SCOTCAT.COM  

Peter Petersen (3) Zierfisch Zentrum Austria (1)

Description: Dorsal spines (total): 2; Dorsal soft rays (total): 7; Anal spines: 1; Anal soft rays: 4. Distinguished from all other species of Hemiancistrus except H. chlorostictus, H. votouro, H. megacephalus and H. macrops by the presence of light dots on all fins and the lateral and dorsal portions of body. H. meizospilos differs from H. chlorostictus and H. votouro by the much larger light markings (one large dot occupying one to three plates vs. one to three dots per plate) and from H. votouro by the larger orbit diameter (16.7-21.0% HL vs. 14.5-16.7% HL). Distinguished from H. megacephalus and H. macrops by the area that light dots occupying each body plate (one large dot occupying one to three plates and skin between them vs. one large dot occupying only one body plate). Aquarium Care: Good aquarium habitants for a large tank and you can also house more than one species. They like water movement in the aquarium. Diet: In its natural habitat it feeds mainly on detritus, diatoms and unidentified worms. In the aquarium you can provide mainly a vegetarian diet but can also be fed tablet foods and frozen and live foods such as mosquito larvae, brine shrimp and shrimps. Etymology: The specific name meizospilos: meizon, comparative of mégas, i.e., greater or larger; spílos, mark or spot, referring to larger size of dots compared with white-spotted congeners of southern Brazil. Remarks: Hemiancistrus is also known in some literature as Ancistomus but is also similar to the Peckoltia genera but has a longer body and a naked ventral region.

Southern Orange Spotted Pleco

None

Loricariidae

South America: Chapecó River system, Uruguay River basin, Brazil. Type locality: Brazil: Santa Catarina: Coronel Freitas: rio Chapecó (tributary of the rio Uruguai basin).

15.0cm. (6ins)

22-26°c (71-77°f.)

6.0-7.2.

Cardoso, A.R. and J.F.P. da Silva, 2004. Two new species of the genus Hemiancistrus Bleeker (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the upper rio Uruguai basin. Neotrop. Ichthyol.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2020. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, ( 3/2020 ).
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.