Oxquo Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 My experience with Ancistrus Dolichopterus. Well I guess I should start off by saying that i have seen these guys breed in both African tanks and South American tanks so water properties doesn't seem to matter, I am not sure how higher or lower properties affect sexes as i know they do with some other species. This was how I bred them and strictly my experience with this great little pleco. My water is considered soft to medium soft with a pH around 7.0. I should point out that I fluctuate my pH and softness on a regular basis to promote their natural surroundings, I find the key is in the cleanliness moreso than water structure. This will further go for how I inspired these cats to spawn. As a huge fan of snow useasge in my tanks using snow can alter water properties in many ways. First being the temperature drop. Usually a snow water change will drop my tanks from 10 - 15 degrees F. Using snow also brings about the extreme acidity and softness. I am still in belief it is the acid rain or sulfuric acid that induces spawning although with bristlenose I have also brought about spawning with RO water changes. You will notice with the addition of snow that a brown sludge or slime will coat your glass and the tank may go murky for a spell, this is alright and you should do nothing to change this. As for my set up. I have spawned these fish in a 10 gallon and a 37 tall, one with just the plecos and the other with geophagus and cories for tank mates I also had a pair of angels in there. Both set ups brought about sucess. Having a log with a hole inside large enough for the male to fit inside is ideal but I have also spawned them in coconut caves. See my DIY article on coconut caves for really easy instructions. Water temps I keep in the 78F range so after a snow waterchange or even an RO change the temp must drop to atleat 68F this might not be okay for other inhabitants so choose your tank mates carefully. Conditioning is of most importance as is providing good hiding for the female prior to spawn. Conditioning these fish is best done with a free for all of veggie matter. Zucchini strips the green side is the important part here. Spinach along with catfish tablets for this I love the Sera Viformo. Recently I have been using a hikari frozen marine treat which also gets them fat cats going. Conditioning should be done atleast two weeks before a spawning attempt, having just the female or male ready could cause huge fights between the fish as one will be invading the others territory. After the water change my heater is still at the same setting and i let the temp climb back up naturally. I also continue to do 10% water changes daily for the next 4-5 days in addition to the big cold 50% one. My preference of filtration, an aquaclear with a sponge prefilter also helps to keep the water crystal and the flow nice and consistent. If possible having this tank in an area with direct sunlight without exposing it to too much heat is ideal as the algae growth will be cherished above all as the fry's first food. With much persuasion the male will lead the female into his site. This will be a seldom site as the two will only gather in these close quarters for this purpose unless hiding spaces are limited in your tank. The female will be encouraged to lay her eggs and when finished the male will quickly chase her out and continue fertilizing the eggs. The female can be removed at this point as she serves as nothing more than a dither fish from here on in. The male is the soul caregiver and a great one at that. Compared to cichlids I would say he is the jaguar of parents. His ferocity is seldomly matched and hands should never go near the nest. The eggs took about 4-5 days to hatch and on about the tenth day the fry began to leave the cave in search of food.on their own. You will notice them sticking to the sides of the tank and they resemble little yellowish orange jellybeans with tails. They are very cute, but refrain from petting them, lol. Daddy pleco still babies them and his territory. I have never seen it but have heard that he actually chews them out of their shells upon hatch or very few would actually emerge into fry. I have wound from my male as I frantically tried to save the babies from my hungry geophagus, my geophagus had even deeper wounds from peeking in the cave to see the babies. Should you disagree and put your hand near the cave, you will see the male puff up his spines, more than normal and soon realise how fast these fat cats are as he takes a mad thrash at your hand. If he gets you, each spine cuts like a piece of fine paper, the larger spines though go right in there deep. Yes, you will bleed and feel very dumb for days. At the first sign of fry emerging I watch for the bellies to shrink, usually within 3 days I begin to drop green beans in, My favorite is canned green beans where water then salt is the ingredients. these can be frozen on a cookie sheet then bagged, you will go through a tonne from this point in. As said algae is a great first food but in a tank with 40+ pleco's algae becomes extinct really fast. When and if removing the beans remember to look inside as this is a great fry hiding spot apparently. Now from this point on, 10% water changes every 3 days or so can't hurt although once per week at 25% will suffice. I just find that with fry, more and smaller water changes seems to make less of an impact then one great big change. The fry grow much like any other catfish, in spurts, for the first month they explode, then very little for a couple months then another burst and so on. Lots of green beans, veggies and catfish tablets are the key. I have read that it takes 2 years for these fish to reach maturity, though in about 6 months sexing is usually pretty easy although once in awhile you get tricked. And what does one do with 40 pleco's? Put one or two in every tank and kiss algae goodbye. Well maybe not breeding tanks as these guys are great night time scavengers who can get eggs that no one else can seem to get close to. The Pro's is that they are easy to catch. Place jar under log, lift log out of water and see pleco jump from log into jar. Catching especially adults with a net should never be practiced as they make a mess out of your nets and injure themselves. Make jars or plastic cups a common practice and lessen the stress on you and the fish. Even if the fish is against the glass, place the cup over the fish and gently nudge up against him until he clings to the inside of the cup, then turn the cup and lift him out. Incase you have never seen these fish, sexing is quite easy, males get to around 5" whereas females seldom over 4". Several females can also be kept with a male although two males fight intensly. I have also seen a male spawn two females at the same time and have heard of three or more batches of eggs in the same nest. Males have a mass of bristles on their heads and females look like your common plecos maybe with the odd bristle at times but very short ones at that. If you decide to keep these fish in a tank without a log for rasping on use high fibre veggies as a substitute such as in an african tank and practice lights out feedings for these wonderful nocturnal charms. Remember as with most catfish, spawning from November to February is the best and easiest months as well as spawning attempts during pressure systems like during or just before a big storm. Although not impossible to spawn in the