color and finnage varieties of Ancistrus cirrhosis

[NCE12940]

I'm interested in knowing how all the varieties were developed / cultivated. I assume selective breeding of the occasional differently colored offspring; cross-breeding maybe? Are there any accepted standards for the different colors / finage? Would like to know more about this. Thanks for any information.

[CoryfanAad]

To my knowledge there are no "standards" (excl. L144 / albino) and called Ancistrus cf (looking like) Cirrhosus cause there are sooo many appearances.
I even read that the species actually doesn't exists in the wild but in fact is believed to be a merge of different species.

But I can go wrong here, so please experts jump in.

[NCE12940]

That makes sense. There seem to be so many varieties, which isn't the case for other catfish.

[Yann]

Ancistrus cirrhosis: I would expect them to be yellow with such name!! ^^

Seriously Ancistrus cirrhosus the natural coloration is brown with white/yellow spots

but there are a bunch a commercial varieties with them being yellow, orange, orange brown, longfins, normal fins, etc...

Cheers
Yann

[Jools]

It's labelled Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus because the natural form of the fish in question most closely resembles (confers with the description of) A. cirrhosus. But it's probably not that species and indeed, globally in captivity, may well be a mix of species with, at least in some territories, usually unintentional, hybridisation involved. In short, it's a mess.

There are so many varieties because it's easy to bred in relatively small aquaria and produces a huge number of offspring. New varieties have at least temporary higher value and so there is commercial reward in creating new varieties.

Jools

[NCE12940]

That's pretty much what I suspected. Go figure, after all my years in purebred dogs I'm captivated by a mongrel fish!