Hello all!

Quick survivor story of the Pleco I need identified....

I bought a big hunk of driftwood out of a tank at my LFS. It was shoved in a plastic bag and off I went. I stopped for gas & then went home.

At home, I unbagged the driftwood & tossed te bag aside...then spent about 45+ minutes with the wife putting on a new background & tweaking my canopy.

The wife says, "What else did you buy?" So I said, "Nothing - just the wood." She said, "Well something's alive in that bag."

At this point I'm thinking she's been drinking or something, "Can't be" I said, "I probably just kicked it or something & made a noise." She said, "No...something's flopping in it."

So I finally looked...mostly just to get her to drop it...and she was right. The little guy in the pics below was in there. I quickly got him into my angel tank & he swam off like nothing had happened.

In doing the math, it had been over 90 minutes out of water in a plastic bag.

I called the fish lady at my store & told her about it & she said she'd heard of an hour or so before. When I offered to bring him back, she said, "Nah - finders keepers. We thought someone sold him...he's yours."

So he's now called "Rupert" - from the TV show Survivor.

If anyone could give me an L number on him, I'd love to go read about him. THANKS!

One for you, Clunkster. Rattle those L's off !

Nice looking Fish, Gary.

congrats on your little bonus probly survived as it would have been kept damp but i have never heard of a fish survivig this long to help you identify this pleco i need to know how big is it at the moment ? can you get some clearer pictures ? what did the lfs say it was if anything ?

I know - that's a long time...but he's cruising the tank walls as we "type."

Right now....I'm going to guess it is 3" - possibly a tad shorter. I can work on the pictures. The best I can describe is that the markings look a lot like a scribble pleco...but mine seems more black, has a broader head, and the lines are thinner than on a scribble. I'll try to get better pics.

The LFS was very iffy on it. They were told it was called a mosaic...but from what I've seen online, I don't think so. She was trying to remember L numbers...kept saying l29 or l31 or l129 or "something like that" - but again online searches have convinced me those aren't right either.

clunkster wrote:

congrats on your little bonus probly survived as it would have been kept damp but i have never heard of a fish survivig this long to help you identify this pleco i need to know how big is it at the moment ? can you get some clearer pictures ? what did the lfs say it was if anything ?

Are these any better?




Given my used, scratched tank...that's going to be as good as the pics get until he decides to come to the front.

possibly L129 check here

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have a look see what you think, if you can get a photo from the side

Yeah - very possible.

I just found this, too. Which do you think looks closer?

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i also looked at that one its possibly one or the other but as you have the fish you can see it much more better than me as you can see the coloration & the markings much better

True.

Whichever one it is, I'm convinced we've sloved the mystery.

Thanks for the help.

I say it looks more like L316

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I have one very similar to yours

Funky:

Weird. Your personal pics look a lot like mine - but the PC links lead to pictures that don't look the same to me. I'll need to do more reading. Thanks for your input.

I told you they look alot alike.

which is why i said only you can see the colouration & markings as they are as you have the fish