I dare to
say that all hobby aquarists have one dream fish that they would like to keep,
the one that never seems to become available, perhaps the one that got away
even. For me the dream fish has for a long time been the little riverine loricariid:
Ancistrus claro, Lda008.
This
however changed in January 2016 as Stork Zoo in Gothenburg were able to import
a wild caught group through Austria. I bought nine individuals in total, in
retrospect I regret not buying more but there is no reason to cry over spilled
milk (fish?).
These
fishes are recognized by their small size, flat and wide body shape resembling that
of Chaetostoma as well as their beautiful reticulated patterns, especially in
certain males.
I opted to
try and pick out five females and four males, simply as it’s easier to spot
young males then females. If it turns out that some of the “females” in reality
are males that’s fine too as there should at least be a couple of girls in
there.
The males
were picked out due to traits such as a “fat lip", more bristles and a
stronger reticulated pattern.
These are the four possible males selected:
The females
were a bit trickier to pick out. They were chosen due to traits such as the lack
of a “fat lip", minimum amount of bristles and duller more spotted patterns. Looking
at the photo now afterwards it looks like there could be a small male in there
too, time will tell.
These are
the five possible females selected:
That’s it
for my intial impressions of the Ancistrus claro and selection of individuals. The next post in this series
should include setting up species tanks for these little fishes as well as a follow up on sexing.
