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Sharing my breeding of Pseudacanthicus Spinosus 'The Special ONE'. Female was experienced mother for the previous 2 batches of fry but not the male as he was a first timer.

Sex Ratio: 2 Male 5 Female
Tank size: 5ft x 2.5ft x 2.5ft
Filteration: OHF & Eheim 2260

Introducing the Male for this breeding program.. Size - 12"


Not forgetting his partner... 9"



27th July 2015
Male guarding the egg clutch. The pair has been trapping for the past few days and the female left the cave today.



5th August 2015
Decided to harvest the eggs as i noticed the other male was disturbing the caving male. The eggs are kept in 3 x Breeder Box




20th August 2015
Making sure every single fry's egg sac was fully absorbed before releasing them jnto their grow out tank



23rd September 2015
Fry was eating and adapting well to the environment that they are living in.


17th October 2015
Was performing my daily feeding regime with the lights off but on this day i did something different was turning the lights on and i found something different.....



To be continue....

Side track abit to share some of my year 2014 fry...

Nice one there. Did I see a white fry? Any closed-up pics on that?

Well done, and well photographed. Very impressive; these fish look really cool. You're persuading me that I should rethink my own stocking plans to include this species in the future.

I too am interested in knowing if that lone pale fish remains pale as it ages, or grows darker with time; its eye appears dark, so I'm presuming it's not albino. I had a similar experience with some pale and dark fry (shown here: C. trilineatus color morph, or trilineatus X agassizii hybrid?), but in the end they all looked about the same when grown.

Cheers, Eric

great work and nice pics.

Some close up photos of it...







Whats your thoughts?

It reminds me of the blue/black-eyed albino Ancistrus.

Can this be a leucistic since its eyes are black?

I'm not sure if this is leucistic... but in terms of colour wise, he is different from his siblings. Advice needed.

hotchiliz wrote:Can this be a leucistic since its eyes are black?

Yes, if this fish has pigmented eyes but the rest of the body is white or unpigmented, this fits the definition of leucism.

True albinism results in white or yellow individuals with pink eyes because the whole body (including the iris and choroid of the eyes) lack the ability to make melanin. Albino fish can look yellow or orange because albinism results from an inability to make melanin, not an inability to make other pigments. So some albinos can still make yellow pigments. Their eyes look pink because we can look into their eyes and see the blood vessels inside (the pink is from the blood, not from any "pink" pigments in the tissue).

Leucism is the result of mutations that knock out the ability of to make normal pigment cells in the body, so all pigments may be lacking (not just melanin). But since the eyes get their pigment cells from a different source during development (not from the same place where skin pigment cells originate), then the eyes are not affected by the leucistic mutation. Cells of the iris and choroid will make pigments normally in leucistic individuals, so their eyes look dark.

... At least, that's how I understand the distinction.

Cheers, Eric