| Scientific Name: Hemiloricaria sp. L010a |
| Common Name: Red Whiptail Catfish / Red Lizard Catfish |
| I have never really been much of a whiptail fan, but I
spotted one of these guys on special in Animates in Papanui, he was being sold as an albino whiptail.
With the readilly available range of foods I can get these days I thought
Id give whiptails another go. I have allways had problems getting them to
eat in the past. I needn't have worried. That first whiptail was very adventurous and not at all
afraid of putting on a show at the
front of the tank, and fighting the plecs for a share of the shrimp
pellets and pleco chips. Very pale almost orange in color. High dorsal fin and
extended ray on top of tail (but not bottom). He is in my second tank with
2 gold nuggets and a pair of Bristle noses at present, and seems to get on
with them all fine. I now have 4 of these guys, they school quite happilly (well hang together) and seem to get a bit scrappy at times but only amoungst themselves. I have identified them as Red WhipTail Cats. The males have fine barbs / hairs on the upper surfaces of their pectoral fins. These guys have a remarkable ability to change color slowly over a matter of days, they all went into the tank a pale tan color, but after a few days begin turning the orangey red you see in the pics, presumably to blend better with the golden gravel in the tank.
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