Ancistrus L213

Loricariidae

See Ingo Seidel, "The identity of the common bristlenose";

Loricariidae: from the Latin lorica (= corselet, alluring to the armoured thoracic area of the fish); Ancistrus: from the Greek angistron meaning hook), referring to the hooked interopercular odontes of the fish.  

 c. 13 cm TL.

Mature males have a "bushy" nose, i.e. soft tentacles growing on their snout. Females may also have some growths on the snout though these are nowhere near as thick and well pronounced as the male's. The fish has white dots on an overall black body. It has not been formally described so little is known about it.

Adult males have thick fleshy growths (tentacles) on the snout; a number of these tentacles split at the ends giving a forked appearance. Females do not usually have these tentacles; those that do have considerably smaller and thinner growths at the edge of the snout only. Males have a ridge in the snout starting from the middle of the eyes and ending at the edge of the snout. Males are overall bigger and more slender than the females who are chubbier around the middle of their body.

Rio Tapajos.

6-8

25° C - 27° C. We have kept and bred the fish in these temperatures. Tolerance to temperatures over 30^oC appears to be minimal.

The fish does well in a number of parameters, though we have observed best growth of young in medium hard, neutral water. 

Adults appear to be omnivores. The fish constantly rasps on soft bogwood. We offer ours plenty of vegetable matter, including fresh vegetables (carrot, courgette, cuccumber, spinach, pok choi, melon, papaya and mango).

We have kept this fish with a small, medium and large loricariids of varying temperaments and they did very well Ancistrus will not harass other fish and learn to co-habit pretty easily. Having said that the fish will defend its young gallantly, often putting his own life in extreme danger. Our colony lives and spawns in a tank where the only non-Loricariid is a pair of Paratilapia sp. Andapa. Youngsters have been raised in tanks with various mid-water fish, e.g. young Ptychochromis oligacanthus without nasty incidents. 

Peaceful small and medium size fish is the obvious choice. If you plan to breed the fish make sure their tank mates will not hurt the wrigglers once they are out of the cave.

Soft wood (bogwood) is the obvious choice. Sand substrate is preferred. The fish will damage plants while rasping on the leaves.

The fish does not appear to grow large so a 100 lit tank for a colony of 3-4 fish is plenty and will ensure that each individual will have its own vital space. A pair can be comfortably kept in a 40 lit tank provided it has sufficient floor surface for the fish to move around.

If placed in the right environment the fish will rarely be seen in the open. They will move in between pieces of wood rasping all day long. The fish seem to cope better than others with poor environmental conditions though, of course, this is not a reason for relaxing aquarium hygiene.

Our male spawns inside a narrow wood cavity (which we found is the preferred spawning choice for a number of Ancistrus). As we only have one male who breeds at the moment we do not know if clay pots or slate caves are also an option as it is for other Ancistrus. For a breeding report see Keeping and Breeding Ancistrus L213.