The people in chairs to both sides, of where I was at during much of the auction, have both been raising Ancistrus/ bristlenoses/ bushynoses (more of an East Coast designation?) The guy with the huge spawn of them has been feeding adults and youngsters pretty exclusively on either canned or frozen "French green beans". Evidently little Ancistrus can't gnaw their way through the skin of whole green beans. The other gentleman preferred veggie tablets and zucchini.

They were brought home and slid into a 2.5-gallon Lustar tank for holding purposes. The fishroom was a bit cool and I cranked the fishroom heater up to the point where it is uncomfortable in there with the seasonal flannel shirts. In fact this is being typed in a small room adjacent to the fish room proper and to cut down on drafts, the door to both rooms is largely closed. It feels a little decadent sitting in a T-shirt while near blizzard conditions reign outside. Ah, but it is for the fish! And they are better off for the gradual 5 degree F temperature rise.

Despite being near a window, the tank they came to reside in is at about 74 F/ 23.3 C. Setting up new acquisitions in their own aquarium is not always possible, but it is a useful way of quarantining them and catering to their own needs. Water from the set-up tank was used. It is hard well water, but was put into their holding 2.5-gallon "tanklet" one yogurt cup (previously cleaned out by the Daphnia) at a time, over the course of a day. This allowed for a gradual acclimation to our water. The new water was actually a tad warmer than what they were in. (The tanklet was then emptied and left out overnight in the purging cold.)

Evidently it has to do with osmotic processes, but fish generally adjust to water with a somewhat higher hardness and TDS than to water with a lower hardness and TDS (total dissolved solids). So too, so long as the fish isn't jerked to over a degree a day change in pH, going a little up in pH is less stressful than going down. Especially for guppies imported from often very saline sources (very high in TDS, even if not all that high in pH and DH or hardness readings) in East Asia, that may be a useful strategy too.

I am certainly willing to find whoever brought fish to an auction and ask them what the general perimeters are on the water their fish were in. I think they do it more than they used to, but I wish that wholesalers would always measure the TDS of the water new imports came in. They do themselves a huge favor in replicating that water and, via water changes, walking it down (or up) to local city water, They would experience fewer losses and have happier customers. In fact it would be wise if that data was passed on to the shops they sell to.

One gentleman from Decatur, IL who was bringing some softwater fish like golden lyretails purposely (and wisely) eased them into his regular water over the two weeks before the auction so that they would acclimate more smoothly to their new homes. If people want to breed the golden lyretails (Aphyosemion australe gold or orange) and they are not getting eggs (or fertile eggs) they can gradually walk the water's mineral content down with demineralized water. That is the same "trick" used with all sorts of "problem spawners" such as (young) tetras, Apistogramma, Rasboras, the peacock goby (unusual among gobies in that it is from such water) and even a few Corys so that they will spawn. Tetras are more likely to have their reproductive systems  irretrievably "clog up" with minerals than some of those others, if kept in mineral rich water until they are mature adults. But if a person is serious about breeding any of those fish, it doesn't hurt to begin to drop the mineral content of their water down to 100-150 PPM (roughly 6-9 DH or degrees general hardness) or even lower for the tougher ones like neon tetras or cardinal tetras..

Stream fish, which include many suckermouths or Loricariids, must be used to drops in the mineral content of the water (and a little drop in pH) because of the sudden cloudbursts, which feed their habitats. And young fish are likely to be in the shallows and conceivably would experience more of a change than those fishes in "larger" waters. Indeed studies have also been done on cichlid fry of some Rift Lake mouthbrooders, which indicated that the fry have a tolerance for warmer water than their parents can take. That is a handy survival factor since the females carrying fry can swim near the really shallow, (exposed to the sun) warm water, release the fry and swim away. Large predators, both because of their size and their discomfort in the warmer water, are unlikely to pursue the small fry there. We've almost all seen tiny fry, probably YOY (young of the year), at the edges of park ponds and lakes. It is a temptation to generalize and suggest that a lot of fry have those advantages.

That may be yet another reason why it is good to buy "adolescent" (if there is such a thing) or young adult fish rather than old, more impressive looking fish. With a guppy (as opposed to something like the bristlenoses) that is a little risky because we may not know if the stock is full-grown. Sometimes buying medium sized guppies is something of an act of faith. With auctions and fish shows, or visits to local breeders, it is sometimes easier to spy adults of the strain. Shops and commercial sources, who find it to their advantage to sell guppies when they have become attractive, but not much older (because time in tanks and additional feeding equals more expenses and consequently higher costs), may actually more reliably have younger guppies though.

Meanwhile, back with the bristlenoses: they were put in a 10-gallon tank with a sponge filter (unfortunately brand new). I also bought some "dwarf Val" and planted that in a container about the size of a cottage cheese container, using gravel from the set-up tank so some beneficial bacteria was imported. It doesn't hurt to put new plants where they can be watched too.

The tank bottom was left clear of gravel because 15 little bristlenoses can move a lot of food through their systems and weekly water changes are easier. Interestingly many of them settled into the graveled 6 inch/15.25 cm plant container or on the tank wall. They didn't seem too comfortable on the reflective glass tank bottom. They certainly scooted down there after food was introduced to their domain. (I may set up another container of plants.)

They have been fed small veggie pellets, Spirulina flakes and a few color flakes. I have some microwafers (samples) and some freeze dried brine shrimp won as door prizes at an event. Hikari was quite generous with that club. Those items are also high in roughage, which can be good for them and add some additional nutrients and carotenes - which should help them keep what color they have. I hope those foods can be soaked and sunk.

A friend who has been very successful in breeding several Corydoras and Loricariids, has simply used a lot of frozen brine shrimp, massive water changes (maybe 40% twice weekly), large tanks and very efficient filtration. I was amazed by the b.s. diet (though the frozen ones are likely more nutritious than the starved live ones in shops and may even have some veggie material in their guts.) While there are shrimp widely distributed around the world, there are darn few brine shrimp in South American streams.

The smallish pellets, Wardley's Spirulina Plus, Tetra PlecoMin and OSI's Ocean Stars are presoaked in RO water. That water is available and probably soaks in quicker than regular tap water. They float near the top of the jar and are pressed against the jar side, squeezing air out, so that they will sink. The addition of a daily pint of RO water also helps counteract the terrific evaporation we have in the winter. With water changes of 50% tap water and 50% RO water, hopefully their tanks will not accumulate more mineral content and may even drop a bit.

Those pellets can also be tossed into a guppy or livebearer tank, one or two at a time, for recreational purposes. I don't bother presoaking them then. That adds a little something to the guppies' diet and gives them something to browse on between regular feedings.

I might feed more brine shrimp if I was that militant with the water changes, but I worry about some getting lodged in an inaccessible corner, rotting and precipitating a velvet epidemic. Velvet can certain get into a Cory fry tank. With bristlenoses it is even more insidious because it tends to attack the gills (which are basically a soft epidermis or skin type of tissue) and who looks at the gills? Even when we look at the gills of a pleco type with velvet, that plague is very hard to see.

At any rate the 13 one inch/ 2.5 cm Ancistrus are doing ok. Even the two fry, which were 1/2 inch/ a little over 1 cm, are hanging in there. I think those little ones are too close to hatching to be moved around and shouldn't have been included in the bags. I'm pleasantly surprised that they have made it.

There is still the administration of an anti-parasite treatment. These fish seem to have been quite well cared for and have been generations in the hobby, as opposed to in commercial channels. But in the spirit of "love many, trust few" that had better be done. And such treatment is an important habit to include in the acclimation/ quarantine routine.