The L-144 species or color

There is and probably will continue to be some question regarding weather the L-144 is a separate species of BN or just another color of the common BN. I have been researching this for some time and this is what I have learned to date:

A yellow colored dark eyed male Ancistrus, species unknown, was wild caught in Paraguay. This fish was bred to normal brown females that were collected at the same time in the same area. The resulting daughters were bred back to this male to produce and fix this dark eyed yellow trait. These fish were imported to Europe and it is questionable if they were ever exported elsewhere. These fish are now quite rare, and some say gone. These fish were considered a separate species from the common aquarium strain BN.

At some point a dark eyed yellow mutation appeared in the common BN. These dark eyed yellow commons were very similar in appearance to the original L-144 and both became known by that L number. It is these fancy colored common BN that comprise nearly all of the L-144 available today no matter where you live.

I have heard the original species L-144 was a grayish yellow as opposed to the brighter orange yellow of the dark eyed yellow common BN.

In my opinion if you have an L-144 and you live any where other than Europe or even if you are in Europe and your fish is a bright orange yellow it's probably 95% or better that what you have is a fancy colored common BN just as and albino or a calico would be.

That said I'm not prepared to say that the original species L-144 is gone. I have seen an odd post or two and always from Europe (Germany/Netherlands), who seem to describe their L-144 differently than a common BN. The differences being a tolerance for colder water, more extensive bristles and a broad triangular body shape when mature similar to A. ranunculus.

I also saw a very interesting post I belive on P.C. where an individual bought a wild caught male Ancistrus sold as a "wild red BN" The importer had no information about the fish other than it being wild caught. This fish was dark eyed yellow in color but not the bright orange yellow of the commonly available L-144. I would call it more the grayish yellow that the original L-144 was described as having. There were photos so if you search "wild red BN" on that forum you could probably see it for yourself. I'm not saying this is the same species as the original L-144, or even the same color as I've never seen a real original L-144, but it is interesting.


Regards,
Amber

Good read , thanx Amber.
This almost looks another "black with white spots Ancistrus" debate.
Imagine all the people in the UK and Europe who have forked over a bucket load of monies for L144
only to find that they "may" have this "black eyed yellow common", also how many people are going to be stir
crazy trying to get positive for their fishes .
J

The point of my little article was to clear up some of the ambiguity surrounding the L-144, not to get people all in a dither as to weather they have the real or a "fake" L-144.

The L-144 was always primarily a color, as the original fish from Paraguay was a color mutation in whatever species he was. I doubt very much he was the norm for his species. He was bred to normal colored brown females and then back to his daughters to fix the mutant yellow color.

It would seem that this dark eyed yellow occurs in low levels in nature just as albino does. If you like the L-144 as I do, then what you like is primarily the color not a particular species. Species comes into play in how to best care for your fish or in breeding to avoid unnecessary hybridization.

When the dark eyed yellow mutation occurred in the common BN I have no way of knowing if it occurred spontaneously or if it came about due to some hybridizing with the original L-144 in the background of a few common BN

The fancy colored dark eyed yellow common BN is just as valid an L-144 today as an original L-144 would be. Just be aware that there are two types just as you would be aware that there is more than one type of albino.

Regards
Amber

Super Info amber just what we need here...........
Keep up the good work......

Great info, thanks for sharing

Intersting stuff, was thinking about this earlier, was in LFS today and they have tons of baby BN and albino BN, in one tank however thay had labelled Gold and Black Ancistrus, intersting I thought , they were a larger size than the common and albinos on sale, for what I could see the "Blacks" were a really dark olive and the "Golds" were like albino but really Yellow in colour, wish I had looked at the eyes now, if the eyes are pink is it an albino? , if the eyes are dark is it something else? There was one really colourful one in the tank which really caught my eye but "we had to go shopping first" hhhmmm!!!!! When I returned I could not see it, may pop in tomorrow for another looksey but need to resist the urge as still on the hunt for super reds............

An albion / yellow with black eyes will be a L144 so shops do not know the difference but becareful I have seen plenty of LFS label an albino at L144 when they clearly have red eyes and when I challenge them are told that's what was on the shipment papers

I had a similar thing in a lfs recently - they had fish labelled as Corydoras julii, when in fact they were trillianatus. When I queried this with the shop owner he said 'we have to sell them as what 's on the import details!' Maybe something to do with book keeping/ but damned annoying when you want a positive ID

Hi, went back to LFS oday, found the tank with the yellow plecs, they all had red eyes... Still anted £9.99 for them, I have to admit I was tempted with one particular, less than two inches long and tons of bristles.... still in the shop, , , ?