So far we haven't found a single surviving Ancistrus in any of the greenhouses. Luckily, Carl had a pair...watch as Charles sets up a new breeding colony.
Alright Carl!! Glad you had a pair of these beautiful fish!! Happy fishkeeping Mr Charles!!! Hope you all are having a great day thank you for sharing! 🙏🌿🐟🌿
Thank you. I didn't know Carl had any inside where they stayed warm enough to survive. It was a pleasant not only that he had them but that it was a pair. Now they need to get busy producing babies. Charles
Me too. I hope one or both of them is carrying the recessive allele for albino. After we get things settled a bit, we'll be acquiring longfins, albinos, and other colors. Charles
Yeah! I do wish you could buy some of your old original fish back from past customers just to restart old colonies. Ahh damn not a perfect world. Glad you were able to get at least one pair.
Thank you, although the cooking analogy fails with me. I can't cook. I've made two meals in my lifetime, scrambled eggs and refried beans for Susie after too much sangria and frito pie for her after she had surgery. Fortunately, she survived both meals. Charles
I thought I just responded to this comment but can't find it. So here goes again: We found a few other survivors and will be processing their breeding colonies in July to see how they are doing. Charles
I had been wondering if anyone had some of your fish that didn't make it, who might want to donate them back to you. So glad you have a pair of them! That's wonderful!
We have lots of offers from people with our fish. Once we finish inventorying and rebuilding breeding colonies, we'll start taking them up on those offers. Three of our wholesale customers are sending some of our cichlid stock back to us this week. Charles
I’m curious, how much has your channel grown over the last 2 months? It seems like when I joined back in February there were roughly 3k subscribers. Now you’re over 10k. Am I remembering that right? Anywho, love what you do and can’t wait to see you get back up to full potential.
We had around 500 subscribers on February 21st. Then, several other channels shared our story and things took off. In particular, we need to thank @Aquarium Co-Op @IFG and @Bentley Pascoe for the exposure they gave us.
@@carl-goliadfarms566 I remember seeing the aquarium co-op video of when Cory visited a few years ago. Then I saw IFG’s video after the Valentine’s Day freeze followed shortly by Aquarium Co-op. It’s great to see our fish community come together to help each other. I truly enjoy watching you rebound from this. I’m glad I was able to be a small part of it through the go fund me drive. I feel like a fractional ownership of a great farm in Texas that I’ve never been to. 😆
As you see, Carl has the statistics. We have grown. We are nearly done with inventorying and rebuilding breeder colonies. Soon we'll start seeing the results of the earliest ones we set up. We'll also augment breeding colonies with fish that have grown up in the meantime. Charles
You could add a bristlenose a 20. You will want to make sure you have some wood in there for them and that you supplement them with some veggies like blanched squash for example from time to time. They tend to produce a lot of waste so watch water parameters when adding.
@@pato7694 Thank you! I have a 17 gal about to be built with an awesome long wood piece. Some bahai stone stocked with blue dream shrimp, nerites, a rabbit snail, and some cpds. Would an ancistrus add too much bioload to this setup?
A single Ancistrus would be fine in as small a tank as 5-gallons assuming you maintain pristine water conditions. The larger the tank, the fewer problems maintaining water quality. Charles
Awesome stuff. Would you normally polyculture these (livebeaeres?) Or do you find more success on Thier own? Also, were the concrete blocks hollow all the way through and you've just laid them to block an end? Thank you
We typically raise livebearers by themselves but have found that swords, platies, and mollies can be successfully cultured with cichlids given enough cover. The blocks are hollow. If viewed from the side the appear to be a squarish figure eight. I'll pick up one up in an upcoming video to show that. Charles
That pair spawned twice now in the hollow concrete blocks. The males seem to like the narrow opening. Both carried albino since they produced some albino offspring. Charles
That has happened many times. There was before the winter storm a large population of feral Ancistrus in the floor gutters. If this pair cooperates, some of their offspring will likely recolonize the gutters. Charles
Her i am spending $15 at my local pet store for man made bristle nose catfish breeder logs (each) when i could walk out side and use some house bricks. Question Charles,do those bricks have any toxins in them ?
Im actually curious, was there a pattern for what types of fish seemed to survive the cold better, or was it somewhat random. because dont ancistrus live in some of the same places as the other plecos (they are hypostomus right?). im not the most experienced with fish compared to reptiles and amphibians. ive actually never owned the bristlenose ancistrus like those., only the rubber lip plecos and clown plecos.
