Catfish ancistrus: reproduction, care tips and description with photo

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 12:45

Ancistrus - aquarium cleaner. He leads a secretive life. Lives at the bottom, hides in shelters. Fishing is almost impossible. Aquarium catfish ancistrus is not a decoration of an aquarium, but its necessity. Read the article for all the details.

Origin

Ancistrus is native to South America. Fish are able to survive both in flowing rivers and in stagnant reservoirs. For her, the presence of shelters and plant food is essential. To everything else, catfish ancistrus (in the photo is ordinary, the most common) easily adapts.

Appearance

Ancistrus does not shine with special beauty. As a rule, its main color is brown with spots all over the body. Males have small horns on their heads. "Male" catfish are much larger than females.

The body of the fish is elongated, and the head and front are flattened. The entire body, except for the belly, is covered with bone plates.

Large sucker mouth helps fish cleanaquarium from dirt. There are many horn-shaped scrapers in the mouth. Ancistrus sticks to the glass, cleaning off the green coating from it. Also eats vegetation at the bottom of the aquarium.

Has a large dorsal fin. Its shape is flag-like, and fish, for some reason, often presses it to the body. The rest of the fins are quite wide.

Ancistrus is a small catfish. Its dimensions barely reach 15 centimeters. In the aquarium, Ancistrus catfish are not noticeable at all.

Lifespan

Cleaner fish live for about 6-8 years. Although there are times when an underwater inhabitant reaches the age of ten. This is rare.

Contents

What is needed to keep ancistrus catfish? First of all, the aquarium is medium in size. A couple of fish need a 100-liter container. Although the catfish is small, it is very mobile. He needs a lot of free space.

For successful breeding of ancistrus catfish you will need:

1. Good filter. If the volume of the aquarium varies from 100 to 300 liters, you can purchase an internal filter. If the capacity is more than 300 liters, choose external.

2. Heater. You can't do without it in an aquarium. A heater is necessary not only for catfish, but also for other aquatic inhabitants.
3. The thermometer. The cleaner requires a temperature regime. Comfortable conditions for him are from 23 to 26 degrees.
4. Sand bottom. Catfish love to burrow into the sand. And if the bottom is stone, the fish may get hurt.
5. Shelter. To theminclude snags, various caves and grottoes. Very often, a shelter made of coconut is placed in an aquarium with ancistrus. It has a comfortable shape, the fish can easily fit there, and there are no fears that the catfish will get stuck in the shelter when it swims out of it or swims in.
6. Plants with strong roots. Keep in mind, ancistrus can undermine plants. Therefore, it is preferable to plant them directly in pots. Less chance of landing being affected.
7. Take care of the food with spirulina. Our catfish are vegetarians, mostly. They need protein food only when it comes to breeding ancistrus catfish. On other days, he eats special dry food, which is available in the form of tablets.

Care

How to care for these aquarium inhabitants? Any serious care for the inhabitants of the bottom is not required. Regular water changes in the aquarium, soil cleaning and proper feeding. That's the whole care.

What is meant by a water change? Once a week, 30% of the water of the total volume of the aquarium is replaced. So, if the container is designed for 100 liters, then you need to replace 30-35 of them.

How is it done? The displacement required for the replacement is settled for three days. Or cleaned with a special conditioner. If the latter option is chosen, then you need to know: after applying the conditioner, water can be added to the aquarium after two hours.

Dirty water is removed from the tank. This is done with a siphon or hose. Be sure to clean the bottom with a siphon. This will help to remove the remains of food and fish excrement. Although the food is usually eaten by ancistrus.

After cleaning the bottom, fresh water is added to the aquarium. It's that simple. And when performing these simple manipulations, you will not need to pay special attention to the reproduction of ancistrus catfish.

Feeding

What and how to feed the underwater inhabitant? The fish is quite shy and slow. It is necessary to feed it with food in the form of tablets, as mentioned above. This spirulina-based food sinks straight to the bottom and is very well consumed by catfish.

Lettuce leaves, zucchini rings are used as additional plant food. Ancistrus eat them with pleasure. Slices of fresh cucumber are also suitable for top dressing.

Food is given twice a day, morning and evening. It is necessary to make sure that it reaches the ancistrus, and does not get caught by the rest of the fish. Tablets for catfish are now available, which are attached to the aquarium glass. And sticky catfish just sucks on them.

Ancistrus needs a substance like legnin. It helps food to be digested faster. In order for the fish to receive this substance, put a natural snag in the aquarium. The catfish will scrape wood from it in the amount necessary for the body, thereby satisfying its need for legnin.

