Of
all the working fish I have ever owned, these are no doubt the true
algae eater. These fish eat constantly. They work every spot, in
every position imaginable.
I first bought Ancistrus because of a severe algae problem
I was having in a 150-gallon tank. This tank was well cycled, well
landscaped, and planted with many live plants. The problem was that
the algae was spreading from the tank walls to the plants, which
are not as easy to clean as the glass. I had not seen any fish or
other method that would kill the algae but not the plants. Someone
at the Club told me about Ancistrus, and boy, they were
right! I bought two of these fish approximately three inches long.
I brought them home and my wife proceeded to tell me that I was
crazy. “These are the ugliest fish I have ever seen”,
she said. So, I must admit “yes,” I am crazy but I love
my Ancistrus. These two fish looked identical. They were
dark brown, with a tremendous amount of growth on their face. The
bristles went all the way around their snout and from the tip of
the snout they went up the center of the forehead. Almost all of
the bristles had branches. Ugly? No. Just different than what most
hobbyists are used to.
But I’ll tell you, these fish can eat algae. I put them into
the 150-gallon tank with algae on three sides and the plants swaying
in the current. At the end of one week there was no algae anywhere.
The walls were clean, and the plants were clean and undamaged. I
like this fish so much, that I bought 10 more.
I never realized how many species of Ancistrus there are
until I started actually looking at each fish and read the few articles
that are published about them.
The first 12 Ancistrus I bought are all nocturnal. They
hide anywhere they can all day long. You would not know that there
is a fish in some of my tanks until you look at night with a flashlight.
Then, they are everywhere!
One of the greatest drawbacks of the Anicistrus is this
nocturnal feature.
Ed Gogdan told me he had some that were not nocturnal. So I decided
to get some of these also. This species is quite different from
all the others I have. They are not nocturnal, they are a lighter
brown with even lighter patches on them. The males have very small
bristles and a few of them have branches. The females are smaller
and have no growth on their face at all. But they spawn.
I put a trio of these fish into a 29 gallon tank with six growing
black Ptrerophyllum scalare. This tank has an undergravel
filter, P.H. 6.8, and a temperature of 80° F. They were all
over the tank the first week, but it did not seem right to have
Ancistrus without a place to hide. So I bought a small barnacle
cluster and within five minutes of placing the cluster in the tank,
the male was in the largest of the barnacle shells. By the end of
the second week, my wife noticed one large orange egg (large when
you are used to breeding angelfish) about 1/8 of an inch in diameter
in the bottom of the barnacle. The barnacle cluster conveniently
faced the front glass so we could watch. The male was inside on
the top of the barnacle while this one egg was on the bottom. Then
we observed one of the females approach the opening. The male came
out and she went in, but to the same spot as where the male had
been, not to the one egg on the bottom.
We had to get a flashlight to see just what was going on in the
top of this barnacle. It did not seem to bother them when we shined
the light right on them. But now we could see that there was a whole
cluster of these orange eggs adhered to the ceiling. The single
egg in the bottom had fallen and was just left there. When the female
left, the male returned and this time he stayed. The female’s
role in the spawning appeared to be complete. The male remained
above the eggs fanning them constantly.
At the end of the third day, I siphoned 5 gallons of water from
this tank into a 5-gallon tank, removed the barnacle cluster with
the eggs and the male still inside fanning, and placed them inside
the 5-gallon tank. I moved them in fear that the Angelfish they
were with would devour the about to be fry. On the morning of the
fifth day, I noticed the entire cluster of eggs. They had all hatched
and were now orange wrigglers, including the one loose egg. The
male continued to fan the fry for five more days. He never left
the eggs or fry. He never ate. For twelve days he just fanned. At
the end of twelve days from spawning, the fry had used up most of
their yoke sac and were out of the barnacle. I removed the barnacle
with the male still in it and placed it back into the 29-gallon
tank with the females. Now the fry were changing from orange wrigglers
to miniatures of the parents within a few days. It was amazing how
fast they changed.
I tried feeding them everything from green water and Liquifry to
artemia and blanched zucchini, but I could not tell how well they
were eating. I decided to move them into a 55-gallon tank full of
angelfish fry and a lot of algae. This also gave me a chance to
count them. There were sixty-two fry.
Once moved to the new tank, I could see large patches of algae missing.
Now I was sure they were eating. After the first few days though,
I started finding dead fry on the bottom of the tank. I quickly
learned that these fry cannot tolerate the massive water changes
that Angelfish require. So, a little more juggling, I moved them
again, but this time to a tank not requiring the water changes and
they’re doing fantastic.
At the end of six weeks when I turned them in for BAP points, they
averaged .5 to 1 inch in length and were growing steadily.
Just before our February meeting, I read an article that stated
there are many species of Ancistrus but only one steadily
spawns, the species dolichopterus. So I assumed this must
be the one I have and proceeded to list this species name on my
BAP form and the bag.
Before the night was over I had a chance to speak with our excellent
Tankquilizer Editor and Lee Finley on why species naming our
Ancistrus is not an acceptable practice. Lee wrote a very
informative article on this subject in the December 1992 issue of
The Tankquilizer.
This was for me another very educational experience with T.F.S.R.I
and I would like to thank everyone for all your advice, hospitality
and generosity.
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