Do you have a favourite catfish? If not, then it’s high time you considered the small and charming Hypancistrus, writes new contributor Haakon Haagenson.
HAAKON HAAGENSON A pet store manager from Norway, aquarist since 1990 and international speaker and writer of catfishes.
BACK IN the early 1980s, fishkeepers were not blessed with a wide selection of plecos to choose from in the aquarium trade. Little did they know that this was about to change drastically, and by the end of the decade major German importers were presenting new and exciting findings on a regular basis.
Identifying all of these new plecos was not always easy, as they were typically not possible to assign to any of the known, scientifically described species. Because of this, the Germans decided to label them with numbers instead of creative and catchy names, and hence the L-number system was established. If you’ve ever wondered, the ‘L’ stands for Loricariidae, the family to which these catfishes belong.
Among all the new types coming in were some notably striking ones, such as a small, zebra-striped pleco from Brazil. The fish was found by some Japanese fish collectors in the Rio Xingu, and when seen by hobbyists it immediately caused a stir. Only a couple of years later it was scientifically described by the ichthyologists Isaac J. Isbrücker and Han Nijssen as Hypancistrus zebra, though it often still endures in the public mindset as L046.
During the 20-year period following from 1990, the interest in L-number plecos peaked. By the end of 2010, over 450 L-numbers had been assigned. Among these were a good number of Hypancistrus, which had established themselves as the most popular representatives of plecos for several reasons. Many of them are mainstays in the hobby, and although the interest and hype surrounding L-numbers may have dwindled during the last 10 years, they still have a great many fans in the fishkeeping community.
Luckily, fishkeeping is still very much a thing, and with new recruits coming in it might be nice to give a fresh presentation of what Hypancistrus are. The purpose of this article is to give a brief introduction to these particular species and also give an insight to how to best take care of them in captivity.
What and where?
‘Hypo’ is a Greek term that means ‘less than,’ and this is a reference to the teeth — Hypancistrus have less teeth than Ancistrus. They reason for their low number of teeth is dietary, something I’ll return to later.
There are about 50 or so known forms of Hypancistrus, and of these there are curr
