What are they selling as Ancistrus leucostictus?

[wijnands, posts: 180]

In my quest for ancistrus claro I popped into my LFS to check what they had on offer.

Only ancistrus species they had was a tank of small fry, about 12-15mm of something labled Ancistrus Leucostictus. Liked the look of these guys and 3 fish for 10 euros was a tempting price. However, there was a nagging voice in the back of my head that there was something special about leucostictus. So I took a quick snapshot and decided to look it up when I got home.

Is there anyone who can say with some degree of certainty what this is? OR do I need to go back and reshoot?

[Suckermouth, posts: 1514]

These are commons! A. leucostictus is from the Essequibo River which is very rarely collected for the aquarium trade.

[Bas Pels, posts: 1920]

This is the common Ancistrus cf cirrhosus. The prize alone would tell you that, for that prize one can not expect anything out of the ordinary.

leucostictus should be yellow, I'm not certain whether leucos is Greek or Latin, but I do know it means yellow.

[Marc van Arc]

These look like common Ancistrus, Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus
As you can see in the data sheet, Ancistrus leucostictus would be a very rare find in the shops.

So don't let them fool you

[pleco_breeder, posts: 803]

I kept a group of true leucostictus for several years, and can definitely say they are not the fish shown here. As mentioned before, leucostictus are not commonly available in shops unless there is a local breeder selling them. Mine came from a wild collection made by another hobbyist.

Larry

[Suckermouth, posts: 1514]

leucostictus should be yellow, I'm not certain whether leucos is Greek or Latin, but I do know it means yellow.

From Ancistrus leucostictus:

The specific epithet is derived from Leucos (greek) = white, stictus (greek) = spotted.

[wijnands, posts: 180]

Thanks everyone, I knew these guys weren't leucostictus, anyone reading the writeup for that species knows that. I considered cirrhosus but wasn't entirely sure, the dorsal fin looked whiter on these.

Shame really, cirrhosus is a nice looking species and apparently easy to breed but at 12 centimeters just not a realistic option for this 60 liter setup I have.

The search for the elusive claro continues.

[Jools]

L107 is another nice smaller Ancistrus.

Jools

[pleco_breeder, posts: 803]

L107 is another nice smaller Ancistrus.

Jools

I definitely have to agree with Jools, but they do get quite a bit larger than Ancistrus claro.

Larry

[wijnands, posts: 180]

Yeah... 130mm is a bit bigger. Even for claro I occasionally see larger sizes reported.

I'm baffled really why there's hardly any claro on sale here, from what I've read it's not that difficult to breed and with dutch homes being the size they are many people here keep relatively small aquariums.

[Suckermouth, posts: 1514]

Shame really, cirrhosus is a nice looking species and apparently easy to breed but at 12 centimeters just not a realistic option for this 60 liter setup I have.

The search for the elusive claro continues.

To be clear, commons are not known to be cirrhosus for sure, though they're similar.

[wijnands, posts: 180]

Meaning? It could be anything? Or is it likely to appear identical including the size?

[Suckermouth, posts: 1514]

Meaning? It could be anything? Or is it likely to appear identical including the size?

The common bristlenose is called "Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus" here on PlanetCatfish, the cf. meaning that it is similar to but not certainly identified as Ancistrus cirrhosus. Because a lot of Ancistrus look similar, this means it could be something else entirely. According to the Cat-eLog, Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus grows slightly larger than Ancistrus cirrhosus.

[wijnands, posts: 180]

Aha! That makes a lot of sense, thanks!

[Mike_Noren, posts: 1395]

I'm baffled really why there's hardly any claro on sale here

It is a very rare fish around here too (Sweden), I have never seen one in a shop. I have occasionally seen claro on the stocklists of various German wholesellers, but I do not know if they're correctly identified.

[Nijrem, posts: 8]

Recently got a small one, labeled leucostictus. Doesn't really look like any picture I've found, suppose its a similar story.
I'll take a look at more pictures to figure out what mine 'sort of' is.



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[Mike_Noren, posts: 1395]

Recently got a small one, labeled leucostictus.

That's a young Common.