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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

L144 & ancistrius Dolich breeding?

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24 Nov 2009 19:53 #1 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Was just looking at one of the tanks tonight and noticed what appears to have been a small fry zip by! Now I belive what has happened is the L144 has cross bred with an ancistrius dolich! The L144 has been hiding out in a coconut shell for the past 2 weeks or so and this makes sense now that there are fry in there but Im not going to move anything now so as to not distrub it. I only saw the one, so I presume there are more. Im surprised they have breed, it was very small. Im presuming in fact that they have crossbred and that it isnt the kulhi loaches. I tried to have a peek at it and it did appear to be like an ancistrius but was hard to see as it zipped away into the bogwood!
I'll try having another look later on tonight when the lights are off as they may be more inclined to come out of hiding.

Im also over ran by snails. I need to set up some type of a trap for them, I dont have room for clown loach to help out so will put some lettuce into the tank and try and trap them.

Gavin

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24 Nov 2009 21:08 - 24 Nov 2009 21:12 #2 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Not a big surprise that they would breed, they are all Ancistrus, though I would be interested in which species the non-L144 is as there are several different Ancistrus described as dolichopterus, some of which are black waster fish requiring low pH and are very tricky to raise.

At the risk a getting hit on the back of the head with a hammer, the fry will be hybrids, shock horror.

Ancistrus fry are huge compared ot most fish fry, if they have just hatched they will have a big egg sack that lasts about 10 days and by the time that is absorded they are at least half an inch, so I think it would be hard to confuse them for Khuli loaches. Are you sure they are ancistrus fry? Here are a few of mine taken some time ago.



Daragh
Last edit: 24 Nov 2009 21:12 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens).

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24 Nov 2009 21:46 #3 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
No they are ancistrius fry alright, again I only saw it whizzing past my eyes so was hard to see but since my first post Ive had a proper look in the tank and can see one or two hiding in the coconut shell with the L144 so they are ancistrius fry and not Kulhi loaches. I have an Angelfish in the tank so Im afraid of him eating them but they might be ok as Im keeping the tank well fed from here on in as I know the fry struggle for food sometimes, despite that there is a small hole in the coconut shell which Ive dropped some food into, the L144 was certainly appreciative of it anyhow!!
I hope they survive, not sure how many there are, I agree they are large for fry and quick too! I'll get the torch out later and see if I can spot them in the dark!

Gavin

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24 Nov 2009 23:01 #4 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Got the torch out and there are about a dozen from what i can see inside the coconut shell, the L144 (presumably male as they take mind the fry) is guarding the front of the shell and letting nothing in or out.Ive dropped some food into the shell for them to get at and the L144 also.
Gavin

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26 Nov 2009 12:21 #5 by derek (Derek Doyle)
is it possible that the parent fish is an albino ancistris rather than l144. i have seen both for sale and they are quite similar. i suppose the eyes would be the key id indicator.
anyway, just a thought.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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26 Nov 2009 12:48 #6 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Derek, that is possible or more likely the L144 is not a true L144, I don't know if there are any L144 this side of the Atlantic. The "L144" are more likely to be xanthochromistic bristlenose, excess yellow pigmentation, a condition like albinoism but with yellow. The black eyes are not a 100% sign that they are L144 unfortunately.

There are now orange bristlenose available, also sold under the L144 name.

Daragh

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26 Nov 2009 18:25 #7 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
The thought crossed my mind of that alright, I purchased it as an L144 but again there is no guarantee its a true L number. The eyes would certainly suggest its an L144 but as you say cant be certain from that either. Today the male has partially left the cave and the fry are not as active as they were the last few days so I will be keeping a close eye on them and cut some bloodworm up for them.

Gavin

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27 Nov 2009 01:35 #8 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
The fry would prefer catfish tabs, any make, like Tabimin or Pleco Variety etc. They might also eat some cucumber.

Daragh

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23 Apr 2010 22:21 #9 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
What was the outcome, did the fry survive and did that give any idea to who the parents were?

Daragh

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23 Apr 2010 22:51 - 23 Apr 2010 22:51 #10 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
The parents were 100% the L144 and what appeared to be a dolich however I must say I dont think the other one is a dolich (I was mis sold it and never really checked it out but clearly it is not a dolich). But it is an ancistrius so safe to say that its in the same family as such.
I didnt try to grow them on,typically they bred alot of times since,all make it out to about 3 weeks,hide during the day under stones,bogwood and the like,when night comes they are all over the tank esp on the glass. Ive fed them as bottom feeders at night but I suspect they die eventually due to lack of food, as I have alot of other bottom feeders,I am considering removing some the next time they breed and will attempt to catch a few and perhaps put them into another tank and see how they get on.

Gavin
Last edit: 23 Apr 2010 22:51 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner).

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24 Apr 2010 12:46 #11 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Thanks for the update, ou should try and keep some of the youngsters alive next time and see what they turn out as, you may get a mix or have to wait until you breed from them to se what's going on.

Young ancistrus are fairly hardly but the young of some of the ancistrus varieties are very fussy about water quality and food, so they might do better in a small well filtered tank of their own. Some are also very sensitive to pH over 7.0, but it depends on variety, however as there are so many similar looking ancistrus and crosses it is virtually impossible to accurately identify them, so these are just things that you can try to improve survival rate.


Daragh

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25 Apr 2010 08:22 #12 by Denis (Denis Goulding)
Ur right Daragh there are so many crosses and different variety's that it is hard to know hwether they are true L-144 or not. I picked up 4 different various coloured/finage ones lately, but will only know when thwy mature.
This is not a bad site.........www.bristlenoseworld.com/forum.htm.
Nice guys on there and easy to talk to.
Well i will have to wait months to find out what mine are and even then i will never be sure.
Regards.
Denis

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