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I purchased a group of 8 fish almost 2 years ago(lost one) and over time as they matured discovered that I had one male and the rest females. Lucky for me the male seems to have finally decided to cooperate. The females had all been getting gravid for some time now. I noticed the male had some company last night, and this morning he's sitting on eggs. David

Congratulations. Good luck with raising the fry.

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Mats

that's fantastic! only one rooster in the hen house too, he must be happy, and or tired. I'd love to see pictures as you have time. Those are cool pl*cos.

The female is still trapped in there(unless it's a second female who hasn't deposited eggs yet) David

Wish you were closer, I'd buy some fries. Congrats!

[Mod edit: Removed now duplicate image after I fixed original post --Mats]

Nice, I had a group that also took awhile to get going but once they did they were fairly consistent with their spawns. My male was quite dedicated.

Good luck!

Birger

Thanks for the well-wishes ;) I'll post some update pics in a day or two. David

great picture!

David,

Any chance you could e-mail that picture to me (mats at planetcatfish dot com)?

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Mats

Yes. Would you rather I sent the larger un-edited picture, or that one? I also have some night-vision video I took last night that I'm going to try and post later. (yeah, I'm a nerd). David

Large, unedited would be best.

Videos on Youtube can be posted directly here. If the video is "good", then Jools and/or me may want to add it to the species page - in which case it needs to be copied to Jools Youtube account.

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Mats

Got pics of the fish themselves too? A good pic showing the sexual dimorphism in coloration that A. claro has in a side-by-side pic would not be a bad addition to the Cat-eLog, though of course the male is a little busy right now.

Eggs still look good, and the male seem's to be getting used to my flashlight/nightvisioncam shenanigans. Here's some pictures from earlier this evening. David

Not a great(or very long) video, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Shot last night with the nightvision feature on my camcorder. The nightvision seems to bother the male less than my flashlight and camera flash. David



[Mod edit: Unclick "Disable BBCode" and add youtube tags --Mats]

The eggs still look good(one egg looks bad/dead) though I have had eggs from another species of ancistrus once before that looked good for a week before finally turning white instead of hatching. I've got some giant columbian ramshorn snails in the tank also, and somehow one managed to get in the cave. It's not eating the eggs though-the male has it pushed up against the back and won't let it move. Judging from the number of eggs in the cave and the flat bellies on several of the females, I strongly suspect that the male spawned with two, perhaps three females. Keeping my fingers crossed-more pictures if/when there are some changes. David

very cool! what a good papa he is!

I'm guessing I'll have wigglers in the next 24 hours. Starting to see lots of eyes, and I can see body shape and tails inside the eggs. David

The eggs have begun hatching. I carefully lifted the cave up, pulled the snail out that's been trapped in there the entire time, and placed the cave back where it was. The male ancistrus didn't even blink. At least I don't have to worry now about the snail eating the wigglers.

Here's a picture of the spawning tank. It's a 4 ft, 40 gallon tank filled with driftwood and floating fake plants. I also have a few species of snails in there. I've found in the past that I seem to lose very few/no fry when I raise them in a tank with snails. I've got an AC500 HOB filter on the back, and 2 powerheads: 1 on the right pointing with the flow going across the front, and 1 on the left with the flow going across the back of the tank. The substrate is just regular sandbox/play sand. Temp 78 degrees.

Wigglers have almost completely absorbed their eggs. David

Looking good.

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Mats

incredible, and beautiful tank. 40 gal breeders are the best.

Have I already asked you what camara you use?

I have no problem with MTS (malaysian trumpet snails) around the fry or eggs.

I'm using a Canon Rebel XT (couple years old). I still have to take 100's of pictures to get a few good ones. David

That's so COOL! The fish, the tank and the pictures!

Thanks for the compliments.. I'll keep taking pictures regularly and try and get some better pictures of the adults when I see them in the open. I got a chance to count fry today and I have approx. 80 +/- a few. David

Keep us updated!

Update: The fry are doing well. I've been feeding them slices of yam and zuchini.
To my eye, the fry in the hanging basket are growing faster than the ones loose in the tank..David

I lost these fry described above to predation from their tankmates. As of yesterday the adults are in a tank of their own,(without other fish to disturb them or eat the fry) and I'm going to give it another shot. Here's a couple shots of the male, and one of the 6 females. David