Ancistrus sp (L519) – Ancistrus sp. Kiefneri II

In March 2023 I received two pairs of Ancistrus sp. L 519 – Ancistrus sp. Kiefneri II from Ingo Seidel (thanks Ingo!). The animals come from the Rio Itenez in Bolivia near the border to Brazil in the catchment area of the Río Marmoré, which drains into the Rio Madeira and then into the Amazon. The fact that the animals are quite easy to breed is shown by the wide range available on the internet, and it only took me just under 2 months to have my first clutch of eggs in the tank. The newly hatched larvae remain in the male’s cave for a few days and are then, as is typical for the species, quite easy to rear.

The animals show a high degree of variability in their colouring, which can also vary depending on their mood. The typical honeycomb pattern with the black borders is usually a grey-olive green, with reddish parts often appearing in the fins. However, there are individual animals that are clearly reddish in colour throughout the entire honeycomb pattern.

Whether these colouring variants are really stable and/or possibly genetically fixed has not yet been clarified to my knowledge.