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My male ancistrus has sometimes with spots/marks on his body.. this is very weird..

The one time he is completely dark brown (with little light spots) and the other time, he is brown with lots of light marks on his body..

How can this happen? Has this something to do with hiding and camouflage or what is it?

Here is a picture with 2 pictures of my ancistrus in it, one without marks and one with marks.. perhaps you could tell me what it is?

I wouldnt worry, I have trio that are spawning every four to five weeks and they do this alot. Its seesm to be mood induced. I was concerned at first but they are feeding well and breeding well which indicates that here isnt much wrong. I have a light substrate ?? maybe this makes a difference.

My male ancistrus just seems alright to me too!

He is eating a lot.. he just loves cucumber!

And it looks very good and happy! always together with my other two ancistrusses!

I was just worried that perhaps something was wrong to him..

Thank you!

Mine do this when stressed, particularly if the lighting levels change suddenly or if the water gets too acidic.

Jen

Mine can change within 3 minutes or so.. and it looks like camouflage to me..

when he hides in his self-made 'home' in my mopani-wood he is completely black (ofcourse, he has some with dots on his body as every ancistrus) and when he is browsing the tank on my stones he has the marks.. so it really looks like camouflage!

Oh, and when he gets angry he also gets the marks..

Stress marks!

My Male gets a figure 8 across his back if I approach the tank to quickly. He then usually shows me his cheek bristles and buggers off to his cave and looks at me menacingly from the doorway

I am currently raising 3 spawns from this male, and some of the 1st spawn are at the 2" mark, these too get the lightening on the body, particularly when fighting over algae wafers.

It is a mood thing....stress, pre spawning or other moods will change their colouring. My females get the mottled grey when close to spawning, stress induced as the male chases them around????