The Rio Sao Francisco is a large river in southern Brazil. It´s length is around 3.200 km. The ichthyofauna of the Sao Francisco is comparably good explored, as there plans for an irrigation project. So the environment has to be explored and there were and are several studies on the fish fauna.
We currently received a shipment containing fish from the Sao Francisco, among them several plecos. One species was puzzling us, as we have never seen something like that before. On the first glimpse it reminded us on L238/LDA40 due to it´s extraordinary broad mouth. However, catfish expert Ingo Seidel kindly informed us that he thinks our new fish is a member of the genus Hypostomus.
It seems that the fish belongs to a so far undescribed species. Due to the well developed odontodes along the pectoral fin spine they are at least sexually mature, maybe even fully grown. Their current size is 5-6 cm. So they could proove to become perfect algae-eaters for smaller tanks.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
