Ancistrus claro (LDA008) Knaack, 1999

This small bristlenose catfish has a rather strongly flattened body and a large sucker mouth. The species is extremely variable in color and can be either very plain gray-brown or attractively patterned. Only a few animals show such an attractive vermiculate line pattern, like the specimen shown here, imported many years ago. Especially recently imported A. claro are usually rarely attractive. Presumably, the current imports come from a different locality than before. Males are often more attractively marked, grow somewhat larger, and form unbranched, not very long tentacles, females show only a few short extensions on the edge of the snout.