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Hello,

I recently bought 4 Ancistrus Red Fire.
All 4 are about 8 cm (3.1 inch).
All 4 were sold to me as females.
All 4 have small bristles (1 to 2 mm) around their snouts, plus one of two bristles (1 to 2 mm) on top of the snout pointing up.
One of them has more and longer bristles on top of his/her snout pointing up and going up towards his/her eyes (photo nr 1).

Could number 1 be a male, also considering it's size? Could numbers 2-4 be females?

Related questions:
If I understand correctly, BN males start developing bristles at the size of 5 cm (2 inch). At what size should a male ancistrus have developed good sized bristles, distinctly showing that it's a male? I also read that the general development of ancistrus with red colorations is slower. Could this also be true for the development of the bristles of red ancistrus? Any experience with this?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts with me!

Hi,

I believe that based on the size (3") and the pictures you posted. Fish #1 it's a male for sure, fish #2, #3, and #4 (pic of fish #4 is a lil blurry) seem to be males as well but I could be wrong so hopefully someone else comments here.

While it is true that super red ancistrus general development tends to be a lil slower than other ancistrus, fish at that size can be sexed accurately by someone that has kept this species previously.


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Hi Jorgehdzy,

thanks for replying! That would be a surprise if all turned out to be males! I've just recently ordered a male A. Red to add to this group of 'females'. Maybe I should reconsider ...

I hope to receive a reply from someone who has kept this species previously. I would appreciate it.

Thanks again Jorgehdzy!

I have no doubt that #1 is male. #3 looks male to me also. #2 and #4, I am not certain of either way. If I had these fish, I would put 1 and 4 in a tank together and see what happens. If 4 is a male, it will likely develop more bristles in the presence of another male.

I my breeder female has little to no bristles, but some have a little bit. I will try to get a pic of my female.

My fry from my pair for whatever reason seem to be heavily male.

Hate to disappoint but I'm pretty sure they are all males just maturing at different stages.
I have some of these and they were heavier on the male side. One of my females has spawned and even though she is bigger then your pics, she has no whiskers at all. I must say that I did have a large longfin albino that had some whiskers as she aged.
Good luck with them and hope that I am wrong.
Luis C

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! Really, I appreciate it very much!

I was hoping for a different answer though, so this is a little disappointing. When buying these fish I did notice the small bristles on all 4, but the seller sold me these as a group of 4 females (that's why I also had a male on order). I also thought that I had read somewhere before that some female ancistrus also can develop small bristles. So I thought 'maybe they are' ... Anyway, lessons learned.

Related questions:
1. What would be your advice to me if I wanted to start a breeding group of this species (in one tank)?
2. Should I keep only one of these 4 males and add 2 females? Or are ancistrus more productive when there is competition, and thus should I keep 2 males and add 2 females (in one tank)?
3. How to choose the male(s) to keep: the ones with the biggest whiskers? Are these potentially the most productive ones?
4. Final question: Is it safe to combine a group of ancistrus red with three L201 (1M/2F) in one tank, or will this lead to quarrels or less productivity of both groups? My tank is appr. 350 Liters = 93 US Gallons.

Thanks again for all your (past and future) replies! Much appreciated!

I would think the most aggressive and dominant male will be the most productive.

two males and two females in a tank that is at least 30-40 gallons is good. but you need to give them plenty of caves and hiding places because the males will fight. you dont want just one male in case something might happen to him and then you are left with no male and you have to start over.

to me they all looked like males at first glance, sorry

From what i have experienced in combining ancistrus with hypans (my L260 and my BNs) the diets are too different and the ancistrus will probably suffer from too meaty a diet since you cannot stop them from eating what you feed to the L201.
I already lost my BN male because of bloat, likely from too much protein in the diet. they are not made to digest meaty foods as fast as carnivorous plecos can, and it blocks their tracts until trouble starts piling up from there.

L3hundred33 wrote:Hi Jorgehdzy,

thanks for replying! That would be a surprise if all turned out to be males! I've just recently ordered a male A. Red to add to this group of 'females'. Maybe I should reconsider ...

I hope to receive a reply from someone who has kept this species previously. I would appreciate it.

Thanks again Jorgehdzy!

I am currently keeping and breeding this species. The comment above was because I believe that the seller deliberately sold you all males. If I were you I woud contact him and ask him to trade you fish #2 & #4 for two other fish of the same size but that show no bristles if possible.

