What's it like at the bottom of an amazon river?

[bristlehead]

hello there,
i'm new to planetcatfish and new to bristlenoses! but i think they're great already. in fact i'm new to aquariums..
i have two young ones taking care of my new 200liter tank whilst i get it set up.

i'd like to make a real home from home for my bristly friends in the bottom half of my tank and i would like to know exactly what it's like down at the bottom of the rivers where they live..
i know it is fast flowing with few plants and many tree roots??

has anyone actually seen what it looks like down there?

any help would be great
cheers
bristlehead

[Evan]

I've seen it on TV thats about as close as I'm gonna get considering parasites(ugh). It basically looks like muddy tea with fish.

[Shane]

Ancistrus are probably the most adapted genera of the family. They can be found from hillstreams to black waters. Give us an idea of what sp. you have and we will try to help.
-Shane

[bristlehead]

thanks shane, thanks evan

shane it's hard to know what species i have. they were sold to me as blauerantennenwels, or common bristlenoses. although i can't remember what latin name they were using. i'll check when i can.

the thing is, i've looked all the the catelog and the common bristlenoses in there don't really look like mine. although i guess that's normal

the one i'm looking at has lovely clearly defined spots that get larger as you go back down the fish, eventually becoming more like bands or leopardskin than spots. there are distinctive light bands around the thin part of the tail. and the fins are banded rather than spotted. i'd say the colour is a deep brown rather than a black and the spots have a yellow quality to them.

i'm a bit worried about the other one, it's just TOO shy and scared and inactive - the one i described above looks like it's in disneyworld compared to this one. and i saw some stringy looking milky liquid coming out of it and it hardly even raises its fins when [if] it swims

bristlehead

[Caol_ila]

Like this?
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~hauzc000/bilde ... ormal2.JPG

[MatsP]

It sounds like you have the same specie as I do. That being the Ancistrus sp(3) in the Catelog.

In that case, it's one variety of many "Common bristlenose", and they don't require anything really particular other than clean water, some algae to eat, and courgette(zuchini) if you don't think the algae is enough. They like to hide amongst driftwood, and quite like to rasp on the driftwood too. Apparently, this may help their digestive system.

Mine will also take bloodworm and Hikari Catfish pellets if they are not eaten by others first...

I'd be worried about mine too if they have white liquid coming out of them... Not sure what that would be. If possible, I'd isolate it, just in case.

--
Mats

[ClayT101]

Since there bristlenoses, they were probably bred in captivity, so an aquarium set up like the bottom of the amazon would probably be foreign to them. If you really want them to be at home, perhaps you should set up a bare bottom tank ;)

J/K I say go for the amazonian set up!

[bristlehead]

caol_ila you the man!
that's the closest i've seen so far. the only difference i would say to that individual is that on mine the spots really stop being spots, even more than that one. also, i can't see in yours, but mine has a nice white back top edge of the tail.

it's definitely gonna be some kinda of mutant amazonian setup. i think a fallen log sloping down into a dim root filled blackwater pool with floating plants to shade the shoal of tetras i wanna get in there.. i love tetras

matsp i don't like the liquid either. i'm not able to isolate that one so i'll just have to keep my eye out, it's obviously still stress after being moved in..

bristlehead

[Caol_ila]

Hi!

Thats a male in "breeding mood"...the females look much duller in color. Considering that it might be an aquarium hybrid theres a big variaty in colors/markings being sold under the names "A.dolichopterus - Blauer Antennenwels" (which has been proved that it isnt) so for the time being call it Ancistrus sp. (in German forums its being called "brauner Antennenwels" recently)

[racoll]

the amazon is a vast vast region comprising of all sorts of aquatic habitat types. they will vary from muddy creeks of standing water to raging torrents of white water over huge rocks. it can also vary enormously according to season. ancistrus come from a lot of these different habitats.

it's difficult to say exactly what type of habitat your fish initially came from, but i presume it's tank bred. these fish are much less demanding in terms of matching their natural habitat.

all they really need in a tank is clean water, enough oxygen and plenty of hiding places (ie not just one piece of bogwood or rock)

go mad with the bogwood or rocks if you can afford it. it looks better, and although it seems odd, you will see more of your fish.

[bristlehead]

racoll i hear what you're saying. and i understand that my bristlenoses are probably alot more swiss than brazilian

i can see already that cluttering the tank makes these little fellas really happy. i put alot more temporary stuff in there and now they're much more active, one is really racing around. doesn't seem at all like a shy type of fish.

i've been thinking to have a large piece of wood cutting across the aquarium diagonally and sticking up out of the water. in the corner underneath this wood i'd create a tangle of spindly twisting bogwood to make a nice shady playground for my bristlenosed friends. like tree roots.

is there a particular reason you say that they need numerous hiding places? is it how they do their rounds of the tank?

caol_ila thankyou for that useful info. this is a young fish, about 2cm.. in the 3 or 4 days i have had them i have definitely seen them 'mating'. not properly obviously, but it's a very distinctive move is that normal behaviour in your experience? the 'female' is definitely duller, less active and much more nervous.. she really seems in shock

bristlehead

[racoll]

perfect. the tank sounds really good. you should post some pics.

most catfish are typically noctural or crepuscular, and plecos usually are too.

most are not very good swimmers so their natural instinct is to hide away from predators in the day. the more cover they have (try floating plants too) the more secure and less anxious about being eaten they feel. as a result they lose their natural reluctance to hide as much because they know that a safe hiding place is only a flick of the tail away.

[racoll]

perfect. the tank sounds really good. you should post some pics.

most catfish are typically noctural or crepuscular, and plecos usually are too.

most are not very good swimmers so their natural instinct is to hide away from predators in the day. the more cover they have (try floating plants too) the more secure and less anxious about being eaten they feel. as a result they lose their natural reluctance to hide as much because they know that a safe hiding place is only a flick of the tail away.

[MatsP]

most are not very good swimmers so their natural instinct is to hide away from predators in the day.

Which you wouldn't believe when you try to net them...

--
Mats

[bristlehead]

cool. they're certainly darting around the whole tank now it's fuller and has pistia floating around. i'll be working on the final setup for a while. but i should be able to get you some pics..

talking of netting them, i've got to catch the quiet one, it's never looked right and now i can see it has ich it's going back where it came from. it never looked up to much anyway poor thing..

bristlehead