summer months, success will never be as great I feel. Well there you have my big messed up and confused story on spawning bristlenose trust me also that A. Dolichopterus are by far the easiest to begin with but the key to spawning others. Enjoy these beauties and enjoy the crazy experience of spawning them. Oh yeah, as far as how nasty are they? Ask me to show you my fish keeping scars someday, you will agree that the pleco had a way better mark than even what my pirahna left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyasa Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 What a wealth of information you have provided. I would love to try breeding these guys. I presently have a juvenile albino that I have not yet sexed. I purchased it an aquarium society auction. When breeding these in cichlid tanks, do you believe it is necessary to remove the cichlids? Where did you get your breeding pair? I am wondering just how much diversity there is with the genetics from the LFS? Thanks for all the great info. David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 The breeding pair i aquired from an aquarium club member back when I was a member. My opinion on strain and strength of strain is that you never really know one way or another. If you ordered say 10 wild caught apistos for example, the chance is they caught them all in the same location due to fishing laws and species being confined to an area. A bigger chance is that a majority if not all fish are of the same spawn seeing that they come from the same area and are the same size. Not always true but I am sure more often than not. If you were to say swap all of your males for someone else's males from a totally different shipment you may even still be getting the same gene pool. One never knows. I would always hope that a completely healthy spawn where 44 out of 44 fish that survived were in great condition and are still growing strong with no visible need to cull even still. Fish store fish all come from the wild at some point, aside from some hybrids and alot of fish store fish are fish from people like me who cannot give away the fry for some reason but people will pay the high price for them in the store because they believe they are getting better quality. Whether that answered any questions or not I'm not sure. As for the cichlids being removed? I did just to get the fry out, knowing that the father would soon lose control over his protective reign. To harvest just a few though one could just simply take the log out and shake it free of fry then transfer those to a grow out tank. Until the fry are leaving the cave though which is when you usually first notice them, the male is quite capable of injuring any threat to his nest and will. Trust me any fish in your tank that has tried to be firm with a pleco knows how porcupine like they are. In a tank full of logs and crevaces some may even make it on their own eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted June 7, 2004 Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 Great article, thanks for posting all that info! Once again, I'm totally confused. :blink: My understanding has always been that the Bristlenose Catfish was the Ancistrus temminickii. I took a look at the info posted on planet catfish, and according to their info the the Ancistrus dolichopterus (Kner, 1854) is ...... Common Name L183, Starlight Bristlenose Catfish http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.htm Now that cat is definitely not what I have in my tank? No white fin stripes on my cat. Under Bristlenose Catfish, Common Bristlenose Catfish .... they state: "The common Bristlenose is captive bred and almost impossible to identify to species. It is not assigned to species here for that reason." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 There are many ancistrus specimens. Dolichopterus, Hoplogenys, temminickii and so on, there are also ease of breeding and A.Dolichopterus is the easy one with hoplogenys being one of the toughest. Hoplos have the distinguished spotted pattern and the white tail markings. Problem we often run into is name changes and common names. In my opinion all plecos under 6" are dwarfs so the often heard dwarf bristlenose pleco is not a new species just a clever new name to sell an old one or medusa catfish or brushnose catfish. According to baensch atlas planet catfish is on the wrong route. Holpogenys is the often called snowflake or snow spot or white spot pleco. Much like the geophagines confusion is in the air, I blame this mostly on the common name syndrome. Think about it, would you rather by a poecillia reticulata or a Moscow blue guppy? A zebra pleco or a L047. It is our cute common names that sell these fish but also those that add to our confusion. Too many people named the same species too many times. Anyways, I will trust baensch over any othe word, Hahahaha think about what I am saying? Trust an honest manlike Dr.Axelrod? Hahahaha who is more insane? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2004 I can't seem to find ancistrus hoplogenys on planet catfish. Did you find it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyasa Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Yes, this answers my questions quite well. Thanks for your insights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokey Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Congradulations, Oxquo. Great, informative articel. Thanks for sharing. Smokey Baensch - the bible for aquariurists .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Baensch Volume 4 is truly the New Testament of all things fishy, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Baensch Volume 4 is out now? i thought it wasn't translated yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 It's not, although I hear it is going to be a collaberation of all the books or atleast parts of it. Suppose to be released soon though I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokey Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Baensch Aquarium Atlas " PHOTO INDEX" 1 - 5. BV-5040; hard cover = $64.95 BV-5041; soft cover = $45.95 This volume covers all entries from books 1 to 5. - 4,600 photo's and a very brief description of the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxquo Posted June 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 Right I have seen that at my LFS. I like it much better. It also gives pics of male and female which comes in extremely handy with africans. I believe though they are still working on a new book including the 10 new species found in Columbia. Can't wait till those become available, especially the fruit eating pirahna and that Medusa pleco which i am sure will end up being an all new ancistrus no doubt. Nice thing is that I want to set up a Perch tank, yet it seems impossible to get the permits to do so, I have the chiller already, oops did I say perch? I meant Cichlasoma Perchidae hahahaha. The chiller is a small bar fridge with 1/2" tubing coiled up inside running off of a small fluval filter thats it. 25 feet of python like tubing from Home depot, 1 cheap $20.00 filter and a $75.00 bar fridge, it even worked great to cool my 800 gallon pond when I had it downstairs. Imagine what a chiller that could cool 800 gallons would cost retail? Oh yeah, it also keeps your ice, booze and mix cool. Ahhh God bless the DIYer....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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