Compatibility

Our underwater inhabitant gets along well with all peaceful fish. He is calm, not aggressive towards other types of aquarium inhabitants. Sitting in hidinggetting out of it to eat and do his job as a cleaner.

Ancistrus is not planted with predatory fish. Cichlids will instantly eat it and not choke.

Incompatible catfish with goldfish. He sticks to the belly of the latter, and eats their protective mucus. Why golden fish die.

Reproduction

Is it possible to breed ancistrus catfish in a common aquarium? Quite, and with enough hiding places, the owner may not notice that the fish have decided to become parents.

How does the process of reproduction occur in aquarium catfish-ancistrus? It all starts with a few females and one or two males. How to distinguish them from "girlfriends", it was said above. For all their peacefulness towards other fish, males fight very aggressively among themselves for territory. And if one of them is preparing to become a father by guarding the caviar, the rest will try to feast on it.

By the way, in order to stimulate the appearance of offspring, it is necessary to introduce frozen natural food into the diet of ancistrus. These are bloodworms or coretra. Catfish safely refuse other types of food. Cut off a small piece from the frozen "square", defrost and throw into the aquarium. Just make sure that the fish eat the treat themselves, do not share it with other aquarium residents.

Ancistrus aquarium catfish clean out their hiding place before breeding. The male fusses around him, carefully nibbling on what can be eaten. After cleaningfinished, our "groom" begins to beat with his tail, calling for the female. She inspects the shelter and decides whether to lay eggs here or the dwelling is not sufficiently cleaned. If the young lady is satisfied with the cleanliness of the "maternity hospital", she immediately lays eggs. Ancistrus eggs are bright orange, very large, and hang in a bunch.

Mother's mission completed. Again, the male takes over. He drives the female away, and he himself begins to guard the eggs. If one of the fish tries to encroach on future offspring, then the enraged "father" will give them a tough rebuff.

This continues for 7-10 days, until fry appear from the eggs. After the fry swim for the first time on their own, dad loses interest in children.

Breeding in spawning grounds

For those who wish to observe the breeding of ancistrus catfish in an aquarium, we recommend that you equip a separate spawning ground for them.

How is it done? We buy a separate aquarium, 30 liters. We build it in the same way as the everyday one. That is, we install a filter, a heater, lay the ground. Plants can not be planted, but shelters are required. In them, as we said above, the female lays eggs.

We remove the male and his girlfriend. After she lays her eggs, we return the lady to the general aquarium. She has fulfilled her mission and no further childcare intervention is required.

We leave the male in the spawning area. We feed him properly. We make sure that "daddy" does not lack nutrition. 10 days afterafter the fry were born and swam, we return the male to the general aquarium. We do not touch the "newborns", they gradually get stronger and develop in the spawning ground.

How to feed babies

When the fry are just hatched, they are motionless for a while. And they feed on what they have accumulated during maturation. Namely - the reserves of the yolk bladder. Once the fry have depleted their reserves, they begin to swim in search of food.

When considering the topic of reproduction of ancistrus catfish in an aquarium or in a spawning ground, you should definitely touch on the topic of feeding fry.

In the early days, they can be given special food designed for fry. It is very, very small, reminiscent of dust. If possible, feed ground infusoria or spirulina. Our catfish are lovers of plant foods, do not forget about it.

What else can you offer fry? Aquarists experienced in Ancistrus breeding recommend the following dietary options:

• Leaves of lettuce, previously scalded with boiling water. Give crushed, twice a week.
• Small bloodworm - three times a week.
• The fry are fed "circles" of fresh cucumber once a week.
• The presence of driftwood in the aquarium, which the baby gnaws, is simply necessary.

This is interesting

Watching the reproduction of ancistrus catfish, you can learn a lot of interesting things about the features of these fish. Interesting facts related to this topic are told by experiencedaquarists. For example, the female chooses her "husband" according to the length of his antennae on the muzzle. No matter how strange it may sound, it has been proven that males among ancistrus with long whiskers imitate the presence of larvae and juveniles. The longer the mustache, the better "father" is the male in the eyes of the future "wife".

And a little more of the interesting. When planting Ancistrus catfish in an aquarium with numerous plants, you must be prepared for the fact that he will try to gnaw them. A hungry catfish is a destroyer of all vegetation, so you need to feed it to its fullest.

Finishing

We found out how catfish-ancistrus reproduces. This is a rather unpretentious aquarium inhabitant. To stimulate him to have offspring, you need to properly feed. Catfish will do the rest on their own, without the intervention of their owner.