Ancistrus red/black/calico/piebald/lda016 etc. growth rate?

[Melander]

To my understand this fish with many names is a colour morph of the common Ancistrus, perhaps the origin of the so called Super reds? I know it's not lda016 but included it in the title as it was often sold as such.

Having kept this fish for almost three years now I have noticed that:

First of all the growth rate is extremely slow, I have had several batches of “normal” fry born after the red and blacks outgrow them in a matter of months. The fish have been kept in the same water, not in overcrowded conditions and I have seen this in several tanks. The fish don’t show any signs of being stunted and the growth rate has been consistent among the fry of this colour.

Secondly my adult fish are only around 10cm TL compared to commons. I do not know yet if this is their max or if they still, three years on just grow very slow.

I now wonder if this is “normal”, have anyone else experienced the same. I have been talking with one other person having had the same experience but I do not think he kept the fish long enough to find out it’s max length.

Would this be seen as a genetic defect deriving from line breeding the fish for colour? Is it possible that the colour development absorbs enough energy to decrease the growth rate of the fish?

Many thanks,

Melander

[wijnands]

Interesting.

I have noticed that with my claros one of the 3 has already blossomed in a nearly grown male and the two others are 15mm smaller and don't show much in the way of sex yet. Wasn't there some hint of certain hormones inhibiting growth in ancistrus?

[Melander]

@wijnands: Thanks for the reply, I'm not sure that it's the same issue.

I have seen that in batches of common ancistrus there can be a few stronger individuals growing a bit faster than the rest, in my experience these often seems to turn out to be males, I don't have the statistics to back that up though the sex might just have been a coincidence.
In this case it's all the fish of a certain colour form that grow significantly slower than for instance the regular brown fish.

Love the photos of your claros by the way!

Melander