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Snagged a nice pair of Wabens at my LFS. Great deal for healthy fish of an obvious sex. Only thing is, they're super tiny. Tiny, as in tiny. And they look fully sexually mature, too; not just borderline sexable, which is what I'm used to for Ancistrus at their size. I personally have never seen wabens at this size that can be sexed; and yet the two I have look like fully mature, old breeders that have been going at it for a while... all while being under 6cm TL. The male has a lovely set of well-developed bristles, and the female is round, with an elongate head, and almost looks gravid. I don't know how to properly explain the sheer abnormally small size of these fish; the female could reasonably fit on my thumbnail (with the tail kinda hanging off). A 1" diameter pleco cave looks massive compared to the male...
There was another tiny male, but I'd assume the fish has been sold by now, as they were very nice-quality specimens at a fantastic price.
Anybody seen anything like this?

Pic of the pair, and of me holding the female (my hands aren't big, I swear):

Hi,

I've got a group of wabenmuster, all from the same breeder, maybe from the same spawn (they were about the same size when purchased, but may have been from separate spawns close together).

Two of my males are huge, well over 10 cm SL. But two of my males are small like yours, about 6 cm SL. I've had these for 5 years (see this thread: Ancistrus sp. Wabenmuster from CSG convention spawned, so it's safe to say they are probably full grown or nearly so. I've gotten a few spawns out of them, but always it was one of the smaller males breeding with one of the smaller females. I've never gotten spawns from my large males or females.

Cheers,
Eric

bekateen wrote: ↑25 Mar 2024, 19:15 Hi,

I've got a group of wabenmuster, all from the same breeder, maybe from the same spawn (they were about the same size when purchased, but may have been from separate spawns close together).

Two of my males are huge, well over 10 cm SL. But two of my males are small like yours, about 6 cm SL. I've had these for 5 years (see this thread: Ancistrus sp. Wabenmuster from CSG convention spawned, so it's safe to say they are probably full grown or nearly so. I've gotten a few spawns out of them, but always it was one of the smaller males breeding with one of the smaller females. I've never gotten spawns from my large males or females.

Cheers,
Eric

Huh, that's pretty interesting... Are the eggs and fry proportionally smaller, and do they have decent hatch rates (if they hatch at all)? I still can't get over how small these guys are; would make for a great pleco for a smaller tank, if it was merely a harmless genetic mutation (which I'm guessing it probably isn't).
Here's some more pics; male in a 1" round pleco cave, and female next to a ~3 month old common Ancistrus fry.

Fallen_Leaves16 wrote: ↑27 Mar 2024, 12:39 Huh, that's pretty interesting... Are the eggs and fry proportionally smaller, and do they have decent hatch rates (if they hatch at all)? I still can't get over how small these guys are; would make for a great pleco for a smaller tank, if it was merely a harmless genetic mutation (which I'm guessing it probably isn't).

I don't recall my fry being different in size, but since I sold them about about 1.5", I didn't keep them long enough to see them grow out.

Not to jump this thread, but Eric, when will you have more to sell? Maybe PM me?

naturalart wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 00:49Not to jump this thread, but Eric, when will you have more to sell? Maybe PM me?

Sorry to say I won't have more until they breed, darn it. They are trying my patience.

Cheers,
Eric

Not a problem, I'm in no hurry. Just let me know.