Carnivorous bristlenose

[Donald Kerns]

Greetings,

Tula and Samantha are both (supposed to be) female bristlenose catfish,
they came from the same store, but several weeks apart. To my lay eyes,
they're the same fish...

Samantha does the typical "glom onto and devour" thing when algae wafers
are dropped within convenient range of her hiding spot.

Tula however could take or leave the algae wafers, but is on blood worms
just about as fast as my clown loaches are...

Any clue if this is an individual quirk or is Tula a member of different
one of the number of species that make up ancistrus?

-D
BTW, Have I ever told you how much I HATE taxonomy?
BTW(2) Yes, Tula IS named for the character in "My Big Fat Greek
Wedding."
--
"When you've lost your ability to laugh, you've lost your ability to
think straight." -To Inherit the Wind

[Haywire]

Jen, (or anyone who has spare bristlnose females)

a friend of mine has been trying to get a pair of bristle's together for
over a year now, he's got a bunch of males in both albino and regular
colouration. Would by change have a female or two kicking around that
would put my buddy out of his misery?

dan.

(Jennifer Brooks) wrote in
:

> I breed albino ancistrus, and the females are particularly fond of
> bloodworms, as they need a diet higher in fat and protein for egg
> production. I would suspect one of two reasons for your fishes
> different eating behaviors. Samantha is possibly a young male who
> hasn't yet developed his bristling, or Tula is becoming sexually
> mature before Samantha, and is filling with Roe. Either way, don't
> worry about it, LOL! Also, young bristlenose LOVE bloodworms, and if I
> throw in both worms and algae wafers, the juveniles eat the worms
> first. Totally normal! Jen
>

[Donald Kerns]

Haywire wrote:

> Jen, (or anyone who has spare bristlnose females)
>
> a friend of mine has been trying to get a pair of bristle's together
> for over a year now, he's got a bunch of males in both albino and
> regular
> colouration. Would by change have a female or two kicking around that
> would put my buddy out of his misery?

It may be a bit harder than that...

The "bristlenose catfish" ancistrus is like a dozen species that are
really hard to tell apart. You MAY get a female bristlenose and it be a
different species... :-(.

The best bet would be for him to go back to his original sources...

I've got a 55 out in the garage with a huge built in wet/dry that's
earmarked for ancistrus breeding one of these days...

I just love em...

-Donald
--
"When you've lost your ability to laugh, you've lost your ability to
think straight." -To Inherit the Wind