Rio Paraguay Ancistrus

[Chuckt]

Does anyone keep or have any information on this pleco they would like to share? I may have the opportunity in getting some and would love to know more about them before I pull the trigger. Thanks!

[Dave Rinaldo]

This one?

Ancistrus sp`rio_paraguay`

[Chuckt]

Yes

[Chuckt]

Sorry I’m new to the site

[MarinFlorin]

I had a very big batch of Rio Paraguay but in the end I decided to keep only a trio for few reasons.
In a black background they don’t get the same colors and paterns. I had many batches in normal tap water ph about 7,5 and hardness about 15 dgh so they are not very picky let’s say. The only thing I don’t like about them is that the babies are growing sooooo slow like one of the slow growing fish I met. Mine were hiding all the time and I could see them only at feeding time.
I kept them in a tank with fake l144 and they did very well. For triggering the spawns I didn’t made anything special. Just keep the water clean. Another thing I can’t say about them is that they didn’t bred every 2 weeks like the other ancistrus which I had are doing.
Overall is a veautiful fish if you manage to make him show all that beautiful patterns.
I hope that this helped.
Cheers!

[Chuckt]

Thanks! They seem a little bit easier to breed then I intitially thought.

[Chuckt]

Has anyone ever had any problems with 2 males not getting along with these? I know my regular bn variants do fine with multiple males in one tank. And do you think I should keep 2m and 4f in a 55g or split them into trios? Thanks!

[MarinFlorin]

It depends on the size of the aquarium I believe and the number or caves/hidding places.
At some point I had 4-5 males in 100 ltr tank and I never saw them fighting.
At ancistrus 2 males and 4-5 females should do the trick. Make sure they get enough rest in between the breedings.

[Chuckt]

Okay, thanks for the help. What do you feed yours to get them into breeding condition?

[MarinFlorin]

For a while I had a varied diet of the fish like frozen brine shrimp, frozen mosquito larvae and pleco tablets (sak spirulina tablets, jbl novo pleco, hikari pleco tabs) but in the last years they were fed mainly on SAK spirulina tabs. Even the fish are fed only on one type of food they are styll happy and eating well the spirulina tabs. I believe that as far as the water is clean they will do good and what I like about them also is that the males are getting huge bristles. Will try to check in my old pictures to see if I can find any to share it. Cheers!

[Chuckt]

Great! Are they still breeding for you now?

[MarinFlorin]

They are breeding ocasionaly because my mother takes care of 7 aquariums mostly of the time because I’m away. But I know for sure that they keep spawning. The only thing is that the babies are not making it too long. My mother is not that skilled. She is good with the rio tocantins and fake l144 and aome calicos but ahe never managed to grow more than 3-4 babies and the rio Paraguays they have quite big broods...

[MarinFlorin]

Sorry. I forgot to tell you that I noticed that I have the fish registered on my cats so you wll find a picture with the male there and the way the tank was looking long time ago . Cheers.