# SWEET Baby Ancistrus!



## EMc/ (Feb 20, 2006)

Well, I've been hoping for a few years now to have my albino ancistrus breed in their 55G tank. There were 4 males & 2 females (all raised from ~ 1/2" size in that tank & now are fully grown adults). Despite the fact that we see a male guarding a breeding cave regularly, we've never seen babies in that tank. Perhaps the angels that were in the same tank did gobble up the fry, but you'd think one or two would have survived. So.... my hubby decided to move a pair into a smaller tank maybe a month & a half ago- in a 20 long. I wouldn't have put the ancistrus in this tank & my husband didn't ask me (bad boy). I have no idea what the pH is in the 20G, but I'm sure it's decidedly acidic & the ancistrus are supposed to prefer it more neutral.

This tank houses my Betta coccinas & Boraras merah. It also has a bunch of Gammarus & probably all sorts of little tiny food sources- Copepods, microworms, etc... I do not change water much in this tank. It's certainly been _well_ over a year. I tend to top it off w/ rain water because I want to keep the pH down low for the cocinas & the merah since they like it very acidic. I used some peat & leaves to help get it down, too. And I basically just leave it alone. Adding new plants & water from time to time.
_
Well,_ today, hubby calls to inform me that there are at least 10 baby ancistrus hanging on to the side of the tank!  I need to be home today, for various reasons, so I can't see them in person today. But he sent me this pic so I could check them out. He said they were not quite as large as the merah. So, w/ their size & the fact that they are freely swimming, obviously they are not newly hatched. I'm guessing maybe a few weeks to a month. Those 2 didn't waste any time! And I guess this means they are finding enough to eat in there.

Everything I've read about breeding these fish says to keep them in a pH of 6- 8, tank must be well filtered, clean, daily water changes, high oxygen level needed- yada, yada, yada. Obviously that's not true. The smaller tank did the trick. They adjusted to the pH being lower than what they are used to. They didn't have a breeding cave, tho' I have lots of rocks in this tank, so I guess they found something that worked for them. The plants are obviously maintaining good water quality all by themselves & none of my tanks use mechanical filtration. Even tho' this is my one tank that struggles to keep plants growing. I think the Gammarus are steadily devouring the plants, but some do manage to survive. So it's not devoid of plants, but I would not call this tank "well planted".

At any rate, it seems to be working! Yippee!










Marty


----------



## EMc/ (Feb 20, 2006)

There are at least 25 of them.


----------



## EMc/ (Feb 20, 2006)

Good heavens, there's 40 or 50 of them! They are so darn cute!!


----------



## Andy Ritter (Nov 26, 2008)

Congratulations!

I think it is so cool when these little creatures that we keep decide that they are happy enough to breed, and then do so successfully.

Are you going to keep all of them? I know that some of the local fish keepers breed ancistrus and trade them in to the local fish store for credit. My LFS sells small ancistrus for about $9, so if you have 50 of them, even $1 apiece would be nice, but they might even give you more.

Good luck keeping them all alive and well.

Andy


----------



## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Congrats! They're cute little buggers, aren't they?

As to when they hatched, I've found that the male Ancistrus tends to keep the newly-hatched fry in their cave/hideout until they've reached a fair size, at which point he kicks them out to work on the next batch. At a glance, I'd guess those little guys are newly released within the past couple days, but that means they've been hatched for several days before that.  They're also bigger than many other fish when they hatch. 

But, yeah. For every pleco you see initially, there's probably another one hiding somewhere. They're hard to count. 50 is probably about right... they're very prolific. Unfortunately they're also extremely slow-growing, which is why they're usually pricey in stores. Baby angelfish, for instance, reach sellable size in 3mos. or so on a good diet. Baby plecos, on the other hand, sort of loaf around and manage to not grow much for the first two months, then finally start getting around to putting on weight after they reach 4mos. or so. By the time they reach a size where a store will take them, they're probably at least 6mos. old (and often more than that). The earliest I've ever heard of them reaching breeding age is about a year old.


----------

