter mustaches but maybe that varies from each individual.

 

[tribalbrit]

see what you mean now. don't know what they are. Have you tried planet catfish search?

 

[FishBlast]

see what you mean now. don't know what they are. Have you tried planet catfish search?

Yep, not only that but pretty much every catfish-related website / searched for pictures and only one occurrence of that thing... but that's all he has in common with the Hoplo Magdalene. A H.Magdalenae is way lighter and has no spots. It has a somewhat forked tail too, not rounded.
Look at H. Magdalenae first picture (on planet catfish). The same flap as my Tzuppy's. But the whole fish is totally different.

 

[Red Betta]

its just a regular hoplo/armoured catfish

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

its just a regular hoplo/armoured catfish

This is one of those classic cases of where a common name does not come close to identifying a specific species... Have you any idea how many catfish match "Hoplo" characteristics, when broken down into scientific names?

 

[FishBlast]

its just a regular hoplo/armoured catfish

This is one of those classic cases of where a common name does not come close to identifying a specific species... Have you any idea how many catfish match "Hoplo" characteristics, when broken down into scientific names?

The many hoplos I've found over the internet...
Megalechis Thoracata (spotted, most common sold, probably mine as well, unless he's a hybrid)
Megalechis Picta (has blots all over and a bar on tail)

Hoplosternum Littorale (Brown hoplo)

Dianema Urostriatus (flag tail hoplo)

And I've had a lot of thoracatas, none of them had their head as flat as mine, nor the pectorals like that.