Shadow_Arbor Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 I've been breeding Super Red LF Ancistrus for years now and about a year ago I discovered someone who managed to get Snow Whites into the country. I purchased an adult male and female the refused to breed until now. Probably a combination of weather change and maturity. Here are some pics! Video of eggs: Female Male enjoying my DIY dry Ancistrus food 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Those. Are. Beautiful. Any picture of the fry/eggs? Love them ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsfoxtail Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Wow! Stunning plecos! I was unaware of a true snow white variant; they look unreal! Looking forward to pics of the eggs/wigglers if/when you post them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 On 10/25/2022 at 10:50 AM, itsfoxtail said: Wow! Stunning plecos! I was unaware of a true snow white variant; they look unreal! Looking forward to pics of the eggs/wigglers if/when you post them! Why are you the “Conqueror of Duckweed”? On 10/24/2022 at 9:16 PM, Shadow_Arbor said: I've been breeding Super Red LF Ancistrus for years now and about a year ago I discovered someone who managed to get Snow Whites into the country. I purchased an adult male and female the refused to breed until now. Probably a combination of weather change and maturity. Here are some pics! Video of eggs: Female Male enjoying my DIY dry Ancistrus food I just found some for sale at Aquahaus Gaus in Germany 🥳🥳🥳🥳. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaHobbyist123 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 I was thinking about getting some because I found Several sources online, but they are expensive fish. Absolutely Stunning. Post pics of fry if you can! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsfoxtail Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 On 10/25/2022 at 4:05 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: Why are you the “Conqueror of Duckweed”? I just found some for sale at Aquahaus Gaus in Germany 🥳🥳🥳🥳. Why? Just a joke because I have multiple times through sheer force of will eradicated duckweed from my absolutely infested tanks by picking them out one at a time. I will not be defeated. The clutch looks to be a good size! I cannot WAIT to see wigglers! Also what do you make your DIY food out of, if you don't mind me asking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 On 10/29/2022 at 10:04 AM, itsfoxtail said: Also what do you make your DIY food out of, if you don't mind me asking? What DIY food?!? I’ve only ever tried to do algae tabs for my plecos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 Congrats! It's been a minute! Hopefully you'll be overrun with free swimming fry before long. Are you going to pull the eggs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsfoxtail Posted November 4, 2022 Share Posted November 4, 2022 (edited) On 10/29/2022 at 3:06 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: What DIY food?!? I’ve only ever tried to do algae tabs for my plecos. Just realized I'm an idiot and didn't quote the other post before asking my other questions; it was in response to OP's caption of DIY Ancistrus food. Sorry for the confusion. 🙃 Edited November 4, 2022 by itsfoxtail 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 @Shadow_Arborcan you walk us through your setup? Caves number and type? Tankmates? pH and temp? I’ve nearly pulled the trigger on the snow whites a number of times and ended up going with L181 and Wabenmusters. Still have an itch to have a 3rd colony. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_Arbor Posted November 8, 2022 Author Share Posted November 8, 2022 On 11/8/2022 at 9:26 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said: @Shadow_Arborcan you walk us through your setup? Caves number and type? Tankmates? pH and temp? I’ve nearly pulled the trigger on the snow whites a number of times and ended up going with L181 and Wabenmusters. Still have an itch to have a 3rd colony. Definitely, I will gladly update this weekend with more info and more pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_Arbor Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 Sorry for the month long wait @Beardedbillygoat1975 , I've been busy with my Biology BSc. So here's a breakdown of my Ancistrus sp. breeding setups in general, and the snow white's in particular. Aquarium dimensions: L 45, H 40, W 34 (cm). 60 liters total. I run an Eheim liberty 130 HOB on each tank filled with biological media and filter floss. Substrates is Dennerle's scapers soil. I use planted tank substrates as I have better success growing plants in them long term and they're softer than most gravels and sands available to me. All Ancistrus aquariums are more successful with driftwood in my experience. Most likely because of the wood fibre (lignin) that is ingested as a byproduct of biofilm grazing by Ancistrus sp. but this is my own private theory. This aquarium has a large chunk of spider wood. I have 3 caves of varying sizes spaced out in the aquarium. My male is young, currently he's using the smallest of the caves, but if he rivals the size of my super red male, he'll grow too large to use it eventually. Plants consist of anubias (pinto, gold, petit), other aquatic epiphytes. As well as Echinodorus (red rubin and tenelus), and a bunch of Cryptocoryne sp. Parameters & Maintenance: GH\KH 16 - 18 dGH These tanks are at my parents house, which is supplied with water from local drilled wells. In the winter the water softens a bit because our winter is the rainy season. My tap water is pretty clean. It's very hard but has a relatively low TDS (300ppm) in comparison to the hardness. This only indicates that I have little fluoride, chlorine, and other unwanted solutes. pH 7.5-8.0 I keep my tanks around 22-24 degrees Celsius during winter so growth rate is a bit slower, but I'd rather use undersized 25 watt heaters to reduce the chance of a tank cooking. 