In general the peacock like species (Aulonocara sp.) and varieties fared better than mbuna cichlids. New World cichlids did poorly. The xiphophorines (swords, platies, and variatus) did better than most mollies. The exception among mollies were any strains with Poecilia latipinna genes. P. latipinna is a temperature zone fish and native to southern USA. Rainbowfish didn't make it. At least one Goodeid, Xenotoca eiseni (or X. lyonsi if you prefer) made it. We have three more Goodeids to check. We haven't checked our Limia species. We hope to complete all the livebearers in a week or two. There are many Ancistrus species and a lot of dispute about their taxonomy. They are established in southern Florida. Plecos are also subject to dispute about their taxonomy. They are established in central Texas river headwaters where springs spew 70F water. Clearly our plecos are more cold tolerant than our Ancistrus. Probably 90% of our plecos survived, while zero Ancistrus in the greenhouses did. Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 interesting, goodieds surviving makes sense since if im not mistaken they prefer slightly cooler water anyway, but yeah taxonomy for fish, especially the absurdly diverse fish such as South American catfishes is very confusing, yet also very interesting. main thing to remember is that taxonomy is complicated, i mean crocodilians and birds are in a group excluding other reptiles, which just goes to show that looks can be deceiving.
@@goliadfarms7029 i know you have suffered a hardship an i wish you all the best. I love your way of fish keeping. I am a believer in things happen for a reason an it may be hard to see now but things will be back an better than ever. Let your light shine fren🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
Not really. Most aquarium fish are highly inbred since they are collected in the wild in small numbers and then distributed in small groups to hobbyists and breeders. Also, our best animals and plants are highly inbred. Inbreeding is a great tool. It allows you to purge deleterious recessive genes (technically alleles) and concentrate beneficial characteristics. Our prize winning mollies are very inbred, but are very healthy, robust, and large. Their is a line of Xiphophorus maculatus at the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center at Texas State University that has been brother/sister mated for over 140 generations since first collected by Dr. Myron Gordon early last century. Charles
Good to see that there is a chance for a new beginning. I hope that from two come many! 👍🏻
They are set up for breeding and I hope they cooperate soon.
Charles
I'm still sorry you had to go through this but I'm happy to see videos on a regular basis on your day to day
Thank you. We have a backlog of short videos to get posted.
Charles
Thank you Carl for investing your Plecos for the farm and I hope they'll do you proud. Thanks for sharing again. I really enjoy the videos.
I'm really glad that Carl had some of our stock.
Charles
Alright Carl!! Glad you had a pair of these beautiful fish!! Happy fishkeeping Mr Charles!!! Hope you all are having a great day thank you for sharing! 🙏🌿🐟🌿
Thank you. I didn't know Carl had any inside where they stayed warm enough to survive. It was a pleasant not only that he had them but that it was a pair. Now they need to get busy producing babies.
Charles
Glad you found some stock to build from!
Me too. I hope one or both of them is carrying the recessive allele for albino. After we get things settled a bit, we'll be acquiring longfins, albinos, and other colors.
Charles
Congratulations! Awesome save! Good luck to the happy young couple.
Thank you. I've told them this is no time to hold back, go and reproduce!
Charles
cheers friend they will have lots of babies
That is my hope!
Charles
Yeah! I do wish you could buy some of your old original fish back from past customers just to restart old colonies. Ahh damn not a perfect world. Glad you were able to get at least one pair.
We plan to buy some back, especially those that we lost entirely, just as soon as we finish inventorying and setting up breeding colonies.
Charles
It’s nice seeing you to continue to recover! Wishing you continued success!
Thank you. We are working on it.
Charles
I'm really happy to hear this!
It was great news. Now that pair needs to get to work producing babies.
Charles
Excellent restart!
It is if they cooperate and produce fry!
Charles
I love your style. Like baking bread, mix the ingredients and wha'la :-)
Thank you, although the cooking analogy fails with me. I can't cook. I've made two meals in my lifetime, scrambled eggs and refried beans for Susie after too much sangria and frito pie for her after she had surgery. Fortunately, she survived both meals.
Charles
👏 ❤ they will have a lot of babies. awesome ❤
I thought I just responded to this comment but can't find it. So here goes again:
We found a few other survivors and will be processing their breeding colonies in July to see how they are doing.
