''Pseudacanthicus major'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
in the family
Loricariidae. It is native to
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
, where it occurs in the
Tocantins River
The Tocantins River ( pt, Rio Tocantins, link=no , , Parkatêjê dialect, Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan ...
basin in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The species is notably large for a loricariid, reaching 60 cm (23.6 inches) SL.
[Chamon, C. C., & Silva, T. (2018). Pseudacanthicus major: description of one of the largest known Loricariidae (Hypostominae: Ancistrini), a species from rio Tocantins basin, Brazil. ''Zootaxa'', ''4387''(3), 499–510. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4387.3.5]
''P. major'' was described in 2018 by Carine C. Chamon (of the
Federal University of Tocantins
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
) and Thiago Costa e Silva on the basis of coloration and morphology. Its specific epithet derives from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and refers to its large size.
It appears in the aquarium trade, where it is usually referred to either as the giant cactus pleco or by its
L-number
The L-number system is a semi-scientific classification system of catfish based on photographs of shipments of tropical catfish of the family Loricariidae published by the German aquarium magazine DATZ (Die Aquarien- und Terrarienzeitschrift (The ...
, which is L-186.
FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. does not list this species.
References
Ancistrini
Fish described in 2018
{{Loricariidae-stub