Ancistrus claro, Lda008 part 1: selecting fish

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:

The fishes now reside in the 375 litre community tank pictured below. I had nothing prepared for them at the time so it had to do as a temporary accommondation. The community tank does however suit the species quite well in that it is furnished with lots of pebbles, rocks and roots and has a moderately strong current.

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.