L177 Baryancistrus sp. irri-yellow-seam - Catfish for Sale UK

A band of yellow tracing the fin edges gives this catfish its trade name — the irri-yellow-seam form of L177 Baryancistrus. It is one of the more specialised loricariids on our list, carrying a Difficult care rating not because it is fragile to keep fed but because its water has to be right: warm at 26–30°C, fast-flowing and highly oxygenated, with pH between 6.0 and 7.5 and hardness from 1–12 dGH. Get the current and oxygen right and you have a genuinely distinctive bottom-dweller.

Compact for the group at roughly 8cm adult length, this yellow-seam strain still asks for room — we list 275 litres as the minimum, which buys the water volume and flow stability the strain depends on. Feeding follows the classic grazer-detritivore pattern, primarily herbivorous shading into omnivorous, with the fish patrolling the lower levels of the tank. Temperament is peaceful: small to medium tetras, rasboras, peaceful dwarf cichlids and other midwater fish that leave the bottom alone all make sound company. Skip aggressive cichlids, large predatory fish, fin-nipping species and overcrowded community tanks where the catfish would be hassled off its feeding grounds. With around ten years of life expectancy, this is a long-term resident rather than an impulse purchase.

It helps to think of the care rating as a flow rating. Nothing else on the spec sheet is extreme — the pH window is ordinary, hardness reaches down to a very soft 1 dGH, and feeding a grazer-detritivore is straightforward — but the demand for moving, oxygen-rich water at the top of the tropical range never relaxes. The 275-litre minimum exists to serve exactly that requirement: bigger water holds temperature and oxygen more steadily, and gives the yellow-seam proper patrol routes along the bottom.

Keeping the irri-yellow-seam L177 healthy

• Water: 26–30°C, pH 6.0–7.5, 1–12 dGH
• Strong flow and high oxygenation are essential
• Tank size: 275 litres minimum
• Adult length: about 8cm; lives around 10 years
• Diet: herbivorous to omnivorous grazer and detritivore
• Peaceful; keeps to the bottom of the aquarium

Before this pleco joins your tank

Set up powerheads or a generous filter return ahead of arrival so the current is already established, and confirm your heater can hold the upper-tropical range around the clock. Tankmates should be calm, midwater-focused and uninterested in the substrate. Orders ship across the UK with a licensed live-animal courier, and every shipment carries our live arrival guarantee.