White Spotted Ancistrus

[Bwhiskered]

There seems to be a lot of white spottted ancistrus for sale on Aquabid. The 180, 182, 183, 213 as well as a few others that show up. Most come from parts of the Rio Negro making you wonder if they are just variants of the same fish from different parts of the river. It is also possible that the exporters and the dealers are bound to get them mixed up. You just have to visit a few local pet stores to see how they get the names mixes up on corydoras catfish.

[scatz]

Its always hard with juvi fish, but if you can get them at a larger size, you should be able to have a better idea on what they are, eg, at 4", if it still has the solid white seam, its 183, if its fully mature at 2.5" and highly spotted, its likey 213, if its 8"+, its 182 etc, but essentially, we have to trust that the sellers have some idea what they have, unlessof course you can see the fish first hand before buying

[Bwhiskered]

Many of the fish being sold are small and inmature. Others are adults and the pictures are anything but clear. You would think that people that sell on aquabid all the time would by now be able to take good pictures.There seems to also be confusion as to the size of the 182. Mine don't grow much over the 9cm as is in Aqualog page 139 Ancistrus punctatus. Of coarse all dealers call black plecos with spots starlight or snowflake if the spots are small and snowball or spotted if they are larger.
The experts and the collectors are as confused as anybody. I have come to that conclusion by talking to some of them. They may figure them all out in the next hundred years if they don't destroy the Amazon in the mean time.

[Catsaholic]

There seems to also be confusion as to the size of the 182. Mine don't grow much over the 9mm as is in Aqualog page 139 Ancistrus punctatus. [/QUOTE]

I'm confused. So what will be the grown up size of L182's that I've got from you?

[scatz]

L182 should be huge (for an ancistrus), i've not seen any massive ones but have seen them well over 6" before

[Bwhiskered]

There seems to also be confusion as to the size of the 182. Mine don't grow much over the 9mm as is in Aqualog page 139 Ancistrus punctatus.

I'm confused. So what will be the grown up size of L182's that I've got from you?[/QUOTE]

Mine have always stayed at about 4-1/2" the original fish and any of the fry that were raised to breeding adults. Even some sites hand out wrong information that only spreads confusion.

[Bwhiskered]

A few years back I picked out two small spotted Ancistrus from a tank of common looking wild ancistrus.
They grew to about 7" and developed into females. After a year or more of searching for a male that matched I gave up and sold them in an auction as white spotted plecos. About 6 months later a dealer got in a shippment of adult brown wild bushynose. They were in bad shape and most died. The one strong survivor was a large white spottted male nearly 10" long. Just what I had looked for only it arrived too late. A prime example as to how numbers get screwed up is as follows. I asked a dealer for the L number of a pleco and he went and pulled out an ancient booklet with hand sketches and said I think it looks like this one. That about sums things up. Thats how wrong identification spreads.

[Catsaholic]

I'm confused. So what will be the grown up size of L182's that I've got from you?

Mine have always stayed at about 4-1/2" the original fish and any of the fry that were raised to breeding adults. Even some sites hand out wrong information that only spreads confusion.[/QUOTE]


Thanks. Why I didn't ask you before? I assumed from PlanetCatfish info that they will grow large, and two days ago moved them into the tank with other monsters. Can't even think of getting them back out now, tank is loaded with rocks and wood.

[jackson]

The fish I have that many have said are L-182 and I think are L-182 as well are over 7'' they are not really black but more a a brownish colour and have gold spots not white spots.