#pseudacanthicus

Pseudacanthicus major (source)

Not the most beautiful pleco, but it’s known for being huge. Panaque schaeferi huge.

It is the 2nd biggest Pseudacanthicus. (1st place goes to Pseudacanthicus histrix.) P. histrix is also 2nd biggest pleco overall.

P. major and several others tied at ~23” are now 3rd biggest of all plecos.

I guess a New Year’s resolution for me would be to learn more about the various Pseudacanthicus. I mean, I should know these things since I run a pleco-centric tumblr. And they’re popular (at least L024/L025 are).

So, here is a neato pleco, Pseudacanthicus L185. (I’ll share why I picked this later.)

L185 is a resident of the Rio Xingu, just like the extremely popular Pseudacanthicus pirarara (L025). L185 is however... completely dark colored. No fancy orange/red accents on the fins. None. Just dark colored. Reminds me a little of actual Acanthicus, the Adonis pleco. (A full grown, mature Adonis pleco is completely dark, very few white spots are left. Oh by the way, there’s an albino Adonis pleco! Thanks Planet Catfish for that info!)

L185 gets to a cool 15.7”, still a monster pleco. (A few inches smaller than L025, ~8” smaller than Pseudacanthicus major and over 24” smaller than the Adonis pleco!) It is very “thorny” and I can understand why Pseudacanthicus are nicknamed cactus plecos. (No pleco can beat the massive odontode monsters that are Panaque. But I’m biased.)

So why did I pick this neato pleco?

“TOTALLY DEMONIC LOOKING!” says Google.

I can’t say no to writing about something described as that!

L185, Planet Catfish

(This video has English subtitles.)

Hey, we’ve seen this pleco before! I wrote a neato pleco post about it a bit ago!

So, I’ve been keeping up with a few different captive breeding projects for Rio Xingu plecos on Facebook. (My Facebook and Instagram are filled with plecos.) I was really excited to see how this one went because L185 is not a small fish, and the amount of space it’d need.

This super informative and detailed video on L185 showed up on my Facebook feed and I finally got to watch it. It’s worth the time to watch the entire video to the end. While this vid is about a specific pleco, there are a few things that are similar to a lot of other plecos (and especially Pseudacanthicus).

Source:

Leandro Sousa/Youtube

I made a separate post with just the picture, if that's what you're looking for, click here.

-The article is mostly scientific talk, dealing with classification within loricariidae and pseudacanthicus, where they found it and some other stuff. Fascinating if you are into pleco science.

-It’s not as eye catching as Pseudacanthicus L24 and L25.

-It’s tied with Panaque schaeferi, at ~23" (and several other plecos).