PlanetCatfish.com

Hello,

I'm on a quest to start adding to the number of species spawned again, and had been looking for these for a couple weeks. To make a long story short, I now have three pair I received via mail order this afternoon. I had initially planned on feeding them the standard Ancistrus diet, but the resemblance to L34 is really making me question that. Does anyone here have real world experience with this species that can be passed along?

Larry

Larry,
They are captured near Puerto Ayacucho, so water conditions would be similar to those needed by other middle Orinoco loricariids. I am amazed you managed to get such a large group as I only ever saw them come through Bogota as one and two offs in shipments of , , and other more common fishes. Really more of a by-catch than anything.
I never maintained any in captivity, so can't help you with the diet.
-Shane

I feed spectrum pellets and blackworms. They have small spawns (10-20 eggs) and the fry are heavily spotted when they hatch.

I had my first spawn from these Saturday morning. By afternoon, the eggs were gone without a trace. However, while viewing the catelog entry for these I realized that it has the same generic sexing info as all other Ancistrus. These guys don't fit that mold. Females are nearly as "bushy" as males but don't seem to have the branching of the tentacles. The tentacles also don't become as engorged/thick as the males. I don't know how to submit the info for catelog entry, but do think it should be included. I'll try to snap a pic to show the differences later.

Larry

These aren't the best pics I've ever taken, but hopefully show what I was talking about.

Here is the same pair from the side.

Larry

I don't know how to submit the info for catelog entry, but do think it should be included.

Updated to reflect this. Thanks for calling it to our attention.
-Shane

Another revision for the species catelog page is needed. It posts the standard Ancistrus feeding info, and it really doesn't apply for this fish. I waited to bring this to the attention of the forum because they really cleaned up an algae bloom shortly after arriving. However, it seems that algae/vegetable matter is not their primary diet. I've not had any more spawns since the initial one and normally try adding veggies to help condition beyond what they are getting from the standard diet I feed. In the past week, they have refused to eat everything thrown in the tank from green beans to zucchini. At the same time, they jump at the higher protein foods and are now slowly adding girth. I realize this isn't conclusive evidence of their diet, but my opinion is they are much more inclined to a diet of insects/worms than algae. Red worms seem to be a favorite at this point. However, they do efficiently keep the algae to a minimum in their tanks. If I had to attempt classifying them, I would say "omnivore with a predisposition to higher protein foods".

Larry