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Help. I have this fish. Huge beautiful long tendrilly lyretail Acanthicus adonis. It is the only fish in my CO2 plant tank, but it digs up every plant every day. Nothing will stop him. I need some info, some help... Can I safely move him to my Heckel discus tank (no plants, no algae, 29 degrees centigrade)? There is no algae in my plant tank, is that the problem? I've been feeding him bloodworms, is this right? Should I cook some lettuce and crumble it in? As he has gotten older, the spots have partially disappeared, but I don't care, very beautiful fish, if only he would leave plants alone. Maybe if I overfed him on the bloodworms (i.e. not feeding him enough)?

jim in Taipei

First, as you amy already know, Acanthicus adonis can get very large, up to about a meter. See this previous discussion on the potential size of the fish:
http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/view ... nis+length
You will need something like a 1,000 liter tank to house it adequately when it reaches full size, and you will need a large tank (>300 l) even for a juvenile.

Second, they don't eat algae! They are omnivores that will eat plant matter but also need meaty foods like worms, shrimp, clams, etc.

Third, it is in the nature of the beast to want to re-landscape its aquarium, but this will be particularly true if it does not already have an adequate hiding place. This is largely true of all big loricariids.

Now to address your options. Keeping this fish in a CO2-enriched planted aquarium is not a good move. The well-being of your plants aside, it's not the proper environment for the fish. Although A. adonis may come from the flood plains of the Tocantins and Amazonas, the main bodies of the Tocantins and allied rivers are fast-moving. I would think that strong water movement would benefit your fish.

Your A. adonis may be OK in a discus tank. It can probably deal with 29 C. But it will beat your discus about, especially if it does not have adequate cover. Plus, discus would not appreciate strong water movement.

Sorry, I have not presented any really easy or attractive options. This is not t a fish for the average home aquarium. If you really want to keep it, you may be best off putting it in a large tank with lots of driftwood and rocks, strong filtration and water movement and a minimum of companions.

I'm sure others will have more to say...

Dinyar

Hi,

I've read many times from different articles to provide strong water movement to certain L numbers like the one mentioned here, A.adonis.

My question is how does the strong water movement actually benefit the fish. (Besides just creating more aeration and simulating it's natural habitat.)

Thank you.

It's like bodybuilding they eat more and work harder in strong currents so they grows better. They will be more active with currents and without.

Janne

Hi,

Anyone else with any views on the benefits of creating strong water currents.

Appreciate your help.

I can't really say anything else than that it's good... I used to only have an Eheim 2224 (700 l/h) running in my 250 litre tank (66 gal), this produced allmost no current whatsoever. The plecos in the tank hid in their caves all the time, allmost never leaving their caves.

A month ago, I added an Aquabee UP 2000/1 powerhead to the tank. A current of 2000 l/h proved to be to strong for various Corydoras and cichlids, so I put a tap on the outlet of the pump and turned the current down to around 1000-1200 l/h. Now, the plecos come out of their caves often, and my algae eating species has finally started eating algae! Allso, my two common Ancistrus has grown very much since then, and one of them has started growing the head tentacles of a male ancistrus.

Imagine a web forum on Mars devoted to the captive care in little glass boxes of Homo sapiens. Now further imagine one Martian asking another, "Can anyone give me a good reason why we should keep our H. sapiens in 'conditions simulating its natural habitat'"?

Dinyar

Just a note to point out that Acanthicus are not fast water loricariids. They are mainly found in still waters in and around human habitations where they thrive on the garbage people throw in the river. A collector told me that Acanthicus, many small pims, and guppies are always best collected near human settlements because they congregate to feed on human waste and trash. He also said that even though Acanthicus are very common they are rarely collected because small specimens are dufficult to find and the big ones that are common tear up nets with their many spines.
-Shane