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Hi Guys, I’m planning to set up a new extra tank and was wondering if it is possible to put my L046 and L144 lemon blue eyes in one tank. Will they bother each other or will they be fine?

It’s going to be a decorated tank with substrate and all because i like the way that looks but it will be primarily focused on breeding.

In my experience, 9/10 one species will be more thriving and gregarious and exploit access to food and preferable structure and caves while the other species doesn't thrive. The other 1/10 of the time both species breeds but usually only in a larger setup with ample habitat and heavy feeding schedules. I managed to breed L46 and some cirrhosis type bristlenose together once. The aquarium was 75 gallons (284 L) with 100 growout rams and a bunch of others, mostly cichlids. At the time I was moving and consolidating fish into a bare minimum of tanks at the origin residence and feeding crazy amounts of food. Bought an automatic feeder to feed while I was at work. Everything started breeding; the L46, ancistrus, discus, rams, and Dicrossus. Not to say it can't be done, but right now I have that same breeding group of ancistrus in with a mature group of L134 and the leopard frogs are not happy and need separation.

So to know for sure is just to test it and see if they’re all happy? I think I’ll just separate them to get them most comfortable.

If anyone has had any other experience please let me know.

Hi all,

DBam wrote: ↑24 Mar 2024, 07:25 In my experience, 9/10 one species will be more thriving and gregarious and exploit access to food and preferable structure and caves while the other species doesn't thrive.

Dylanpleco wrote: ↑23 Mar 2024, 13:41 Hi Guys, I’m planning to set up a new extra tank and was wondering if it is possible to put my L046 and L144 lemon blue eyes in one tank. Will they bother each other or will they be fine?

It’s going to be a decorated tank with substrate and all because i like the way that looks but it will be primarily focused on breeding.

That is what would worry me, and I'm going to bet on the Ancistrus - thriving and the Hypancistrus - waning. If you are focused on breeding I would definitely keep them separate.

I like both a substrate (and some tough plants, like Anubias barteri and Bolbitis heudelotii) my personal opinion is that they help with water quality and water quality is everything.

cheers Darrel

Yes, i mainly keep them just because I like the fish but want to breed them for the hobby not some intensive profit breeding mission. But if keeping them separate will help with overall happiness etc. I will do that. Was just checking in to know for sure what’s the best way and if putting them together was possible.

Thx yall!!

I noticed L46 are a pretty shy species when kept with none hypancistrus species.
Peckoltia and ancistrus act more dominant to them than how they like.

I would say it most likely would work. Although my only hesitation would be the size of the common bristlenose, the blue eyed variant doesn't get quite as big as the normal browns or the albinos but it might just be most people haven't had theirs long enough yet. The common bristlenose, Ancistrus sp. can be quite territorial so that would be my worry. It could work with much tighter caves the Ancistrus sp. cannot fit into but whether the Hypancistrus prefer them and not try and enter the Ancistrus' larger caves is another issue.
Hypancistrus zebra is found around Ancistrus but the much more peaceful species.
There is another element to this, Hypancistrus zebra is not a carnivore but it does feed on a reasonable amount of bryozoa, not that any diet contains them but also large amounts of algaes. Ancistrus as a group as far as we all know for now are algivores and are prone to bloat on carnivorous or even I find some more omnivorous diets, anything with a good amount of fish meal. If you are going to treat H. zebra as a carnivore then that would create issues with the Ancistrus who are bound to eat that food. If you are going to feed H. zebra like they'd eat in the wild it shouldn't be an issue.
Other parameters shouldn't be an issue given we still do not know really what the common bristlenose is or where it is from, we only know what it is not.
It can work at the end of the day but just needs consideration. I might be more inclined to recommend smaller Ancistrus spp. like L100 is also a Rio Xingu fish.

Actually, zebras are omnivores who prefer meat while the Ancistrus are Aufwuchs feeders who eat the algae because it also contains small meaty critters inside it. Also the Xingu is a long river, but the zebras only live in the Big Bend.

Look at what this site says about L144 and Lemon Pleco, neither one is shown as living in the Xingu. It also shows one having a temp range in the low 70sF and the other maxes at 78. If you want to spawn zebras and have to put then through a dry rainy season, the end of the dry can be 90F+. I have mostly kept zebras between 82 and 86F.

Also, I am not sure that any bristlenose Ancistrus species are found in the Big Bend. But I certainly could be wrong on this. Somebody with better knowledge on this than me should chime in.

Zebras do not compete well for food etc. I would suggest not mixing thm especially if you want to have the zebras spawn.