Bristlenose Cats?

[geesloper]

Hi all..

I'm a tad confused about Bristle Nose cats and how they fit in to the grand scheme of things...

On another board I frequent, the prevailing opinion is that 'Hypostoma punctata' is an old fashioned name that once applied to the Bristlenose Cat, but according to both Fishbase and PlanetCatfish, the Hypostoma/us Punctata/us is in fact a much larger catfish with no bristles :-P

Any catfish experts out there who could set me straight?

[AngelMom]

I'm no expert, but I checked both www.peteducation.com and www.fishprofiles.com , and both indicate that this is the bristlenose (or bushynose) pleco.

For what its worth

[geesloper]

Thx :-)

Fishprofiles is the one I'm talking about whose accuracy I'm not 100% sure of :-P

[AngelMom]

Hmmmm.

Live Aquaria lists the bristlenose pleco as "Ancistrus dolichopterus"

Checked several other sites for "Hypostoma punctata" and couldn't find anything other than this.

Sigh

[geesloper]

But what about the references to Hypostoma punctata being something far more akin to a common pleco? That's what slays me.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/hypostom/87_f.php

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=48949&genusname=Hypostomus&speciesname=punctatus

[AngelMom]

I have no clue....short of getting a scientist in here, who knows?

[geesloper]

It seems that siluriform phylogeny is indeed a controversial area :-P

Where's a good ichthyiologist when u need one? ;-)

Thankyou very much for your research anyway :-)

[aquak]

Threads I've read here have always used ancistrus in referring to bristlenose plecos. At least that's what I thought after looking it up and finding it listed as such.

[geesloper]

That's what I thought - but Fishprofiles and a few other places seem to think that an older name is Hypostoma punctata or Hypostomus punctatus. :-P. Of course, then the other sources seem to say that this is in fact a 30cm --> 50cm non-bristled fish :-P