PlanetCatfish.com

Hello Everyone!

I'm looking for a bit of help. I am unsure of exactly which species these guys are, but I suspect that they are A. tamboensis. However I haven't been able to find a picture of that species, in which the fish are albino, which mine are, but the size is right, and the patterning on the body seems right, they were bought at an auction as dwarf ancistrus. Anyway, I am looking for help with my first attempt at breeding a Loricariidae species. The fish are approximately 8 months old with two deffinate males and I believe the other 3 are females. They have been getting fed a varied diet, brine shrimp, blood worms, Zuchinni, spirulina, Sera Discus Color, and the algae growing in the 75 gallon they inhabit. I have read some info about breeding Ancistrus species, but if I could get the whole story from you folks about what you reccomend doing, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Brian

hi brian
you will find there is a good article by dan danko on breeding albino ancistrus,
if you click on shanes world and then click on reproduction articles, and scroll down to
dans article,

Thanks Med, I appreciate the help![/list]

One thing I didn't see in the article was if females had bristles or if it was just the males. In the fish I have, there are two that have 4-5 times the amount of bristles than the other 3. The other three have very few, and mainly looks like one row along the upper lip. After seeing the snout of the female in Don's article however, I am now questioning if I indeed do have both sexes, as the one in the picture had no bristles at all. Is it normal for females to have bristles or no?

NatakuTseng wrote: Is it normal for females to have bristles or no?

yes, but usually just around the lip area...the one's that you have with many bristles are likely the males, and the others are likely the females...
there are a couple different articles in Shane's world and the ICOSA section(you can find these in the main index) you can also find info if you do a search, look up each individual ancistrus species in the Cat-elog, or finally just slowly go back through the forum and read all the threads dealing with ancistrus or bristlenose plecos...
David