LDA08 - Claro

[Nijrem]

Managed to find some of these (waiting for a reply from the LFS that is supposed to have them) and thinking of buying some.

Any advice on what to look for in new catfish? I don't have much experience with these fish, always thought they were all going to outgrow my tanks but that makes Claro all the more interesting.

Right now I have one juvenile 'common' ancistrus in a 180litre, with a small school of black neons, and 4 young Apistogramma Bitaeniata. Was thinking I should be able to add 3 Claro's perhaps?

Tia for any advice


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[pleco_breeder]

IME, claro aren't any more difficult to keep than the commons. Breeding was a bit slower, but I think that was actually due to smaller spawn sizes. These seem to be a hot item everywhere right now, but nobody can find them. If you do happen to find the real ones, it may be worth the trouble of getting enough for a reasonable breeding colony and giving it a go.

Larry

[Richard B]

The only thing I'd add is that I wouldn't keep different a fistfuls species in the same tank in case of hybridisation in later times

[wijnands]

You just got gmail. I've been looking for Claros for 2 weeks now and couldn't find any. Be curious to know where you found them. And if you ever get these to reproduce I'd be really interested!

[jac]

They are available in Germany

[wijnands]

OK.. but that's a long drive if you don't want to attempt mail order.

[Zeno]

OK.. but that's a long drive if you don't want to attempt mail order.

It looks like they are available in The Netherlands.
In any case, they are on the their stocklist at the moment ...

http://www.aqua-ferrytale.nl/loricaridae.html

Greetz, Zeno

[Nijrem]

Zeno beat me to my mail reply but yep; thats where I found them.

Currently 7 on stock, I'll be picking some up on monday. Probably just 3, maybe 4. I haven't actually seen them yet, but they are around 4 cms, maybe that makes them sexable?
I wouldn't mind breeding them but I don't think I have the 'room' for it. All I have as spare room now is an unused 60cm tank. The two main tanks are an 80cm and a 100cm. Both the main tanks have an Apisto species in them as 'main' fish.

They list them as 'tankbred' so I'm guessing they might have a semi-steady flow of these coming in, or are able to order them at least.

As for hybridization; I do intend to move the common ancistrus back to my other tank, at least for a while to see if there's any signs of breeding by the Claro's. Next to that I'm just paranoid about overstocking. And I myself don't even like having too many different species all chucked together. I tend to do the same thing with plants aswell; just two species of echinodorus in there, one low, one high. edit; as in; I don't like looking at too much different stuff in the tank ;)

Anyway, maybe I see you at Ferrytale on monday

[jac]

OK.. but that's a long drive if you don't want to attempt mail order.

Depends on were you're from. It's just across the border by Arnhem.

[Zeno]

I wish you good luck with the Claro's !
These are really nice fish. Don't think they are already sexable at 4 cm. The best chance is to take the 2 smallest and the biggest fish out of the group in order to have a breeding pair later on.

Greetz, Zeno

[Birger]

Don't think they are already sexable at 4 cm.

If 4 cm SL (female)...they could possibly be breeding at that size,the 70 mm SL in the Catalog would be quite a large male, females would stay much smaller.

Birgter

[Nijrem]

Fingers crossed! Hope to get some on Monday of they have managed to reserve some for me.
I'll take a good look, and make a half decent guess at a male and a couple of females.
They'll have to share caves with my
Apistogramma, but I'll definitely add some more caves to hopefully accommodate both species.
I'm not looking to heavily breed either species, but I know they both need their caves. I'll keep you updated


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[Nijrem]

Purchased 3 of them, one 'seems to be' male, the other two female. Not very sure yet but there's only one with a bit of bristling on his nose and happens to be the largest of the three aswell.
Not sure if the picture shows it but it definitely has the oval shaped mouth, and white/yellow marbling marks on the back.

Now I just hope they'll like their new home! I do need to do some more water changing it seems, bit of an algae problem and I have seen some fish 'flashing' (not much, but a clear sign to me; I haven't quite found a rhythm in changes yet but it always stops when I do a change.. keeping a close eye on it!) drip tests still keep showing no ammonia, no2 and no3 though.

I'll try to get some better pics of the Claro's soon, when they get a bit less skittish ;)


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[pleco_breeder]

Can't really see the pattern, but the mouth shape and placement of the bristles definitely looks like you've found the real

Ancistrus claro

. That's not always easy, so congratulations are in order.

As to breeding, although it may not always be the intent, I'm a firm believer that anyone wishing to keep rare/scarce fish should make every possible accommodation to allow them to spawn. If nothing else, this increases their availability to other hobbyists and helps to keep the species in the hobby. Over the years, I've seen several species disappear from the hobby for various reasons. Although they are likely still doing well in their natural habitat, they just aren't available anymore. As of late, this appears to have been one of those species.

I've been looking for another group here for about 6 months. Although I've found several other scarce species during that search, true claro just aren't showing up. Your location in Europe isn't likely to help my search directly, but knowing they're still there does add hope.

Please keep us updated. I found out a long time ago, via another PC member, that it is possible to live vicariously through another hobbyists successes.

Larry

[Nijrem]

Store owner told me these were bred in Germany, near the border with Poland. Apparently this shop is the only one in Holland that has them, hence my surprise about the price; a mere €10 a piece. (my only guess is that most aquarists are happy with the cheapest common ancistrus?)
Ofcourse I would love for them to breed, there are plenty of cavelike structures in the tank, I will be adding a couple of log-like tubes especially for these but I suppose the Apistogramma will love them aswell. And they too, may want to breed. They're nice wild caught Bitaeniata, and I agree with your thoughts on allowing fish room/possibility to breed

(if I see signs of breeding, I do have the room to move them to a 60cm tank; not sure how scary the apisto's are to them or the fry, but it seems easier to remove just 2 or 3 Claro as opposed to the 4 apisto's)

For now though, I'll just let them settle in, make sure they have enough food and good water they are quite skittish, hopefully they will calm down a bit. Tank isn't overcrowded or anything, but it's really impossible to get any pictures when they fly away whenever I come closer to the tank.




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[Nijrem]

Managed to take a couple more pics, had to use digital zoom on most though, so the quality isn't that great. I'll have to get another camera to get the colors more 'true'. Funny to see the trio all together in a pic though

One of them is clearly a bit darker in its markings, (and the common ancistrus is still in the tank); havent seen an easy opportunity to catch him and I really don't want to chase him all aroun the tank i'll wait till he sits on the glass again )



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[wijnands]

Lovely looking fish! I'm calling dibs on any fry!

Compared to the common ancistrus which many people breed 10 euros is really quite expensive. Seems to be worth it though. This batch has sold out now at the shop.

In this country we have a lot of small tanks, the average casual aquarist is running one between 60 and 100 liters and perhaps a nano on the side and so A. Claro will be a sought after species.