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I am in the Midwest United States and recently acquired some Ancistrus that are supposed to have come from Germany. They were imported as F1 Ancistrus leucostictus. Do any of you know if this fish is being bred in Germany/Europe or might this be something more commonly confused with leucostictus? The fish are young, but already showing some of the rusty orange spots. The base body color is nearly black. The dominant/typical white tail tip is on the top only. I am curious about the ID mainly because I don?t believe there are any fish being exported from where this fish originates (Guyana?)

I'm afraid Germany is close the Czech republic, which is a much bigger commercial fish-breeding country than Germany, so that's most likely where these fish comes from. [Not that this makes much of a difference, and I may be wrong anyways - just some suppositions on the basis that if you export fish on a commercial scale to remote countries that is captive bred, it's most likely from a major commercial breeder, rather than a hobby project, which makes me think of the Czech republic rather than Germany].

As to their correct identity, I would doubt (for the same reason as you do) that they are , but probably another species. They are probably one out of the few different (unidentified) species that are called "Orange/Red-spot Bristle/Bushy-nose/Ancistrus".

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Mats

Hi Kevin!!!

For a rather long time Ancistrus sp "Rio Ucayali" was being sold as A. leucostictus...so you just might have this fish!!

Cheers
Yann

This thread might offer a clue:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=14146