Lateral Line March 2011 - Hill Country Cichlid Club

24My experience with Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus- Walter Wooton Jr.A male Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus on his spawning cave with fry. Photos by the author.Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, locally known as thebristlenose, is a wonderful little addition tojust about any tropical tank. I have these little"algae eaters" in almost all my tanks savethose that have other species of "plecos" ortanks with hyper-aggressive species. The phof these tanks range from 6.7 to 8.2, watertemps from 68F to 81F (20C -27.2C)planted, to bare bottom and they all seem tosuffer no ill effects from the different tanksetups; instead they seem to thrive in each.The size of these makes them a much better"pleco" to be sold in fish stores since theystay under 5 inches (12.5 cm) instead ofgrowing to 13+ inches (35+ cm) like thePterygoplichthys pardalis which is generallysold in pet stores. Feeding is quite simplesince they will eat just about anything thatyou give them, but a vegetable based diet isbest. I feed mine some algae wafers eachevening after turning out the lights and somezucchini once a week, along with maintaininga piece of wood in the tank to help withdigestion. In my planted tanks they leave thehealthy plants alone while keeping theleaves free of algae, even my MadagascarLace (Aponogeton madagascariensis) is notdamaged by them. Mixing these in a communitytank is quite simple since they arequite gentle and seem to never quarrel with