Taxonomy
Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Hypostominae
Genus: Ancistrus
Species: not described yet
Description
This pleco is the yellow breeding form of the common Ancistrus / Bristlenose Pleco, which origins are not exactly known anymore and is possible the product of the hybridization of different Ancistrus species.
This certain fish causes a lot of confusion, since this breeding form has a lot of names and also gets traded under wrong ones.
The yellow breeding form has a lot of names like "Black Eyed Yellow Bristlenose", "Citronancistrus", "Lemon Bristlenose", "Ancistrus sp. Gelb-Schwarzauge", "Yellow Antennenwels", a.s.o.
Mostly though, it is traded under the number "L144".
True Ancistrus sp. L144 come from Paraguay. Back then DATZ published a wild yellow specimen with this L-number. It is likely just to be a color morph of the normal, brown Ancistrus sp. Rio Paraguay. This true L144 hasn't been really established in the hobby and almost disappeared completely in aquariums. Hence 99% of all traded "L144" are false "L144"s and are in fact the yellow breeding form of the "Common Bristlenose pleco".
Even though I prefer wild-forms of every animal, this yellow Ancistrus is definitely an eye-catcher and can grow to an absolutely stunning pleco.
Distribution and habitat
Because this pleco is a breeding form there is no distribution.
They prefer not too warm water, between 24 and 28 degrees Celsius is good to keep this pleco.
Diet
Ancistrus sp. is a really easy eater. They tend to be omnivorous and eat almost everything what you feed them. Dry food or frozen food, all can be given. Ancistrus in general need more green food and this has to be taken care with feeding.
Aquarium
80 - 100 cm aquarium
They are very peaceful, so they can be kept easy in an aquarium with other plecos or fish.
You will see this pleco a lot in the aquarium and also during daytime when the lights are on.
It still prefers to have some hiding spots. This you can create due to put some wood, stones or caves in the aquarium.
Sex difference
So far probably one of the easiest to sex plecos we had but since many people keep the common bristlenose, there is also quite a lot of questions about the sex of their animals.
From the side we see, that the male has its highest body part around the head. The females body line looks more curved with a smoother transition between head and body.
The biggest and easiest difference to recognize is the head. While males have bigger heads with lots of bristles on the snout, females have a smooth head without any tentacle-like growths. Even when young, the males show really small stubbles on the snout, which develop later to these big bristles.
Also with this species males tend to show more odontodes on the gills as also on the pectoral fins. The hard ray of the pectorals is broader with males and the fins itself seem to be comparable longer than the females fins.
From top the body shape also tells a lot about the sex of these fish. Males have a straight body line from head to tail, where as females are a bit curved in the belly region.
The differences of the head can also be really good seen from top. The way shorter head of the female seems to be not even half as long as the males. The bristles stand far out of the silhouette of the males head. Also males have a really bright red spot on their head which the females don't have so bright.
The papilla shape itself is a bit misleading, since males show mostly a bigger papilla, than females, which is with most pleco species the other way around. But we can see, that the female shows yellow spots around the papilla, which makes sexing even with only ventral pictures possible.
Reproduction and breeding
The domestic Ancistrus - strain is already so long in the aquarium hobby, that it can be easy kept and bred under almost all sorts of conditions. They don't really need special things like streaming, only it has to be taken care that the water quality is good.
They breed easy when having a male and female in good condition. It are cave breeders but it can also happen that they breed in a decoration piece or in splits in the wood is been seen.
When adult they have quiet big egg batches, up to 100 eggs is possible. They eggs are yellow-orange and the male will take care of the eggs and youngsters.
I have myself the experience that one male took care of egg batches of 3 females in one cave at the same time. He didn't fit in the cave himself anymore and was just in front of the cave entrance flapping his fins. This were more that 150 eggs in total. The females were at this time not even completely adult.