I based my answer in the fact that none of the females in my breeding group show any bristles and they are about the same size as yours. I have also seen other breeding groups from a couple of friends and females do not show bristles either.

To answer your related questions.

1.- There's not an exact number of fish you need to start a breeding group of this species and I think that a single pair would eventually breed if fed properly and conditions are "right".

2.- One male usually is enough for a breeding group and 2 females should do just fine in a tank. Although, you may have more of you want. Females usually are not overly aggressive towards each other if enough space is provided. Males can be a bit more aggressive than females in my experience. I chose to split my group in two separate tanks just to not put "all my eggs in one basket" if that makes sense...

3.- Fish #1 seems like a great candidate to me if I wanted to start a breeding group. Not that it would be more productive (that cannot be determined just by looking at a fish) but it seems to me that it's the more "mature" one of the lot, therefore more likely to breed soon.

4.- I currently house 1 male and 2 females of super reds in a tank with a trio of adult Hypancistrus sp. L260 without any problems. I also have a separate tank with 1 male and 2 female super reds by themselves. Both trios of super reds have spawned regularly for the past few months without major differences.

I'm attaching a short video of one of my pairs breeding. As you can clearly see, the female do not show a single bristle but the males does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXsgWY- ... ata_player


Also a few pictures from one of my males guarding eggs, females, and fry.

Thank you very much Plecomania and Jorgehdzy for sharing your experiences!

Based on your thoughts and advice I have decided to keep the two males with the largest bristles, and search for 2-4 females. Hope I can find them. Adult specimens are rare over here. Only young specimens for sale, 3-4cm.

@Plecomania: I hope to by-pass the problem of different diets bij feeding at two different moments, in daytime food meant for the BN's, in the evening (lights out) more 'meaty food' meant for the L201's. I hope the BN's will have their hungers stilled by the time the L201's are fed. My BN's are very active during daytime. My L201's are creatures of the night, I don't see them during daytime.

And when it comes to the dominant males in the group of 4: the ones with the longest bristles are the most dominant ones.

@Jorgehdzy: I thought that with your earlier comment you meant that you did not have experience with reds. But now it is clear to me that you do. Thank you very much for sharing the pictures and the video. It is clear to me now what to look for when sexing A. reds. I also noticed when watching your video that none of my reds have the chubbiness around the middle like the first red on your video. Mine are all slender, probably also a characteristic of male ancistrus.

I love your shots of the male guarding and the fry. I was hoping to experience this first hand here in my tank sometime soon, but now I am not sure how fast that is going to happen for me. But I really have come like the reds, so it is just a matter of time.

I understand what you mean by all the eggs in one basket, but I have only two tanks: my main tank and a tank for fry (a little under 200L). Would it work if I also put a second couple or trio of Reds in the tank with the fry? Would they breed? Or would the fry be too much of a distraction or interference?

Again, thank you all very much for your thoughts and advice! Appreciate it very much!

L3hundred33 wrote:Thank you very much Plecomania and Jorgehdzy for sharing your experiences!

@Jorgehdzy: I thought that with your earlier comment you meant that you did not have experience with reds. But now it is clear to me that you do. Thank you very much for sharing the pictures and the video. It is clear to me now what to look for when sexing A. reds. I also noticed when watching your video that none of my reds have the chubbiness around the middle like the first red on your video. Mine are all slender, probably also a characteristic of male ancistrus.

I love your shots of the male guarding and the fry. I was hoping to experience this first hand here in my tank sometime soon, but now I am not sure how fast that is going to happen for me. But I really have come like the reds, so it is just a matter of time.

I understand what you mean by all the eggs in one basket, but I have only two tanks: my main tank and a tank for fry (a little under 200L). Would it work if I also put a second couple or trio of Reds in the tank with the fry? Would they breed? Or would the fry be too much of a distraction or interference?

Again, thank you all very much for your thoughts and advice! Appreciate it very much!

I'm sure that if you put a pair or a trio of Super Reds in a tank that size it would work. In my experience Reds are not very demanding and they would readily breed if properly kept. I usually leave the fry in the tank with the parents and they keep breeding regularly for me; actually they last spawned in 1/16/14 (4th spawn in a row in the tank I keep them by themselves).

Good luck with your Reds, I hope you find a few females soon and they start breeding for you right away.


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