Confused about types of Royal.

[mrtoofay]

Hi Hi! This my first time posting!

When I see "Royal Plecos" in LFS, all I see is green based with blackish lines. I guess those are L191? and the green based spotted ones. L330/watermelon? I saw this fella marked as "Royal Pleco" Is it a L190? I read everyone here saying that L190s are suppose to be the most common, but this is the first one I've ran into EVER. I just can't seem to understand/tell the difference between L190 and L27. Thanks in advance for helping me ID him and to tell the difference between L190 and L27. He got bullied a little after introducing him from the guaranteen tank.

 

[in2cichlids]

Here ya go. You can see the differences. There is a L191 too with dull eyes (no red eyes)

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/numbers.php?mode=l&thumbs=16&offset=32&genus_id=0

 

[David R]

As I understand it, the key factor for telling the P. armbrusteri types apart from P. nigrolineatus is the angle the teeth are on.
P. armbrusteri, teeth on a >90*angle;
http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/images/gif/illegal_to_reproduce.gif

P. nigrolineatus, teeth arranged in a narrow pointed V shape;
http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/images/gif/illegal_to_reproduce.gif

[both pictures courtesy of planetcatfish.com]

As for telling L190 and L191 apart, the eye is the biggest give away, L191 doesn't have the orange coloured eye. And then there's also the similar looking L418.....

The stripes are very variable between the two and not a reliable way of identifying them IMO. I have three very different looking L190, one with very fine stripes, one with very fat and almost blotchy stripes (kinda like a not very spotty L330) and two with quite widely spaced stripes and an almost yellow-ish base colour, like this;

.

 

[mrtoofay]

hmm.. so that picture is a L190? base color or stripes doesn't really tell much? That's what's so confusing! and apparently there are different types of base color and strips for L27 as well! I understand that teeth is more reliable. Is there any more simple/reliable way to tell without looking at the teeth?

btw, very nice looking fish you got there~

 

[Jackson]

This should help you with 27's
http://www.plecoclub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1589&page=83

418's and 191's are sort of similar. 418 is a much nicer looking fish IMO they're from Peru they have a lighter base colour majority of the time, they're stripes are not as broken as 191 in most cases, they have lighter coloured eyes and when young it's tail has a yellow/gold colour like this

their tail also fills in from the middle out when 191,190,330/27a fills in from the end towards the body. Same goes for 27's

As mentioned 190 can vary in colour and pattern and is really only easy to confuse with 330 when young. Once 330 grows older it's belly becomes spotted while not all develop a spotted pattern on the body they can stay striped or half striped or even develop a maze like pattern.
Pic of a young 190 goldish base

190 really spaced stripes and light green base colour


Top view 418

Full spotted 330

Half spotted 330


That's the best I can do from my phone lol

Edit-
Your fish is 190 from the looks of it


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[mrtoofay]

That's the best you can do from your phone? I can't even do that on my desktop =.=

Thank you for a very informative post! I have a much better understanding of the differences between them, didn't know about the yellow tails on the L418 before. Are there anything else that separates L27 from the rest?

 

[David R]

Price.

Unless buying from a very reputable source I'd say assume L190 unless you can check the mouth to confirm otherwise. Yep the fish I posted is L190, will post a pic of the mouth when I'm not on my phone.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Jackson]

That's the best you can do from your phone? I can't even do that on my desktop =.=

Thank you for a very informative post! I have a much better understanding of the differences between them, didn't know about the yellow tails on the L418 before. Are there anything else that separates L27 from the rest?

When young 27's don't have the black white banding on their tails
Like this borrowed from evolutions on arofanatics


Price as mentioned but some vendors or LFS charge a lot for 190's ,191's and 330's

Teeth pattern, body colour, pattern/stripes, body shape

It's best to post an ID thread if you're not sure. Sucks to pay more a fish than you should



Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[David R]

Here's the mouth shot, not particularly good but you can see the teeth arranged in a fairly pointed inverse-V shape, rather than the wide L27 shape.

 

[Rotaryp04s]

Their some nice looking l190 out there that can past as l27. It hard to tell them apart when their apart, but put them side by side and you can see the big different. The two I got have no banding on the top or bottom outer lining of the tail fin. For me I notice the black lines are clean and neat and the body is darker than the l190