This
Otocinclus vestitus
lost its yellow coloration after just a few weeks and was thereafter
indistinguishable from its conspecifics.
AquariumBristlenoseCatfish,Goldcultivatedform.
Hemiloricariacastroi
widespread in the hobby at the time as
Ancistrus
sp. "RioParaguay".
Anewwild-caught L144 turnsup!
A few weeks ago the improbable
happened: Aquarium Glaser in Rodgau
(southernHessen!) receivedanotherwild-
caught lutino in an importation of
Ancistrus
fromParaguay.This
Ancistrus
was
the species
A. pirareta
, which is regularly
imported from Paraguay for the hobby,
although it has become normal for the
fish to be labeled
A. tamboensis
in the
trade.
A. tamboensis
is, however, a species
from theUcayali drainage inPeru. It looks
generally similar to
A.pirareta
,but has the
light dots only on the anterior half of the
body.As far as isknown
A.tamboensis
isn’t
available in the hobby.The rare lutino – it
is an extraordinary stroke of luck for such
to put it plainly:
A.dolichopterus
is one of
the so-called white-edged bristlenose
catfishes and comes from the Rio Negro
inBrazil,
A.hoplogenys
is the rare Spotted
Bristlenose from the Rio Guama and its
tributaries (likewise in Brazil), and hence
“the” Bristlenose Catfish has no scientific
name and must for the time being be
termed
Ancistrus
sp.
Amysteriousbristlenose fromParaguay
In 1992 aquarist Kerstin Holota
discovered a yellow-colored
Ancistrus
at
an importers in southern Hessen; it had
purportedly come from Paraguay along
with normal-colored conspecifics. Holota
bought the yellow individual and a
number of others. The yellow individual
turnedout tobeamale,whichwaspaired
witha female from the same importation.
Astonishingly the very first brood
includedyellow fry,whichmeant that the
“yellow factor” in the wild fish was
inherited in accordance with the second
Mendellian law, so that statistically a
quarter of the offspringwere pure-strain
yellow,aquarterwerepure-strainnatural-
colored, and half carried the genes for
both yellow and natural. Holota
eventually succeeded in breeding a pure
yellow strain. This yellow
Ancistrus
was a
lutino, as it had dark, not red, eyes. This
yellow bristlenose catfish received the L-
number 144. L144 was a rare stroke of
luck for the breeder, as for unexplained
reasons the yellow specimens of other
loricariid species that sometimes turn up
in importations change to normal color
after a while. As happened a while back
with
Otocinclus
vestitus
and
O.
macrospilus
as well as
Hemiloricaria
castroi
.
Unfortunately the appearance of the
natural-coloredL144wasn’tdocumented,
so its identity remains unclear. Holota
seems to recall,however, that itwasa red-
spotted
Ancistrus
species; a species
matching
that
description
was
Hemiloricaria castroi
- the fish was this color when imported from Peru. The small photo above right
shows the same fishayear later.
NEWS104
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