80% water changes are performed weekly or bi-weekly (depending on how busy my studying is). I bypass my RO membrane so that I can fill the tank with filtered water directly from the tap. The water passes through a sediment filter and two carbon blocks. Food: I will eventually write an in depth post on how I make all my DIY dry foods @itsfoxtail. In short, I use a bunch of powdered dry ingredients (Spirulina, BSFL, Krill, Moringa, Bee pollen, etc.) with some egg and a tiny bit of flour. I dry the dough, after putting it through a pasta maker, with a food dehydrator. The amounts and how to calculate the exact and final composition I'll leave for a future post. Inhabitants: Other than the breeding pair and their offspring I keep an assortment of other fish in my breeding tanks that are set up in this "natural" manner: Cherry barbs - mosquito prevention, pretty, fun to breed, mouth too small to hurt Ancistrus offspring. Neocaradina - make money, help keep the substrate and plants clean, help breakdown fish waste into detritus that the filter can pick up or that can be broken down by bacteria in the substrate. Khuli loaches - Unlike the other fish, I only have these in my Super Red tank because I haven't gotten any for the Snow Whites yet. I keep them in groups of three as planaria elimination. One of the first issues I had breeding ancistrus in an old tank (4 years ago) was that planaria bred to astronomical numbers in a horrible quartz substrate. This substrate was impossible to thoroughly clean. There were literally thousands. At night they would invade the cave and eat the eggs. I found the eggs covered in planaria many times. The Khulis stop planaria from reproducing in two ways, one - they eat leftover food (I also target feed them, they're fat I promise), two - they actually eat planaria. Pictures: I apologise for the terrible quality, I've no time for normal glare-less photos. The Tank A single baby About 40 babies out during a water change A fat male khuli (female is double the width) 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_Arbor Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 On 10/25/2022 at 11:50 AM, itsfoxtail said: Wow! Stunning plecos! I was unaware of a true snow white variant; they look unreal! Looking forward to pics of the eggs/wigglers if/when you post them! Yes, true Super Whites are descendants of l144 blue eye. They keep the blue eyes but loose all the yellow pigmentation. In the future I plan on crossing them with LF l144. I will attempt with a few different test crosses to determine if there is a mendelian characteristic to the pigment inheritance. If there is I will use the knowledge I've gathered from Super Red LF test crosses (contrary to what you'd think, the LF gene is dominant) to produce a LF Snow White. That or someone will import LF Snow Whites into my country 😂 Either way I'll have fun. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsfoxtail Posted November 26, 2022 Share Posted November 26, 2022 On 11/25/2022 at 10:17 AM, Shadow_Arbor said: I will eventually write an in depth post on how I make all my DIY dry foods @itsfoxtail. In short, I use a bunch of powdered dry ingredients (Spirulina, BSFL, Krill, Moringa, Bee pollen, etc.) with some egg and a tiny bit of flour. I dry the dough, after putting it through a pasta maker, with a food dehydrator. The amounts and how to calculate the exact and final composition I'll leave for a future post. Wow! This was an awesome read and had so much great info! Thank you for taking the time to write this! I've never heard of anyone using a pasta maker for homemade food or a food dehydrator for that matter. I just love the ingenuity of nerms I could listen to their ways and discoveries forever. I'll be looking forward to your future food post! I'll also be looking forward to seeing the growth of these adorable babes! And the future projects. I'm hooked now. On 11/25/2022 at 10:24 AM, Shadow_Arbor said: That or someone will import LF Snow Whites into my country 😂 The things people have cooking up in farms and their basements truly baffles me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_Arbor Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 Update: Some more baby pictures and a new clutch of eggs! 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 They really are at it now! I'm soooo tempted to order some for a Xmas present for a friend! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 Well... thanks a lot, now I need to find where to order these. 🙂 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 On 12/2/2022 at 9:39 AM, jwcarlson said: Well... thanks a lot, now I need to find where to order these. 🙂 Yup. I want these as well! I've seen lots of plecos, thought about investing in them, but have only ever pulled the trigger on clown plecos. Time will tell. Next year I'll be on the hunt! Great job @Shadow_Arbor. Looking fantastic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 My LFS just got a pair of these from one of their customers! At least I think it was these. They are sooo stunning in person! Congratulations on the fry!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 I’ve read these can be a bit of a gamble as many do not live long. Good job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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