Pseudacanthicus sp. “LDA105”

Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Hypostominae
Genus: Pseudacanthicus
Species: not described yet

This special fish has its place in the hobby for not so long time, but is currently one of the most sought-after and expensive pleco species.

With its yellow to orange/pink spots on a brown groundtone this L-number was a great discovery for all fish enthusiasts who like their cactus plecos brightly colored. Unfortunately, it is still a quite expensive fish and not so easy to get.

Also this species can reach a body length up to 40 cm.

"LDA105" is also called Typhoon pleco in the hobby.

It comes from the Rio Jamanxim and Rio Tocantins in Brazil, rivers with very warm and soft water. There they often inhabit slow-flowing rivers and stagnant ponds.

Since it is not (yet) possible to breed this species in captivity, and Brazil prohibits the export of this species, all specimens in circulation have been smuggled out of Brazil. As a result, this species is still offered at very high prices and it is sometimes still difficult to find them.

Pseudacanthiscus species are almost all carnivores, as is LDA105.
Because this pleco species grows into large, territorial eaters, it is important and a requirement to feed sufficient, good mineral-rich meat food. Mussels and shrimp are always desirable.

A good food to feed are the hard Mussel sticks, Shrimp sticks and Carnivore sticks. Because the sticks are hard and they do not fall apart, it is an ideal food for large plecos to graze on the sticks.

Because this species can grow to 40 cm body length and is therefore only suitable for bigger tanks. For succesfull keeping a water temperature of 28 - 30 °C and a electrical conductivity under 500 mS is necessary.

Its not always the easiest when it comes to sexing Pseudacanthicus species, which are not fully grown or not gravid.

With this page we hope we can give a little insight, in how to differentiate male from female of the very special Typhoon Pleco, Pseudacanthicus sp. "LDA105".

From the side there might be not the most differences to see. You could say the male has a slightly bigger caudal-fin.

A closer look to the headshape itself, also doesn't reveal here much. Pseudacanthicus spp. tend to show more pronounced secondary sexual traits the older and bigger they get. This pair is around 25 cm in total, which is nowhere near the end size this pleco species can grow to.

More zoomed into the snout area, we can see that the male is slightly more spiky than the female.

Odontodes on the gills are with both specimens not really pronounced and don't tell us much about their sex.

A clear difference we can see on the hard ray of the pectoral fins. The males shows longer and slightly curbed odontodes, which are quite a bit shorter with the females.

Like with almost all members of the "cactus plecos", both sexes show strong pronouced lines of odontodes on the sides of the body and tail.

Sexing from top is probably the easiest when it comes to Pseudacanthicus. We can see, that the male doesn't show the round curves the female shows. While the broadest part of the body of the male is round the shoulders, showing a straight line till the tail, the female shows the broadest part between the pectoral- and pelvic fins, showing a slightly more convex body line. Also the odontodes of the male stand further out of its silhoutte, giving him a less smooth appearance.

If we take a closer look to the head from top, we see that the male shows a really long head framed by spiky odontodes. The females head looks in comparison smaller.

Like mentioned in page of other plecos, is the shape of the papilla not the best trait for sexing Pseudacanthicus spp.. The sexual organ of this fish keeps extending and shortening with contracting movements constantly, which makes it really difficult to see the true form of the papilla. What we can luckily see, also with this species, are yellow dots around the papilla, which can be seen on most females.

For best sexing results, it is best to take all sexual traits in account, since there can be slight variations from specimen to specimen in certain body parts. Especially premature fish are sometimes not possible to sex, due to lacking sexual traits. Pseudacanthicus should be fed very well, before making sexing attempts, since thin females tend to look sometimes like males. The fatter they get, the more obvious are the described sexual traits.

Although this species has been very popular among aquarium enthusiasts for quite some time, it is truly a rarity that this species has been bred.