Scientific name: Panaque cochliodon
Origin: South America / Colombia / Magdalena River drainage ~ Río Cauca
Maximum length: 50 – 60 cm
Temperature: 20 – 24 ºC
Diet: Herbivore
- Taxonomy
- Description
- Distribution and habitat
- Diet
- Aquarium
- Sex difference
- Reproduction and breeding
- Literature
Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Hypostominae
Genus: Panaque
Species: Panaque cochliodon, Steindachner, 1879
This really impressive pleco-species is quite robust and is easy to recognize because of the light/dark grey color with a really clear-blue eye. So, it is not strange that in the hobby he gets often the name "blue-eye Panaque" or "blue eye pleco".
Many people say that this pleco is the "holy grail" of the plecos, even that they get nowadays more and more exported from Colombia.
This species can grow quite large with between 35 - 40 cm. In the former shop we even had a specimen of 56 cm, which we heard that there is not known a bigger specimen so far. The photo on the home page is of this specimen.
The Panaque cochliodon is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and was last reviewed October 2014.
Like many Panaque species, also this species is found in fast moving waters. They are mainly found in the Rio Magdalena in Colombia. Due to guerrilla and paramilitary presence in the region, this area was once virtually inaccessible. This has decreased in recent years and so more and more fish are exported.
A number of names are used for the Blue Eyed Panaque, which sometimes causes confusion. In addition, there is also uncertainty about whether it is one species or more.
The name Panaque cochliodon is used for the specimens that come from Colombia.
P. suttonorum was described by Schultz in 1944 and would be confined to the Maracaibo Lake basin. This Lake basin is in Venezuela and not Colombia, aquarium fish have never been exported there.
Then there is also an "error" in the scientific name which causes confusion.
Most aquarium keepers know the fish under the name Panaque suttoni instead of Panaque suttonorum.
This name has been misused for 53 years and was discovered in 2010 by the famous Dutch Ichthyologist Isaäc J. H. Isbrücker.
Leonard Schultz described this species in 1944 in honor of Dr. and Mrs Frederick A. Sutton and was subsequently named P. suttoni.
But the code of Zoological Nomenclature (the system of naming of species) states that if a fish is named after a man it ends with ~i, so P. suttoni. If it is named after a women it ends with ~ae, so P. suttanae.
But when it is named after a man and women together then it should end with ~orum, so Panaque suttonorum. And so, in this case the only good name is Panaque suttonorum.
The species is not abundant and has a low capture rate (Mojica et al. 2012). The population has declined in recent years, mainly due to habitat degradation and over-fishing for the ornamental market. As far as they can tell, the Panaque has low fertility, which is probably also the reason why so few small animals are caught and exported.
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