Photo: Lars Jamne

ANCISTRUS sp.

«Albino», «Super Rot», L144

“Do you have one of those suckerfish/algae eater/crap cleaners?” Usually what people refer to is the common Ancistrus, by far the best selling Pleco there is. It has been bred into numerous colormorphs, and somehow even managed to steal an l-number that didn’t belong to it (L144)! For those in need of a tough, small sized Pleco that eats a lot of algae, this is a great choice. It’s a perfect beginner Pleco, that will be hard to keep from breeding.

Facts:

Name: Ancistrus sp.

Trade names: Common Ancistrus

Origin: Unknown

Maximum TL: 15 cm / 6”

There’s so much available information on this species that we can’t be bothered to go into details here. But, it’s worth mentioning that it’s been impossible so far to assign it to a described species. It may be a result of several crossbreeds during it’s existance in the hobby, as there are several very similar looking species from South America that would easily crossbreed under the not so watchful eye of aquarists. Several strains have been produced, with the “Super Red”, “Schildpatt”, “Albino” and “L144” being the most coveted. L144 is a number that actually belongs to a wild xanthic specimen of a completely different species imported from Paraguay, but because of the similarities (yellow with black/blue eyes), the captive bred form of Ancistrus sp.“common” has since taken over the number, wrongfully.

Source :

http://www.loricariidae.no/loricariidae.no/_Ancistrus_sp.html