In the 1980s, the blue-eyed Panque was one of the most common loricariid catfishes on the market. Incidentally, the correct name is Panaque suttonorum. For unknown reasons, the animals are hardly available nowadays. There are a lot of rumors that an environmental disaster is to blame or that a madman has poisoned the river or that the Colombian drug mafia controls the fishing area. Be that as it may, fortunately the species cannot be extinct, as we occasionally get a few specimens from Colombia. We also currently have beautiful specimens with bright blue eyes in our stock, which are around 18-22 cm long.
The different spellings of the species name (suttoni/suttonorum) are based on Latin grammar. The describer of the species, Leonard P. Schultz, named the species in 1944 in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Sutton, to whom Schultz was very grateful for their hospitality during the time he lived at the Lago Petroleum Corporation camp on Lake Maracibo in Venezuela. So the species was described in honor of two people, ergo the plural gender must be used, which ends in -orum, while the ending -i represents the singular gender.
For our customers: the animal has code 275006 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer
