FuglyDragon

In essence yes. There is debate as to exactly what a species 'common' ancistrus is, they hybridise so easilly that it is almost impossible to come up with a definative identification. They are generally refered to as ancistrus sp(3) The research I did for my web site turned up this... The original amelanistic male (L144) Ancistrus was wild caught in Paraguay; he was bred with a normal female and then the resulting offspring were re-crossed until the defect became ‘fixed’ and all offspring produced from a pair had the defect. There is debate as to exactly which species of ancistrus he was, and which species the female(s) were. However the L144 (GBA) we have in New Zealand are highly unlikely to be 'Pure L144' anymore, thats one of the reasons you often get GBA's with brown patches / blotches on them. They have been hybridised and crossed with 'commons' so often. Its probably more accurate to refer to them as GBA Golden Black Eyed than as L144 As an experiment I bred one of my male GBA's with an albino female and the resulting fry were all 'common' in color, they will however carry a mix of GBA and Albino genes so if they ever bred with fish that have a similar mix of genes then some of the fry will be GBA some common. That is why it is possible to get GBA fry from two seemingly 'common' parents. (I know of at least 2 pairs like this in Christchurch) If anyone with some knowledge of genetics reads this I would love to know how the genetics work. Also should point out that the above is simply my opionion after some research on the net and asking a few quextions at pleco fanatics and planetcatfish. I am in no way an expert on genetics or fish biology, just a keen amature... if anyone has any further or conflicting info Im allways keen to learn more.

GBA = Golden Black Eyed Ancistrus = L144 which is a genetic mutation (amelanistic = lacking dark pigment) of a common Ancistrus that breeds true if both parents have the gene. Golden Ancistrus is an albino common ancistrus, another genentic mutation from a common ancistrus. It also breeds true if both parents have the gene. If the parents are mixed or not pure you get a mixture of young, most brown colored 'commons'. While both mutations do happen naturally both these fish have been effectively inbred by aquarists to produce true breeding strains and do not exist 'in the wild'.

Mine is labelled LoTuS Agar Agar Powder 75g Bag cost me $19.90 Was purchased from Naturia 2000 Health Shop in Avonhead Mall, from memory they ordered it in for me.

I got mine from a health food shop here in Christchurch. Dont remember the name sorry. The health shop in Avonhead mall dosnt hold it in stock but can order it in too, its also where I get my spirulina powder

I have some PMDD made up if you want to try it. Pale leaves is usually lack of iron or pottasium. email me [email protected] if you want to try some PMDD

I actually find having 2 males keeps the dominant one 'on top of his game'. I have also noticed that when 2 males are present they seem to develop better bristle growth. Sometimes 2 females is ok, sometimes the females fight non stop. Just make sure there are plenty of caves to go around.

Do you notice your clown loaches make an audible clicking noise when freeding on the Courgette ? I grow my own courgettes too, only way to be sure they are free of pestacides etc. a tip. Get yourself some agar (its like a vegetable jello made from seaweed) mash up excess courgette (and I add a few mashed boiled peas and powdered spirulina) and make yourself some flat sheets of courgette jello which you can freeze and feed to your fish over the winter, just break chunks off as required. Much better than freezing the courgette which just go to mush as soon as they thaw in the water. I have also been getting good results from feeding my BN/GBA and Goldens Kale leaves, Kale is like a cabbage, easy to grow in your garden beside your courgettes, whiptails seem to like it too.

I have snail traps available for $20 http://mikesaquatics.co.nz/shopdisplayp ... =yes&bc=no They work well. Putting any form of bottom food on a clear patch of gravel (courgette, sinking discs, lettuce etc) then syphoning out the gathering snails every 30 mins or so (after lights out of course) also works well. Best snail control I know of are botia loaches though they do an excellent job in my stock / breeding tanks. I keep them in groups of 4 - 6 and just cycle them through the tanks every couple of weeks.

Im handle my plecs all the time, they get rather tame after a while. I never use a net to catch them as they inevitably get their cheek spines (Interopercular Odontodes to use the correct term) tangled up in the mesh. The ultimate solution is just to drain out most of the water and then pick them up from the bottom of the tank.

I have some small Lancelota Whiptails (Crocodile Whips) about 1.5 - 2 inches long PM me if interested

Nice Pics. Remember these guys prefer a high oxygen content, be careful when keeping them in planted Discus tanks that your O2 levels arnt getting low (especially in the mornings) To see them at their best try a highly oxygenated 'river type' tank, they behave totally differently.

Hi all, I am the 'MikeFish' mentioned above. Have the sink pumps back in stock and I do have metal adaptors available if needed. As for a water change system... My tanks run on a sump system with a low pressure ballcock on each sump. A header tank supplies water to each sump via the ballcock to maintain water level. I simply have an outflow from each rack that runs to a holding tank, to do a water change I just open the outflow a little and the water running out is replaced via the ballcock, as long as I keep the flow rate low there is no great temperature drop. I then pump the nitrate rich water from the holding tank out to the garden...

