Hypancistrus

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...

Collected from the rio Xingu downstream and in the vicinity of Belo Monte, Pará state, northern Brazil. The majority of its natural habitat is likely to be severely degraded in the near future due to ongoing construction of the Belo Monte dam.

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.

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...

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...

One of the most enigmatic species in the hobby, this incredible little catfish must rank amongst the most stunning freshwater species known. In the late 1990s and the early part of this century you could buy one of these for as little as twenty pounds. However in 2004, the Brazilian government banned the exportation of the species amid apparent concerns over the exploitation of wild stocks. As yet, the conservation status of the fish has not been confirmed by any scientific proof with the only e...