Clown Pleco 10cm

Butterfly Pleco L052 - Dekeyseria pulchra

These fish require highly oxygenated water to survive, you can add a bubbler or make sure there is lots of surface agitation. You will usually find these fish clinging onto rocks or the smooth surfaces such as the side of your glass.

These fish are generally peaceful, but may be territorial towards each other if you don’t have tank space, cover, or shaded areas of your tank.

We recommend you use a smooth substrate or non sharp gravel to ensure it doesn’t cut or harm itself.

Similar to Lasiancistrus but broader when viewed from above especially in larger adults. Striped species of Dekeyseria were placed in Zonancistrus but because this was only based on colouration, they are more commonly placed with the non-striped species in Dekeyseria.

This catfish is a master of disguise. It can change colouration, chameleon-style, quickly. If kept on a black or very dark substrate is will go almost black.

Kept on a lighter substrate it will show a pretty striped pattern during the day. Another reason for misidentification of this fish is that its night-time colouration is totally different from that it has during the day, some authors note this is adult versus juvenile colouration.

In more southerly occurring populations, the stripes are more clearly separated and the base colour of D. brachyura is more orange when you compare them directly.

This species can be found in many hobbyist books under its old name of Peckoltia pulcher. More recently it was moved by Isbrucker et al into their new flounder pleco genus Zonancistrus. However, prevailing scientific usage appears to be with the use of Dekeyseria.

L052, is a pattern variant from the Atabapo drainage has stripes that are less clearly separated and form a network pattern in adults