L155 Acanthicus Hystrix care parameters

[knifegill]

Anyone have input on optimal temps, etc.? I know to aerate and feed an omnivorous diet. Maniacal water changes a always. Specific foods? Anything to know? He's about 9" long already, super aggressive, very spiny.

[knifegill]

Blanched asparagus and earthworms so far, and massivore pellets and HBH wafers..

[bekateen]

Hi knifegill,

That's a nice looking specimen. Sadly, you may not find a lot of info because not many people keep this fish.

Did you run a search of the forum here? Here are some results of searches for:

• L155
• Acanthicus Hystrix
• Lyre tail pleco

Good luck with this pleco, Eric

[Acanthicus]

Hi

Acanthicus spp. in general belong to the easiest species if it comes to water parameters etc. You may as well search for A. adonis, since it's pretty much the same what they require. Good and effective filtration is important, because they have a strong metabolism, but regarding the water parameters they do fine in almost every kind of tap water. Also they are omnivorous and will eat everything you offer, turning it into +cm right away and become beautiful, elegant beasts.

[knifegill]

Thanks a million, guys!

[knifegill]

We're on day 5 or so and he hasn't eaten. Any tricks? I am floating half a clove of garlic in there, I hear that's supposed to stimulate their appetite...

He has wood, a carrot, algae wafers and earthworms offered daily...

[knifegill]

He ate all the Malaysian Trumpet snails, ha ha ha. Yay.

[knifegill]

He's doing fine now!

[knifegill]

He is also eating sinking pellets, and the driftwood. His poops are smaller/narrower than one would expect.

[knifegill]

I'm fascinated there isn't more interest in this, one of the largest of the loricariidae.

[bekateen]

I'm fascinated there isn't more interest in this, one of the largest of the loricariidae.

I'm not sure "interest" is a fair word. I think the lack of responses is more due to the fact that there aren't a lot of people who keep them and are authoritative/experienced to be able to say more.

I know it's not what you wanted, but I suppose you can consider yourself a pioneer.

Good luck with them, and please share updates.

Cheers, Eric

[knifegill]

Fair enough! I shall carry on, then. Good insight.

[knifegill]

He has already grown. D:

[knifegill]

Another keeper of murder pleco:

My own Acanthicus hystrix shows the most premeditated aggression I have ever seen in a fish. Not being a good swimmer, he has little chance of catching anything in midwater, so lurks patiently until he spots a fish swimming between him and the glass. At this point he erects his long and unpleasant interopercular spines and with a well-timed rush impales his unfortunate victim against the glass. After he has sawed backwards and forwards a few times, he retreats to allow the luckless recipient to float to the top. He succeeded in performing this manoeuvre three times before his ‘benefit of the doubt’ was withdrawn, and now lives in solitary splendour.

Tropical Fish Finder.co.uk - The ultimate UK fish keeping resource for all types of tropical and marine fish, including fish books, articles, fish shops, fish clubs and more.
TROPICALFISHFINDER.CO.UK

[knifegill]

This here indicates that Hystrix is the big one, and Adonis isn't. But they've been wrong before.

Acanthicus hystrix is distinguished from A. adonis (Fig. 5) by its dark brown to almost black color pattern, without spots or dots (vs. color pattern dark brown with white spots covering body and fins); presence of ochre to gray stripes in caudal fin (vs. stripes absent). It also can be differentiated by reaching up to 600.0 mm SL (vs. up to 134.5 mm SL), by the presence of vermicular blotches on abdomen (vs. abdominal blotches absent), and elongate first hypobranchial (vs. first hypobranchial short).

from Chamon2016_acanthicushystrix

[knifegill]

[knifegill]

He was out today, hard to get a good shot.

[knifegill]

Updates. Still refusing veggies. Feeding Omega 1 algae wafers, NLS algae wafers, and occasionally some Hikari algae wafers I bought before I remembered they are crap. Is still eating wood as well.

Grows FAST. Is definitely territorial but the L191 easily hides from him.

So far only comes out at night, but if I sit near the tank he tries to spike me in reverse...

[Acanthicus]

Regarding the size of A. adonis, I think it was meant to be “134,5cm“ which would make it fit again.

[knifegill]

134 cm is 52 inches? That's bigger than I've ever heard of. Not saying it's wrong, just kinda wild.

[knifegill]

You have a 7-year-old A. Hystrix?