Ancistrus fish

Contents

Description of Ancistrus fish
Types and breeds of Ancistrus fish
Ancistrus fish compatibility with other fish
Keeping ancistrus fish in an aquarium
Ancistrus fish care
Reproduction of ancistrus fish at home
Popular questions and answers

To paraphrase the classics, we can say that “catfish are not a luxury, but a means of cleaning an aquarium.” Ancistrus catfish combine both amazing exoticism and the talent of a living “vacuum cleaner”

Name	Ancistrus, sticky catfish (Ancistrus dolichopterus)
family	Locarium (mail) catfish
Origin	South America
Food	Omnivorous
Reproduction	Spawning
Length	Males and females – up to 15 cm
Content Difficulty	For beginners

Description of Ancistrus fish

Keeping fish in a confined space in an aquarium is always associated with the problem of water purification. This can be compared to finding people in a cramped room – if there is not ventilated and cleaned at least from time to time, sooner or later people will suffocate or get sick.

Of course, first of all, you just need to change the water, but there are also natural cleaners who collect debris that settles on the bottom, and thereby keep the aquarium clean. And the real leaders in this matter are catfish – bottom fish, which can be called real “vacuum cleaners”. And catfish-ancistrus went even further in this matter – they clean not only the bottom, but also the walls of the aquarium. The shape of their body is maximally adapted to the task of cleaning the bottom – unlike fish swimming in the water column, their body is not flattened from the sides, but has the shape of an iron: a flat wide belly and steep sides. In cross section, their body has the shape of a triangle or semicircle.

These cute creatures are native to the rivers of South America, but they have long and firmly established themselves in most aquariums in the world. At the same time, catfish do not differ in beauty or multicolor, although they attract many aquarists, firstly, by the benefits they bring, secondly, by their unpretentiousness, and thirdly, by their unusual appearance.

Ancistrus or catfish-sticks (1) (Ancistrus) – fish of their family Locariidae (Loricariidae) or chain catfish. They look like polka-dot irons up to 15 cm long. As a rule, they have a dark color with partial white speckles, a characteristic mustache or outgrowths on the muzzle, and the most unusual feature of their appearance is a sucker mouth, with which they easily collect food from the bottom and scrape microscopic algae from the walls of the aquarium, and in their natural habitat they are also held in place in fast-flowing rivers. The entire body of catfish is covered with sufficiently strong plates resembling protective armor that protect them from accidental injuries, for which they received the second name “chain catfish”.

All this makes the Ancistrus catfish one of the most popular aquarium fish.

Types and breeds of Ancistrus fish

Only one species of these catfish is grown in aquariums – Ancistrus vulgaris (Ancistrus dolichopterus). Even novice fish lovers start it. Gray and inconspicuous, it looks a bit like a mouse, but aquarists fell in love with it, perhaps more than all their other brethren, for its exceptional unpretentiousness and diligence.

Breeders have also worked on these nondescript cleaners, so today several breeds of ancistrus have already been bred, which differ in color and appearance, but still have a number of common features. For example, these are wide, horizontally arranged fins that look more like the wings of a small airplane.

Ancistrus red – small representatives of the sucker catfish company, the color of which compares favorably with others with bright orange-buff tones, unlike their counterparts, it leads a predominantly diurnal lifestyle, is the fruit of selection and can easily interbreed with ancstrus of other breeds;
Ancistrus golden – similar to the previous one, but its color is golden yellow without any spots, it is essentially an albino, that is, an ordinary catfish that has lost its dark color, a very popular breed among aquarists, however, in the wild, such “goldfish” are unlikely would have survived;
Ancistrus stellate – a very beautiful catfish, which is not spoiled even by numerous outgrowths on its head, white speckled snowflakes are densely scattered over the dark background of its body, giving the fish a very elegant look (by the way, with antennae outgrowths you need to be very careful when catching fish with a net – they can easily get tangled in the net.

Ancistrus perfectly interbreed with each other, they can be found in a variety of and even unusual colors: marbled, beige with dark polka dots, beige with stains and others (2).

Ancistrus fish compatibility with other fish

Since Ancistrus are predominantly bottom-dwelling, they practically do not intersect with other inhabitants of the aquarium, so they can get along with almost any fish. Of course, you should not settle them with aggressive predators that can bite peaceful catfish, however, this rarely happens, because ancistrus is protected by their powerful bone shell, which not every fish can bite through.

Keeping ancistrus fish in an aquarium

Despite the peculiar appearance and sometimes plain coloring, any aquarist should have at least one sticky catfish, because he will conscientiously clean the walls of the aquarium from green plaque and eat up everything that the rest of the fish did not have time to swallow. Moreover, this small but tireless living “vacuum cleaner” works not only during the day, but also at night.

Ancistrus fish care

Since catfish are extremely unpretentious creatures, care for them is minimal: change the water in the aquarium once a week, set aeration, and it is advisable to put a wooden snag on the bottom (you can buy it at any pet store, but it’s better to put it brought from the forest) – ancistrus are very fond of cellulose and eat wood with pleasure.

Aquarium volume

In the literature, one can find statements that ancistrus require an aquarium of at least 100 liters. Most likely, here we are talking about large thoroughbred catfish. But ancistrus ordinary or red, whose size is quite modest, can be content with small containers.

Of course, you should not plant a whole flock in an aquarium with a capacity of 20 liters, but one catfish will survive there (with regular and frequent water changes, of course). But, of course, in a larger volume, he will feel much better.

Water temperature

Despite the fact that Ancistrus catfish come from warm South American rivers, they calmly tolerate a decrease in water temperature in the aquarium to 20 ° C. Of course, this does not mean that they need to be constantly kept in cold water, but if it is cold in your apartment during the off-season and the water has cooled down, it is not necessary to urgently buy a heater for the sake of ancistrus. They are quite capable of waiting out adverse conditions, but, of course, it is not worth constantly “freezing” them.

What to feed

Being orderlies and, one might say, aquarium cleaners, ancistrus are omnivores. These are unpretentious creatures that will eat everything that the rest of the fish have not eaten. “Vacuuming” the bottom, they will pick up the flakes of food that were inadvertently missed, and sticking with the help of a sucker mouth to the glass walls, they will collect all the green plaque that was formed there under the action of light. And know that ancistrus will never let you down, so you can safely trust them to clean the aquarium in between cleanings.

There are special foods directly for bottom fish, but unpretentious catfish are ready to be content with what gets into the water as lunch for the rest of the aquarium’s abodes.

Reproduction of ancistrus fish at home

If it is very difficult for some fish to determine the sex, then this problem does not arise with catfish. Cavaliers can be distinguished from ladies by the presence of a mustache, or rather, numerous outgrowths on the muzzle, which give these fish a very exotic and even somewhat alien look.

These fish breed easily and willingly, but their bright yellow caviar often becomes the prey of other fish. So, if you want to get offspring from a couple of ancistrus, it is better to transplant them into a spawning aquarium with aeration and a filter in advance. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that the female only lays eggs, and the male takes care of the offspring, so his presence near the masonry is more important.

If it is not possible to plant catfish, then provide them with reliable shelters in the main aquarium. They especially like tubes in which you can hide from other fish. And it is in them that ancistrus often breed offspring. Each clutch usually contains from 30 to 200 bright golden eggs (3).