I got the Ancistrus in November of 1996 the first time I heard Fred Krauss speak to the club. He had brought along a number of bags of rare fish to auction off. Ancistrus sp. (Paraguay) was one of them.

   There were 4 plump healthy looking fish in the bag. I knew they weren't the A. temminckii that had been going around the club. They were already larger than the A. temminckii and broader across the head with different markings. I decided that I had to have them even though there wasn't an obvious male in the bag.

   I got them and brought them home to a 10-gallon tank with two pieces of driftwood, a rock cave and a corner sponge filter. Each fish promptly claimed a decoration to call home and they settled in very nicely. The water was 15 DH with a pH of 7.8 to 8.0. They got Hikari alga wafers and frozen-thawed zucchini to eat; and the driftwood to gnaw.

   One of the first things I learned about these fish is that they are really messy. I added an outside power filter to the tank to get rid of the pleco poop. The fish didn't appreciate the current but I didn't have to clean the tank two or three times a week.

   The next thing I learned about them is that they don't bother plants or other fish. I had to put some Cryptocorynes and some star grass in with them for lack of a better tank. The plants grew just fine. Then my Papiliochromis altispinosa (Bolivian rams) finally stopped eating their eggs and I needed somewhere to put the fry. The Ancistrus ignored the tiny rams and all was well in the tank.

   I'd had these fish for over a year. They got to be about four inches long by about two ? inches wide. They all had short bristles on the upper lip that point forward, but no-one got the distinctive bristles on the forehead that are characteristic of most Ancistrus males. The fish are black with white, pinpoint spots all over their bodies and fins. The spots are reflective if you shine a light on them. The upper and lower edges of the caudal fin are white and the tail is slightly forked with the lower lobe being longer than the upper. After doing a litt

   le more reading I decided these fish would do better with more space. In April of '98 I decided to set up a forty long tank with a divider in the center (I have two groups of Ancistrus that I'm pretty sure are different species) to keep two groups of fish separate. Both sides of the tank got a large piece of driftwood and at least two caves. The plants included Java fern, Cryptocorynes and Anubias as well as a floating cover of Elodea and duckweed.

   The tank has undergravel filtration with about 4 inches of fine gravel substrate and two Aqua Clear power filters with Polyfilter added. I like the Aqua Clear because it is easy to clean.

   About two weeks after the move to the bigger tank I noticed one of the fish had a beautiful set of bristles over his forehead. He had moved into the rhino cave and was sitting with his head exposed and keeping an eye on things. I finally knew I had a pair of fish and settled back to wait for nature to take its course. And wait, and wait, and wait!

   My routine maintenance includes cleaning the Aqua Clear sponges twice a week, changing the Polyfilter as needed and a weekly 10% to 20% water change. I periodically do a more thorough cleaning and decided to do so in the fall of 1998. After stirring up the gravel and pruning the plants I wound up doing a 50% to 60% water change.

   The next morning there was a glistening glob of golden eggs laying at the front of the tank with the Badis badis picking at them and the male was not guarding them. I siphoned some tank water into a spare 5-gallon tank and added the eggs and an air stone. The fertile eggs were large, almost º inch, and glowed golden. The unfertile ones were matte and butterscotch colored. The mass had 300 ñ 400 eggs.

   Each day I lost a few more eggs to fungus. The egg mass was incredibly sticky and it was hard to remove the dead eggs without damaging the good ones. I probably ruined as many eggs trying to remove the fungused ones as were already dead. By the time the eggs made it to day eight and were starting to show eyes I only had about 12 left. A. temminckii take about 10 days to hatch. I never found out how long these ones take because on day nine all the eggs were fungused. Sigh.

   At least now I had hope. If they spawned once it was pretty likely they'd do it again. I started doing 25% to 30% water changes weekly. Two weeks later there was another smaller egg mass lying near, but not in, the male's cave. I decided to leave these eggs in the tank and hoped the male would guard them. He couldn't do any worse than I had with the first batch. The eggs were gone the next morning. I never saw another bunch of eggs in the tank.

   On June 23rd I went to feed the fish and found babies everywhere. They were adorable. (Well, I like catfish). They seem to like Hikari wafers as much as the adults. I have to admit I'm a bad fish mom because I stopped feeding the zucchini, but the babies are growing just fine on the Hikari wafers. A month later there were more tiny babies, and a month later there were even more tiny babies.

   There are little Ancistrus everywhere, ranging in size from 1? inches down to tiny half inch ones. Be careful what you ask for-you just might get it!