Taxonomy
Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Loricariinae
Genus: Planiloricaria
Species: Planiloricaria cryptodon, Isbrücker, 1971
Description
Planiloricaria cryptodon is a large growing member of the Loricariidae family. This species reaches its maximum length with about 30 - 35 cm. Additional to that comes the long tail filament, which can grow even longer than the body length of the animal itself.
This fish has a flat and elongated body shape. The head is spoon-like with small eyes on top of it, and the mouth has on the underside a broad lip. On the side of the mouth they have long branched barbs which they use for searching food in the sand. The tail is elongated and on top of the the tail- and caudal fin they show a really long filament. The skin is rather smooth and doesn't show odontodes.
The overall body coloration is grey-beige with several black spots on it. The belly is white and fins are whitish-transparent.
This fish sits most of the day on or half buried in the sand. When buried, the eyes and the caudal fin look out of the sand. With the long filament they sense streaming and possibly also pheromones and other odors. During the day you can see P. cryptodon consistently whipping with its caudal fin up and down. If this is for inter-special communication or for sensing odors and pheromones in the water, is not known. This species is active during the night and the day, but prefers to sit on top of the substrate when its dark. In search of food, this fish digs through the sand with its big mouth and branched barbs on its lips. It leaves almost never the substrate and only swims actively in the open water when spooked or stressed.
Planiloricaria can show territorial behaviour against other members of its species, but is in general a non aggressive fish. When threatened this species relies mostly on its camouflage in the sandy substrate and doesn't move. If danger is inevitable, it flees by swimming really fast in the open water.
Planiloricaria cryptodon is in the hobby also known under the name spoon face whiptail catfish.
Distribution and habitat
Planiloricaria cryptodon is native to Peru, Brazil and Colombia. There you can find them in the Upper Amazon River Basin, which includes the Rio Ucayali, Rio Purus and Rio Mamoré.
This fish lives in the major main streams of those rivers and occur on the sandy banks of the rivers.
Its habitat consists of 24 - 28 °C warm water with a pH between 6 - 7. Therefore it can stand quite a spread of parameters and is a robust fish in the aquarium.
Diet
Planiloricaria cryptodon is a big sand-dwelling catfish, which spends most of its time on or digged into the sand. The strange finger-like lip structure helps this species with finding small invertebrates in the substrate and digging them out to eat.
This species is a omnivore but mainly eats animal proteins. In the wild they eat different worms, insect larvae, small fish and crustaceans under the sand. It is a greedy eater, which eats the whole day.
In captivity this species can be fed with all sorts of foods. It prefers protein rich granules and frozen food. But also green food they really take good. It is necessary to feed food, that sinks to the bottom. Since this species is a greedy eater, it has no problem to compete with other fish in the tank.
A lot of those sand-dwelling catfish species also are mouth brooders, which show especially in breeding time elongated under lips, which help transporting the egg batch.
Aquarium
This fish grows long and needs big open spaces. Therefore the minimum size of a tank for this species shouldn't be under 180 - 200 cm. This fish also prefers to be in little groups. Every specimen occupies a certain spot in the sandy substrate and keeps distance to the other one.
P. cryptodon likes warm, clean and oxygenated water. This you can reach by installing a streaming pump and an air stone, next to a good filtration and an internal heater, which are necessary. Weekly waterchanges of 50 % are necessary to keep this fish healthy. The water should be neutral to slightly acidic with a temperature between 24 - 28 °C. This species is not light sensitive, which means the tank can be illuminated brightly.
The set up should be so chosen, that the fish doesn't get tangled to easy in complicated stone and wood structures. It prefers open spaces with sandy substrates to dig in and to search for food.
A lot of fish can be put together with P. cryptodon. It should only be taken care, that it's no fish that scratches on the sensible skin of this species, like Pseudacanthicus and Leporacanthicus spp.. Also fish that bite into fin filaments, like barbs and certain types of tetras should be avoided. Some cichlids also pick into the shiny eyes, that look through the substrate, like discus and angelfish. Other Loricariids like Spatuloricaria, Rineloricaria, Pterosturisoma and Sturisomatichthys do well in a a tank with Planiloricaria. Of course, it must be taken care that there is enough space and that there is no food competition.
Sex difference
This species has few visible secondary sexual characteristics, which can sometimes make it difficult to determine the sex. But here are some pictures of the visible sexual characteristics.
When comparing the heads from the side, the male's head is slightly flatter than the female's. The head of the female seems much higher and thicker on the head, in front of the dorsal fin. Unfortunately, the photo is not taken from exactly the same angle, but there is still a clear difference visible.
The male's pelvic fins are supposed to be longer and more pointed than those of the female's, but this is not always easy to see. As can be seen in these two adult specimens from above, the male does indeed have slightly longer, rounder, and more pointed pelvic fins than the female.
Unfortunately, the shape of the head from above is not a good indication of the sex of this species, as the shape of the head can vary from specimen to specimen.
As can be seen in the photo below of the genital papilla, the male has a more elongated papilla and the female a round, blunt papilla. The bald spot around the papilla can have different shapes in one sex and contrary to what was initially thought, this is not a good indication of the sex. Furthermore, the papilla is not always easy to see in this species, which can sometimes make determining the sex very difficult.
Reproduction and breeding
This species is a mouth brooder. The male takes care of the egg batch, while carrying it around with the lips. Some male Loricariids develop bigger lips in breeding season for that reason. If this is also the case with P. cryptodon, is not known by us.
The female spawns into the sand or sometimes on a dead leaf, where the male then fertilizes the batch. The eggs are laid in a kind of elongated plate or disc, with the eggs laying next to each other in one layer. The male then carries the disc with eggs around with his mouth. Besides protecting the eggs, it also ensures that the eggs move enough and get fresh water by moving the head up and down. When the larvae are ready to hatch, the male helps. He does this by scratching the eggshells with his mouth.
When the little larvae have hatched they swim directly free and eat from their yolk sacs the next following days. After the yolk sacs is gone they start to eat small food.
Literature
Isbrücker, I.J.H. (1971).
Pseudohemiodon (Planiloricaria) cryptodon, a new species and subgenus from Peru (Pisces, Siluriformes: Loricariidae).
Bonner zoologische Beiträge, Vol. 21: 274 - 283
