Keeping and Breeding Ancistrus L213
Keeping and Breeding Ancistrus L213
Written by Friday, 27 March 2009 00:00
The taxonomy of Loricariids is still at an early stage; little is known about a number of fish so most hobbyists use the L numbers to refer to particular fish until these get scientifically classified. It is generally accepted that the L-number system is not without problems; one of these is the possibiity (or in some cases certainty) that conspecifics have been allocated different L-codes and vice versa.
There is a number of fish belonging to the Ancistrus genus which have the same or similar pattern of markings, namely white spots on a black background. A number of these fish have been occasionally available in the market as Ancistrus dolichopterus (L183), a popular fish due to its attractive white bands on the edge of the dorsal and caudal fins. In the debate that followed it was made clear that unless both bands exist in fully grown adults any Ancistrus with otherwise similar markings cannot be a dolichopterus. So what are they?
To the best of our knowledge this is still under investigation. (1) Until a final decision is reached we will have to use the L-numbers to describe the fish. Even then, there are certain striking similarities between fish with different L-codes so the classification of a fish as an L-213 instead of an L71, for example, appears to be pretty much arbitrary. Which brings us to the topic of our discussion, our black ancistrus with the white spots.
Our colony comes from Rio Tapajos and was imported on request by Pier Aquatics. It consists of 1 male and 2 females. When we got the fish they were about 4-6 cm TL; the male is now 12-13 cm TL while the females are slightly smaller, 9-10 cm TL. We placed the fish in a blackwater tank, together with much larger and considerably more aggressive Loricariids, including L114, L600, L25, some L128s and a pair of L95s. The fish, in a true Ancistrus fashion, made themselves at home pretty quickly. They hid amongst the wood (confirming our experience that Ancistrus, both males and females, prefer wood to any other type of caves, including clay, slate and stone) and we did not see much of them. With one notable exception, that is: when the tank temperature did get raised once over 30oC accidentally these fish, along with the L128s, showed extreme discomfort. They got out of their hiding places and started swimming frantically up and down the tank until the temperature was returned to the usual 25o-26oC.
Some information on the tank setup: the fish are housed in a glass tank 200 x 80 x 55 cm (880 Lit., 233 US gallons). The tank is low and wide to allow for more space at the bottom for the catfish. It is serviced by 1 Eheim Professionel 3 and 1 Eheim 2260. Other peripherals include:
- a “shared” 8000 L/h blower which provides aeration via 4 outlets
- two 350 W glass heaters (Jaeger) which maintain the temperature at 25o-26oC. In the summer months the temperature is raised to 27oC.
The substrate is neutral coloured quartz sand. The tank is decorated with large pieces of bogwood roots with lots of crevices and various sizes ceramic pots for the catfish. The readings are pH 7 – 7.6, GH: 3.5, KH: 3 (with the addition of sodium bicarbonate). During weekly maintenance we add a small amount of discus trace minerals to the water to raise the GH to 3,5 dgh. The maintenance regime consists of one water change weekly, changing 80-90% of the water using constant flow (water is removed and added at the same time over a period of 2 hours; during the change the temperature of the tank remains steady). The filters are cleaned every 4 weeks alternatively as they do tend to clog with small pieces of wood and wood dust. There is no netting in this tank though fresh vegetables are offered to the fish three times weekly, which involves immersing hands to secure the food on clips. The fish are very settled and each has its own marked territory. As the water in this tank is very dark due to the tannins the lighting unit is permanently off.
Once we put the colony in the tank we forgot about them. Ancistrus are pretty much omnivores when they are adult; we did not make any special provision for them as there are carnivore and herbivore pellets as well as fresh food available in the tank daily. A couple of months after putting the colony in the tank we noticed the male taking possession of a hole in the wood which partly blocked the pot used by one of the L600s as a cave. This was an odd spot to occupy, given the size of the neighbour; however we had seen it happening before with our Ancistrus sp. 3 and the L25s. What was more interesting about the choice of the spot is that it was in line with the water flow; as opposed to our other Ancistrus this one chose a 'cave' which was not in a quiet spot in some corner of the tank where the flow was at its minimum.
For a while we did not notice any particular activity around this spot. Having said that it is difficult, if not impossible, to see inside the tank anyway. The water is dark brown, the wood is dark brown and unless a fish comes very close to the glass we have no chance to spot it. Given that the base colour of this Ancistrus is black and that the fish seems to prefer very much keeping itself to itself it is clear that we were simply unable to see what the colony were up to.
The colony started breeding four months after they were placed in the tank. During this time the water parameters remained constant; there was no other stimulus which could have triggered the fish (at least to our knowledge) except the one we found always works with Ancistrus: get the water cloudy by overfeeding slightly. In this instance it was not intentional; due to the layout of the tank there is always food which gets trapped in places where the fish cannot reach. For this reason the tank is serviced by two, as opposed to one, filters. Still the water is often quite cloudy; this does not seem to adversely affect the fish in any way so we do not do anything in particular about it except on the odd occasion we want the water to be transparent purely for aesthetic reasons.
