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Vitor Hugo Quaresma (1) Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (2) Daniel Konn-Vetterlein (2)

Description: Was not placed in any genera at one time and was formerly known as Ancistrinae sp. (L269) but Chamon et. al. as of 2014 described this species in their paper as Spectracanthicus immaculatus. Dorsal soft rays (total): 8; Anal soft rays: 5; Vertebrae: 26. This species is distinguished from all species of Spectracanthicus by its colour pattern consisting of a dark grey body, without dots or spots, and by having very slender teeth (vs. with small to mid-sized yellowish dots in S. punctatissimus, S. murinus, and S. tocantinensis; and large white spots in S. zuanoni. This can be further differentiated from S. punctatissimus and S. zuanoni by having pointed snout in dorsal view (vs. snout rounded). Additional characters useful to separate this species from other congeners include the following: nasal quadrangular (vs. nasal L-shaped); posterior margin of pterotic-supracleithrum without contact with posterior margin of orbit (vs. with large contact with orbit in S. murinus and small contact in remaining species); cartilage area of basipterygia short (vs. elongate in remaining species, except in S. murinus); anterior fenestrae of cartilage area of basipterygia large in size (vs. small to median size in remaining species, except in S. tocantinensis) Aquarium Care: Peaceful, but they do have a requirement for higher oxygen and prefer currents in the water with a powerful filter. Sexual Differences: Males have a longer and broader head and a heavier growth of odontodes. Diet: Carnivores and feed on snails in their natural habitat. Feed live and frozen foods such as brine shrimp, mysis, mussels and fish flesh. Tablet foods can also be fed. Etymology: The specific name immaculatus: Derived from the Latin adjective, immaculatus, meaning unspotted or unstained, in allusion to the colouration pattern of the species, lacking dots or spots.

L269

None

Loricariidae

Brazil: Rio Tapajós basin in Brazil.

8.0cm. (3¼ins)

26-30°c (79-87°f)

6.5-7.2.

Chamon, C.C. and L.H. Rapp Py-Daniel, 2014. Taxonomic revision of Spectracanthicus Nijssen & Isbrücker (Loricariidae: Hypostominae: Ancistrini), with description of three new species. Neotrop. Ichthyol. 12(1):1-25.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2014. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 08/2014 ).
Konn-Vetterlein, Daniel, New Loricariids described. Amazonas magazine. Jan/Feb 2015.
Seidel, Ingo; Back to Nature guide to L-catfishes 208p.