Yesterday we introduced to you a brandnew „Hemiloricaria“ and mentioned that the determination of the species is very doubtful. Now we were able to take pictures of the ventral side of the animals and the enigma was solved: these fish are no Hemiloricaria at all, but members of the genus Pseudoloricaria! In Pseudoloricaria the lower lip has a different shape compared with Hemiloricaria, and the bony plates on the belly are also different arranged. Pseudoloricaria belong to the mouthbrooding whiptail cats (Hemiloricaria are cave brooders). The eggs of Pseudoloricaria are spawned on a dead leaf. The male attaches this leaf with the eggs on its lower lip and carries this along until the young fish hatch.
Currently there are two species of Pseudoloricaria known, one scientifically described (P. laeviuscula) and one still undescribed. The latter is presented in WelsAtlas Vol. 1 and named there provisionally Pseudoloricaria sp. „Rio Negro“. However, now we know that the fish has a much wider distribution in Amazonia than only the Rio Negro. Ingo Seidel is pretty sure that our recent importations belong to the still undescribed species. We take the opportunity to thank Ingo and all the others very sincerely for discussing the identity of our new fish on facebook and instagramm.
Although our fish are already sexually differentiated – they are about 12-14 cm long – they will most probably grow for more than double of that, because both species Pseudoloricaria proofed to grow as large as 30 cm or even more.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