Charles
So awesome glad he had that pair at home
Me too! It gives us a start with stock that we've had for over a decade.
Charles
Awesome. Great little plecs! Your videos are a balm in a crazy world
Thank you. They are nice fish. I'm glad we saved one pair.
Charles
With such a set back i am happy you are still holding up and having the ❤️to go on
Wish you al the best all the way from Suriname 🇸🇷🙏
As people around me would tell you, I don't know how to quit.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 thats the spirit!!
I hope to see Some video’s about your swordtails soon 🙏
Yaaaaaay! Thank you Carl!
Yes, thank you Carl.
Charles
I had been wondering if anyone had some of your fish that didn't make it, who might want to donate them back to you. So glad you have a pair of them! That's wonderful!
We have lots of offers from people with our fish. Once we finish inventorying and rebuilding breeding colonies, we'll start taking them up on those offers. Three of our wholesale customers are sending some of our cichlid stock back to us this week.
Charles
I’ve had bristlenose for 30yrs and had no idea what an ancistrus was, thought it was some sort of cichlids you were talking about in all these vids😆
I tend to use scientific names. Sorry about the confusion.
Charles
Great news Charles, I love my Ancistrus!
We lost all the albinos and long-finned ones, but we'll start with these and add the others later.
Charles
That’s amazing! So glad for all!!!
Me too! It's good to have a pair of our stock to restart breeding.
Charles
I look forward to seeing hundreds of new baby ancistrus!
Me too! We'll check back in them in about three months. Right now we're giving them lots of food and privacy.
Charles
I’m curious, how much has your channel grown over the last 2 months? It seems like when I joined back in February there were roughly 3k subscribers. Now you’re over 10k. Am I remembering that right? Anywho, love what you do and can’t wait to see you get back up to full potential.
We had around 500 subscribers on February 21st. Then, several other channels shared our story and things took off. In particular, we need to thank @Aquarium Co-Op @IFG and @Bentley Pascoe for the exposure they gave us.
@@carl-goliadfarms566 I remember seeing the aquarium co-op video of when Cory visited a few years ago. Then I saw IFG’s video after the Valentine’s Day freeze followed shortly by Aquarium Co-op. It’s great to see our fish community come together to help each other. I truly enjoy watching you rebound from this. I’m glad I was able to be a small part of it through the go fund me drive. I feel like a fractional ownership of a great farm in Texas that I’ve never been to. 😆
As you see, Carl has the statistics. We have grown.
We are nearly done with inventorying and rebuilding breeder colonies. Soon we'll start seeing the results of the earliest ones we set up. We'll also augment breeding colonies with fish that have grown up in the meantime.
Charles
I am a big fan of the look of Ancistrus. Glad to hear a few survived! I know you have tubs, but what size aquarium would you recommend for 1?
You could add a bristlenose a 20. You will want to make sure you have some wood in there for them and that you supplement them with some veggies like blanched squash for example from time to time. They tend to produce a lot of waste so watch water parameters when adding.
@@pato7694 Thank you! I have a 17 gal about to be built with an awesome long wood piece. Some bahai stone stocked with blue dream shrimp, nerites, a rabbit snail, and some cpds. Would an ancistrus add too much bioload to this setup?
@@tylerlazerte4987 should be fine but be advised the pleco will eat any shrimplets in the tank. It won’t mess with the shrimp themselves.
A single Ancistrus would be fine in as small a tank as 5-gallons assuming you maintain pristine water conditions. The larger the tank, the fewer problems maintaining water quality.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 Thank you, Charles!
Awesome stuff.
Would you normally polyculture these (livebeaeres?) Or do you find more success on Thier own?
Also, were the concrete blocks hollow all the way through and you've just laid them to block an end?
Thank you
We typically raise livebearers by themselves but have found that swords, platies, and mollies can be successfully cultured with cichlids given enough cover.
The blocks are hollow. If viewed from the side the appear to be a squarish figure eight. I'll pick up one up in an upcoming video to show that.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 thank you Sir.
That’s good news. If you have a breeding pair of bristsenose you should have a few hundred by the end of the year.
They are prolific and we look forward to their first batch of fry.
Charles
Adam & Eve. ❤️
And go forth and be fruitful, I say.
Charles
This is great news!
Yes, it is. I look forward to their offspring.
