A similar-looking, larger form from the rio Jarí, which enters the Amazon from the opposite bank a few hundred kilometres downstream from the Tapajós has been assigned the code L411.

The two can be told apart relatively easily since in L260 the white vermiculations on the body are significantly finer than in L411, in which the black and white components of the colour pattern are of more-or-less equivalent width.

L136 and its variants are collected in the rio Negro basin, Amazonas state, Brazil, and in particular the rio Demini, a northern tributary flowing into the central Negro in the municipality of Barcelos.

Collection details for LDA05 and LDA06 are currently unclear but presumably in the vicinity.

This unidentified ‘species’ is highly variable in terms of colour pattern, and it has been assigned a ser…

This unidentified species possesses a highly variable colour pattern with the pale, randomly-arranged spots and blotches on the body ranging in colour from whitish to yellowish to rusty orange depending on the specimen.

It’s regularly confused with similar-looking relativ…

H. inspector can be told apart from other described species in the genus by the following combination of characters: colour pattern comprising brown to black base with large whitish to yellow spots; adpressed dorsal-fin not reaching the adipose-fin spine; spots on head much smaller than on rest of body; spots in the upper caudal-fin lobe combining to form bands in adults; 24 plates in the mid-ventral series.

The genus Hypancistrus is diagnosed from all other loricariids by a wide separation between the metapterygoid and lateral ethmoid, presence of a sharply angled adductor palatini crest of the hyomandibula, and no lateral wall in the metapterygoid channel.

More useful for aquarists is the fact that in Hypancistrus the dentary teeth are about twice a…

Although often sold as the closely related F. acus (a species that is highly endangered and imported very rarely, if at all), F. vittata is the most common representative of the genus in hobbyists' tanks. The easiest way to distinguish the two is by comparing the shape of the rostrum, which is longer and more slender in vittata, although there are also differences in the arrangement of the ventral scutes. They are adapted for life among peripheral vegetation and tree roots along the edges o…

The genus Baryancistrus can be distinguished from all other loricariids by possession of an enlarged membrane located posteriorly to the last branched dorsal-fin ray. This membrane may or may not reach the supporting structure of the adipose fin and in this way members can be told apart from the genera Oligancistrus, Parancistrus, and Spectracanthicus, in which the dorsal and adipose fins are completely connected, and Hemiancistrus…

This species is traded under a number of English vernacular names, of which some others include ‘blonde bulldog pleco’, ‘blonde rubber pleco’, ‘blonde rubbernose pleco’, ‘striped rubber pleco’, and ‘striped rubbernose pleco’. It may also be seen referred to as ‘L146’, ‘L146a’, or ‘L187b’, these codes having been used for it in the Aqualog series of books.

It can be told apart from all congeners except C. anale and C. jegui by…

Prior to description in 2011 this species was traded under the DATZ code numbers L018, L085, L077 and ‘Das Aquarium’ code LDA060, while a very similar-looking fish from the lower rio Xingu which has been assigned the code L081 may also represent a form of B. xanthellus but is not mentioned in the description paper.

B. xanthellus can be distinguished from congeners by a combination of the following…

Prior to description this species was traded under the DATZ code L047 or the alternative vernacular name ‘magnum pleco’. It can be distinguished from congeners by a combination of the following characters: presence of a broad, light-coloured (usually yellowish) distal band on the dorsal and caudal fins throughout life, slightly reduced in adults. The only other member of the genus to possess such bands is B. xanthellus but in that species they are reduced to small markings at the fin tips in adults, and the body is covered in pale, normally yellowish, spots.