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Ancistrus

S

scottward

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Joined
27 Sep 2011
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29
Hey guys,

Ancistrus and Echinodorous - there appears to be some debate as to whether these fish can damage the leaves of, for example, Amazon swords or not. Some claim to have ancistrus in their tanks with Amazon swords and no problems at all, others claim the exact opposite, some say young Ancistrus are fine, others say it depends how hungry the Ancistrus are.... 🙂

The details of my tank are in my signature below (although I am not running the UV and haven't been for quite some time). I am dosing 2/3 EI (Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue), and have been dosing this way for quite some time now with no problems.

Amazon swords very large and were looking excellent.

Lately I've noticed large pale patches forming on the leaves; I can see the fibrous structure of the leaf but the colour has been stripped and the section of the leaf is thinner. Kind of similar to a worn patch on, say, clothing.

I do have a team (12) of ancistrus (regular bristlenose) in the tank; I put them in when they were very young, they have grown a bit now, so about 1" long average (so not breeding size yet).

I'm not sure whether the ancitrus are to blame or it's something else.

I have the Amazons swords distributed in groups throughout the tank, and the problem is showing here and there on the various groups, so the issue isn't localised to a particular location in the tank.

If this were an Iron deficiency, as some have suggested, I would expect a generalised "sickly" yellowing of the leaves in general - not patches.

If this were a CO2 deficiency, I would expect it to be more localised.

Thoughts?
 
I don't see your signature with tank details for some reason ...

but, it's your ancistrus ... easy enough to "prove", just remove the fish for a month or so (long enough for a good number of new leafs on the Echinodorus), then re-introduce the fish & sit back & observe ...

Sometimes, doing this will limit the behavior, other times not; if you're not supplementing their diet with various (fresh or blanched) vegetables, you might try that - I was a failure at convincing my mini-plec's to switch over from Echinodurus to assorted veg, but know others to have been more successful.

Leaf damage in Echinodurus that is plant nutrition related looks different.
 
Sounds like wels damage to me.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/101410164@N02/14234736793/
This was in my tank through a Hypoptomus spp, but i have had similar from other fish. Feeding a lot of veggies and having a lot of wood may help in stemming the damage, but ultimately i stopped using these kind of fish, with the exeption of very small ones.
 
I breed and raise longfinned albino bristlenose, and until recently I used to brag and advise, that the fish were harmless with plant's so long a there was vegetable matter or algae for them to nibble at.
This declaration was made after raising fry and breeding Adult's over some 8 year's.
Recent event's have lead me to sheepishly move away from my previous position after witnessing an old adult male, rasp leaves of recently established Echinodorus rose to the point that four long leaves were barely skeletal in appearance and neededto be removed along with the offender.
Keepin a close eye on the swarm fry still in the tank, lest they 3exhibit similar tendencies.
I never used Echinodorus much before due to their size, and relatively shallow substrate in tank's to accommodate same. So maybe it's just something about that particular species of plant, for they never bothered other plant's I have used.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,
scottward said:
Lately I've noticed large pale patches forming on the leaves; I can see the fibrous structure of the leaf but the colour has been stripped and the section of the leaf is thinner. Kind of similar to a worn patch on, say, clothing.
Click to expand...
The others are right, that is definitely Ancistrus damage.
scottward said:
Ancistrus are fine, others say it depends how hungry the Ancistrus are..
Click to expand...
It depends on how hungry the Ancistrus are.

Try feeding them Red or Green pepper, and it may stop.

cheers Darrel
 
Cheers guys! I was pretty sure it was the bristlenose, but just wanted to run it past a few others.

I'll trim off the affected leaves and start "spoiling" the ancistrus with various other foods hoping they will then leave the Amazon swords alone!

So basically any vegetable matter that I feed them, with the exception of something that is already soft such as zucchini, should be par boiled first to soften it?

Scott.
 
Mine has always eaten the echinodorus leaves from day 1. He doesn't do it all the time so the plant does get a chance to recover but can never get big enough because from time to time I have to remove whatever is left of most leaves. I've tried overfeeding him, target feeding him, he gets veg regularly. He just loves echinodorus.

Zucchini and cucumber can be given raw which they love. They also eat fruit such as melon(my common plec also loves water melon but not the ancistrus so much), tomatoes(cut in half and remove seeds). I microwave frozen peas and peel them but most of the stuff I put is raw. I tried boiled carrots, he eats them but it made a mess in the tank.

If you have lots of ancistrus, you'd have to supplement a lot.
 
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