Charles
Ancistrus like coconut shells, had two females lay eggs for one male inside of a coconut shell
That pair spawned twice now in the hollow concrete blocks. The males seem to like the narrow opening. Both carried albino since they produced some albino offspring.
Charles
That’s some great news!
Very good news. Now they need to get busy and produce fry.
Charles
..and they escape into the gutter :)
That has happened many times. There was before the winter storm a large population of feral Ancistrus in the floor gutters. If this pair cooperates, some of their offspring will likely recolonize the gutters.
Charles
You can't keep a good man down glad to see its on the rise
We are recovering as this pair of Ancistrus symbolize.
Charles
Her i am spending $15 at my local pet store for man made bristle nose catfish breeder logs (each) when i could walk out side and use some house bricks. Question Charles,do those bricks have any toxins in them ?
Those blocks are made of concrete and will raise the pH if they are new. Once they are aged, they are inert.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 thanks heaps Charles ,i keep all my tanks high ph,so this is great news for me 👍👍
👌👌👌❤❤❤
Thank you.
Charles
Im actually curious, was there a pattern for what types of fish seemed to survive the cold better, or was it somewhat random. because dont ancistrus live in some of the same places as the other plecos (they are hypostomus right?). im not the most experienced with fish compared to reptiles and amphibians.
ive actually never owned the bristlenose ancistrus like those., only the rubber lip plecos and clown plecos.
In general the peacock like species (Aulonocara sp.) and varieties fared better than mbuna cichlids. New World cichlids did poorly. The xiphophorines (swords, platies, and variatus) did better than most mollies. The exception among mollies were any strains with Poecilia latipinna genes. P. latipinna is a temperature zone fish and native to southern USA. Rainbowfish didn't make it. At least one Goodeid, Xenotoca eiseni (or X. lyonsi if you prefer) made it. We have three more Goodeids to check. We haven't checked our Limia species. We hope to complete all the livebearers in a week or two.
There are many Ancistrus species and a lot of dispute about their taxonomy. They are established in southern Florida. Plecos are also subject to dispute about their taxonomy. They are established in central Texas river headwaters where springs spew 70F water. Clearly our plecos are more cold tolerant than our Ancistrus. Probably 90% of our plecos survived, while zero Ancistrus in the greenhouses did.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 interesting, goodieds surviving makes sense since if im not mistaken they prefer slightly cooler water anyway, but yeah taxonomy for fish, especially the absurdly diverse fish such as South American catfishes is very confusing, yet also very interesting. main thing to remember is that taxonomy is complicated, i mean crocodilians and birds are in a group excluding other reptiles, which just goes to show that looks can be deceiving.
Any updates on how the ancistrus are doing?
The youngsters are growing well, but we haven't gotten into the breeding groups yet. Susie tells me they are coming up soon.
Charles
Yay!
Thank you. I was happy to see them.
Charles
Watching on my phone very hard to hear use turn up the microphone 🎤👍
We are still learning how to do this. Also, I've been told I'm soft spoken. I'll try to speak up.
Charles
I know you are planning on expanding and adding a greenhouse. Do you have blueprints, or some sort of plans from greenhouse one, two, or three?
Somewhere in our files we do have those plans. Greenhouses 1 and 2 were kits bought from B&K Greenhouse Supply in Florida.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 Thank you
Ancistrus barbusha?!
Supposedly Ancistrus cirrhosus.
Charles
If your gonna restock them do a not so common ancistrus, they breed just as 3asy an worth more, starlights come to mind
We will look into doing other armored catfish as well as Ancistrus and plecos.
Charles
@@goliadfarms7029 i know you have suffered a hardship an i wish you all the best. I love your way of fish keeping. I am a believer in things happen for a reason an it may be hard to see now but things will be back an better than ever. Let your light shine fren🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸
Are you worried about the genetic bottleneck effects since all the future generations descent from this single pair?
Not really. Most aquarium fish are highly inbred since they are collected in the wild in small numbers and then distributed in small groups to hobbyists and breeders. Also, our best animals and plants are highly inbred. Inbreeding is a great tool. It allows you to purge deleterious recessive genes (technically alleles) and concentrate beneficial characteristics. Our prize winning mollies are very inbred, but are very healthy, robust, and large. Their is a line of Xiphophorus maculatus at the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center at Texas State University that has been brother/sister mated for over 140 generations since first collected by Dr. Myron Gordon early last century.
Charles