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Since this afternoon I have a LDA033. His length is about 8 cm, perhaps a very litter longer.
He is very beautiful, darkblack with big white dots. I know they must be like that, but this one is exact like that, and like I always wanted.

The seller could not tell his age.

Am I very wrong to 'give' him about 7 months?

It depends on how long it's been in Europe. Once they are taken out of the river, they grow quite a lot slower, so it could have been 6cm when it arrived, and been here for a year or two.

Without very extensive analysis, it's almost impossible to say how old any fish is, unless, of course, you know what the circumstances are/have been of the fish in question. I have had Ancistrus in two tanks, one with lots of babies, another from the same brood in a different tank with few/no competing Ancistrus, and the one on its own grows about twice as large in 4-8 months. So availability of food will make a big difference.

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Mats

I got some that were a bit smaller than 8cm, imported from the wild. They seem to grow at about 4-5cm per year, in the conditions I provide, which I like to think are pretty good (for captivity that is). Some I had that were 17 cm (in the same tank) seemed to grow at a slightly slower rate?
The smaller Baryancistrus that I have bred seem to grow very slowly having bursts of growth every 3 or 4 months, but still growing at about 5cm per year. Having said that, it is hard to draw any conclusions what-so-ever because conditions vary so much not only from the wild, but also from fishkeeper to fishkeeper.
Also assuming they need to be 20+ cm to be sexually mature and assuming they are a long lived fish, then 4-5 years to reach sexual maturity is not out of the question?
So if it was freshly imported (from the wild), and I had to guess then I would go for 12-18 months.
If it has been in captivity for a time, then most bets will be off:

MatsP wrote:It depends on how long it's been in Europe. Once they are taken out of the river, they grow quite a lot slower, so it could have been 6cm when it arrived, and been here for a year or two.

Without very extensive analysis, it's almost impossible to say how old any fish is, unless, of course, you know what the circumstances are/have been of the fish in question.....
Mats

Cheers
Geoff

Thank you both for your expanded and profound reaction!

He is from the wild, and I think I'm going to ask that lfs, how long ago he was imported (hopefully they know this).

But although not certain, and dependable from various aspects, for now I take his age 'on' at least 1 year.

If it "just arrived", I'd execpt the fish to grow faster in the wild than in captivity - especially plecos that spend day and night grazing...

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Mats

Nine weeks further. He adjusted to my tank, I presume. He stays in the leftside, mostly round the coconut and big wooden pieces. Each week more he's getting braver. I see hem on the substrate or at the back. He's beautiful. About two weeks ago a friend of mine took pictures. Here's one of them.

That is a really nice picture Yroc.

Cheers
Geoff

My snowball is still doing well in my tank. He has grown steadily since I bouhgt him two years ago. I think he's about 15 cm long.
He's less shy than in the first year and shows himself regularly front in the aquarium nowadays.
Herebye a picture of him that I made two months ago.

[attachment=0]Snowball lda033 IMG_4401.jpg[/attachment]

I have 2. They're already 8cm. I bought them when they're 4cm. One always in the cave, and another one always outside the cave. Is it the sign of their sex?


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jlim wrote:I have 2. They're already 8cm. I bought them when they're 4cm. One always in the cave, and another one always outside the cave. Is it the sign of their sex?


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I think they may need to be about twice that size to sex them?

Cheers

I have 3 of these beautiful fish. I enjoy them very much in my 3.00-80-80 South American tank, seeing them all day!
Mine are 22-24cm now but I still find it nearly impossible to tell what sex they are. I'm not going to catch them out of the tank just to make pictures from above so I have to do with side shots. Here are some pics from one my Snow Balls

What a beauty's you both have.

The younger one has very beautyful large spots (and, I assume, is accomplied by a nice specimen of L134 in the cave left?).

And the older one is so intensely black. Very nice. I'm curieus how old those three are with that lenght.

My snowball (LDA033) just appeared in the front of my tank, while reading back this old post of mine.
He's doing well, and has become bigger than he was. But I haven't measured him. He should hide himself when coming that near.
I could take a picture of him from a litter further. Hereby.

[img][attachment=0]IMG_1336.JPG[/attachment][/img]

Why does it shows upside down, in the post, and normal when clicked on the image?

Yroc wrote: 02 Apr 2017, 21:49Why does it shows upside down, in the post, and normal when clicked on the image?

Hi Yroc,

First, thanks for the update. It's really nice to see how fish progress and change over the years. Second, I don't know why your image appears upside down, but here you go: I downloaded the image, rotated it until it's right-side-up, and then attaching it here.

Cheers, Eric

Thank you for doing that! And yes, it's nice to see him develop.