Ancistrus feeding

C

CBWMN

AC Members
Oct 11, 2007
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El Paso, TX

I have 2 LF ABN about 3” long uncluding tail. When I try to feed them
sinking pellets, my angels beat them to it. I’ve tried zucchini, cucumbers, etc.
but have yet to see them eat anything but driftwwood and algae. Is that enough
nourishment?
Also, they are 9 months old now. When do the “whiskers” start to develope?
I’m beginning to think that I have 2 females.

Thank you
Charles
 
Have you tried dropping in the food after lights out? Mine feed predominantly after lights out, so its possible yours are eating then. Do they have nice round bellies? If so, I would not be too concerned.
 
Yes, I've dropped pellets in after "lights out".
They do seem healthy. The angels eat so much dthat I think
they are part swine.

Charles
 
Try some romaine lettuce leaves. My ancistrus seem to go for that more than the zucchini. I have those veggie clips and clip a leaf in there and leave it in somewhere between 24-48 hours. As it breaks down it's not as messy on the filter as the zucchini. They only like the dark outer leaves though. But they really eat it up! Then also as you've been doing, a few times a week drop pleco pellets or algae pellets in right after lights out. But the room has to be dark too! Even with just a TV light in the room, there's a ton of "swine" fish that can see good enough to eat! Even better, place them near the driftwood where it's not so easy for your "swine" fish to get to. Haha, I have swine fish too....but they're not angels! At 9 months I would think you should see some bristle nubs if you had males. The other thing, especially with the albinos, you should see a red triangular section on the males head. At this point you would see that and the females don't show that.
 
One thing I've learned from keeping these guys is that BN's rarely starve. If you have a few plants and a bit of algae in your tank, they have food. Be sure to leave them some driftwood too; it helps with digestion. Wafers are a nice bonus, and if they're hungry, they'll go after it. I have seen BN's chase off angels, kribs, rams and other fish for their algae wafer if they were hungry.

As for gender, it depends on what species of Ancistrus you've got there. Gender dimorphism and age of maturity vary between the species a bit from what I remember. With some kinds, females get small trailing bristles around their nose, which is a sure ID if you've got one of those sort. planetcatfish.com's "Cat-eLog" is a life saver for this sort of thing.
 
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