My wife refers to mine as my fish porn book. I don't have any second edition left, but I do have 1st edition, + supplements which amounts to the same content but spread over 3 books if anyone is interested PM me. But a warning in advance, owning an All L-Numbers will put a dent in your pocket as you start making lists of fish you just have to get...

got any of those females left ? I have a single male keen to get a female.

I found out the hard way that the whole 'white belly' thing is very misleading. I asked my LFS guy to get me a couple of L260 from the importer that had white bellies and small or no odontodes when they arrived it all looked very promising , but a year later I'm fairly convinced both are males. I have one smaller fish (from 2, lost one) from the recent shipment but its too small / young to tell. Although I notice it is behaving very much like a male, has its own cave, dosnt come out much. So between just us three we have 8 males and a couple of maybe's whats then odds of that then ???

more pics As you can see dots extend onto dorsal and all other fins but not tail. Neither Dorsal or Tail has white band but tail does have white points. Spots cover belly too

Anyone out there trying to breed these guys have any extra females ? I am now fairly sure that all 4 of mine are males So its unlikely I am going to have much success spawning them at the moment. I have one smaller juvinille that may turn out to be female, but he / she is at least a year away from being mature. Conversely if anyone needs a male if have some spares If you are wondering how to tell male from female look at the cheeks, if it has longish interopercular odontodes 'spiny whiskers' then its male.

Anyone care to guess which this one is ? She is looking a bit stressed cause some nasty person just chased her around her tank witha net then dumped her in a small photo tank. L182 ? L213 ? No white bar on rear of tail or dorsal fin

Thanks all for input so far. Blue, you know me as MikeFish on trademe. If people have written articles or made detailed posts re particular fish i could certainly add the links to my list if they are ok with it. I plan to post the full list to my web site. Cheers FuglyDragon / MikeFish Mike from Christchurch

I should have pointed out that the foam filters arnt so much for filtration as to provide a 'grazing' suface for the fry, all the particles of food get drawn to the filter foam and the fry feed on the surface. the pic above shows fry deeding on a filter foam over the tank outflow, i also have 3 or 4 running in the tank as well (as many as I have air available to run)

GBA or L144 is a result of a genetic defect known as Amelanism. It is basically the same principal as an albino defect but is a lack of dark pigment (as opposed to a lack of all pigments in albinoism). Albino - lacking all pigment Melanistic - Excess Dark pigments Amelanistic - Lacking Dark Pigments Melanism / Amelanism happens in many differnt species, cats, snakes, pheasants and fish just like albinoism does. Some species are far more prone to it than others, as far as I can discover its realitively rare in fish but quite common in cats, birds and some reptiles. As it is a genetic defect it is passed from parent to offspring using the usual laws of genetics.

After many many attempts this is what works for me... Move the eggs (cave and all) to a small hatching tank and place an airstone so the bubble flow is over the eggs. have several foam filters running in the hatching tank, plus a strong air stone and have it full of java moss, also some dither fish, I usually use baby BN cats or baby cory cats. After hatching begin feeding powdered spirulina algae (bought from local health shop), lots of it, enough to dye the tank water dark green twice daily After a few days add micro worms daily after 1 week start adding powdered flake to the spirulina mix with a little water untill it forms a paste and add dollops of paste (continue with the powder too) I also add mushed up boiled peas once or twice a week (add water and mush till its green liquid) I also DONT CLEAN OR SYPHON the tank at all, but it is part of a large tank rack, so the water turn over is enough to avoid nitrate build up. there is generally a 2 - 3 cm deep layer of scunge on the bottom of the tank after 2 - 3 weeks. Bad fish keeping, but it seems to work. Good luck

Hi to all other pleco fanatics out there. I am compiling a list of all loricariidae cats that have been captive bred in New Zealand. So far I have the following... Bristle Nose Ancistrus Ancistrus sp3. Golden Black Eye L144 Ancistrus sp Golden Ancistrus Ancistrus sp3 - albino Golden/GBA Hybrid Ancistrus sp Hybrid Ancistrus Claro LDA08 Ancistrus claro Ancistrus Punctatus L182 Ancistrus punctatus Snowflake Pleco L059 Ancistrus sp. Crocodile Whiptail Rineloricaria lancelota Red Lizard Whiptail L10a Rineloricaria sp Royal Whiptails Sturmisoma Brown Tiger Whiptails Twig Catfish Farlowella sp. LG6 Loricariinae sp. (1) - Unconfirmed Iquitos Tiger Pleco L226 Panaque changae Clown Pleco L104 Panaque maccus Zebra L046 Hypancistrus zebra Choch Zebra L270 Hypancistrus sp. Survival of fry unconfimed Butterfly Pleco L052 Dekeyseria sp. Anyone bred anything else that I can add to my list ? Has anyone had a spawn from the L260 (Queen Arabesque) that came into the country a couple of years back ? I have heard reports of Ottocinculous being bred here too but can't track down any conformation, has anyone on these forums had a successful otto spawn ? Can anyone confirm that Zebra's were actually spawned in NZ ? The only report I can find dates back to 2000 anyone spawned them since then ? Thanks in advance for your input. Updated 10/09/2007