Antsistrus called for the appearance by "bore" or "sucker", easily adapts to life in any water. Cultivation of this beautiful somik is available even to the beginning aquarians. The main thing is an existence of good couple and the separate aquarium equipped for spawning.
Training of fish for spawningOrdinary antsistrus ripens early – at the correct contents and good feeding they can give posterity in 10-12 months. Failure in cultivation of this unpretentious small fish most often happens because to it treat as the hospital attendant or the cleaner of an aquarium. Fish with pleasure eats vegetable fouling, however is not a vegetarian. Antsistrus is omnivorous, and it should be considered at his feeding. The maintenance of a somik only on ground sterns can lead to its starvation if during feeding of sterns it is eaten by other fishes, without having managed to fall by a bottom.
By training catfishes-antsistrusov for spawning it is necessary to increase amount of meat food. To optimum give granules with the maintenance of 50% of protein. Within 1-2 weeks at such feeding of a female will gather caviar, and males will save up stocks for painless starvation for calves care.
The male of an antsistrus from a female is distinguished by existence of outgrowths on a snout. At females on an upper lip some bristles can be located.
Preparation of the shelterProvide to antsistrusa a suitable nest. In spite of the fact that somik can spawn in any shelter, and sometimes even in a "naked" aquarium, for receiving bigger number of whitebaits in time, necessary for you, it is possible, having only prepared corresponding "peshcherka". Because of features of fertilization of caviar it is a shelter should not be too spacious. But also in very narrow nest it will be inconvenient to male to process a laying, and he can throw out it. Thus, it is necessary to breed a catfish in the shelter which length exceeds length of a male twice. At the same time width of a nest has to be to the equal width of a male with the straightened chest fin, height – height of a male with the raised back fin.
As a nest it is possible to use an opaque plastic tube with the closed end, but it is more preferable ceramic nests.
WaterSomik well breeds both in soft, and in hard water. It is important that it freshened, oxygenated and did not contain ammonium and nitrite. Water volume on couple of antsistrus is 40 liters. To provoke spawning, on a third fill an aquarium with water in which fishes lived still. Fill other two thirds with dekhlorirovanny fresh water after landing of fish. Water temperature – 26-28os.
Usually spawning happens in the first day. Caviar is pasted in a far top corner of a nest.
As a nest it is possible to use an opaque plastic tube with the closed end, but it is more preferable ceramic nests.
Larvae are pecked out in 4-5 days, and in 3 days when the zheltochny bag resolves, whitebaits need to begin to be fed. When whitebaits reach length of 3 cm, reduce water temperature in an aquarium to 24-26os.