What alerted us to the spawn was a tiny fry whom we found inside the Eheim Professionel when we were cleaning it. Judging from its size the fish was no more than 2 weeks old and it was happily grazing on one side of the filter canister. When we found the fish it was very pale, almost colourless, which was not concordant with its age (at this age Ancistrus have started developing a melanin pattern). We attributed the lack of colouration to the fact that the fish was living in total darkness inside the filter. We got the fish out and put it in a 20 lit tank to grow up. This particular fish is now just under 1 year old and has got a dark brown colour with white dots.
Since this colony is the only Ancistrus colony in the tank there was no doubt who the parents of the fry were. A closer examination of the pieces of wood near the Ancistrus cave confirmed the spawn; on this (relatively long) piece of wood, as well as on the nearby pieces of wood, we found roughly about 50 fry grazing. For a while we tried to keep the water very clear so we could see (and take photographs of) the next spawn. This did not help at all; we saw the two females hovering outside the male's cave but none of them entered and in fact, a couple of weeks later they both disappeared at the other side of the tank. So we let the water quality return to normal and waited to see what would happen next.
What happened next was one more spawn. Though we missed the females going in the cave, we realised that the father was guarding eggs by the position of his body in relation to the entrance of the 'cave'. This piece of wood is long and has an opening in the middle. When the male is not guarding eggs most of his body, and on occasions his head, is visible if one tries to see it. When he is guarding eggs it is only his tail that is visible, if that. We have tried, without success, to take photos of him guarding eggs however, due to the depth of the hole in the wood this proved impossible; the only way to take photos of the eggs would be to physically grab as much as possible of the father's body and try to drag him out thus risking killing him and damaging the egg ball (the hole is pretty narrow and he would naturally wedge himself inside). This idea was a non-starter.
Over the next six months we have tried a number of tricks to entice the male to spawn in a more accessible location so we could take photos. We moved the piece of wood he was occupying nearer the glass, we put caves in more accessible locations, we even put a tried and trusted smaller piece of wood which has, over the years, been used by a number of Ancistrus as a spawning site. Nothing worked. We eventually got used to the idea that unless the colony was moved to a different tank there was no way of taking photos of the egg ball. This is something we may have to consider in the future.
Since the first spawn the colony spawns regularly, roughly about once every eight to ten weeks. We have not noticed with this colony the spawning pattern we have seen with Ancistrus sp. 3, Ancistrus tamboensis and other Ancistrus, namely a "spawning period" during which there are 3-4 consecutive spawns followed by a break and a new spawning period. Given the total lack of light in this tank it appears that a light period (any light period) can be safely ruled out as a trigger for this fish to spawn. The fry hatch in 5-6 days in the water parameters of our tank and they leave the father's cave roughly about 10 days after that. The only way to catch the fry in this tank is to try and get them shortly after they go out of the cave to graze. We have tried that successfully on two occasions. A couple of weeks after a spawn we carefully lifted a piece of wood adjacent to the father's cave and placed it in a big net; we managed to collect about 10 fry on each occasion. The remaining fry were left in the big tank to grow out. We manage to see them from time to time; what is usually noticeable is the white tip of their tail as they move under the pieces of wood. Over a period of time we have noticed a number of fry in various parts of the tank. It appears that fry up to 4 weeks old will cover a considerable distance to graze (we have found very young fry up to a meter away from their father's cave).
The fry have initially a white band at the edge of the caudal fin but not on the dorsal fin. This band fades over time so when the fish reach 3 months of age it is a white spot at the top of the caudal fin. As the fry grow older it disappears entirely.
As we have not seen an egg ball we cannot be sure of the size of each brood; it has been reported that L213s have 25-30 eggs at a time, which tallies with the number of fry we have occasionally seen in the tank shortly after each spawn, assuming that the male spawns with both the females in the usual Ancistrus fashion. (2) If that is the case then the survival rate of the fry in the big tank is extremely good (almost every single fry survives). We find that a bit hard to believe; we would expect that, as in nature, some of the fry would be lost. Having said that there is ample food and space to hide in this tank, so the possibility of an excellent survival rate cannot be excluded. We have never seen the fry gathering to eat at the front of the tank on pieces of vegetable or other food which collects there. They spent their time exclusively grazing on wood so we assume they feed off the micro-organisms which collect there. The same is pretty much true about the fry which we have collected and placed in other tanks. They are very rarely, if at all, seen in the open and they spent all their time under various pieces of wood grazing. There is a marked difference between these fry and other Ancistrus fry (L144, tamboensis) in that the latter are often over the pieces of wood or on the sand, which is not something the L213s do.
On the two occasions we took some fry out of the tank we placed them in already established tanks with other fish rather than on their own in a fry raising tank; hence there was no need to offer them special food. A common element in all the tanks we keep this species is the existence of plenty of soft wood; the L213s adore it and seem to be thriving on it.The fish did well on the same diet their tank mates were on, which is a mixture of vegetable and carnivore pellets (Blue Line spirulina tablets, Blue Line Basic 122, Ocean Nutrition 1, Dr Basleer Medium or Large Tropic). The growth rate of the fish is roughly on a par with this of other Ancistrus in our particular water conditions; on average the fish reach the 6 cm TL in just under a year. All the youngsters who we have removed from the parents' tank are kept in tanks with lower temperatures, around 25oC.
Notes
(1) See for instance Ingo Seidel, The White Seam Bristlenoses
Read Ancistrus L213 profile.
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