It's not a problem if the sand goes anaerobic - in fact it's natural and harmless. The worst it can do is make the water smell like fart, and if that happens you've been neglecting your tank very badly indeed.

All righty then... Here's a paratype of O. lophophanes from the original description by Garavello, Britski & Schaefer (1998) : O_lophophanes.jpg The fish in the Cat-eLog photo is, IMO, not O. lophophanes , based on the lack of a pronounced supraoccipital crest, and head and body shape (e.g. more...

I am definitely no expert on these fish, and I don't think I've ever seen an Otothyris so I'm probably way off base here, but doesn't this look like a Schizolecis guntheri : http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=13546 ? I thought the longitudinal rows of spikes was the hallmark of ...

I have the same experience with H. jerdoni and cherry shrimp as Taratron; as far as I can tell the species do not interact in any way at all.

Well, O. vittatus is almost certainly a species complex - it's distributed from Venezuela to Argentina! - and varies noticeably between different areas. I agree that the caudal pigmentation is odd, and I can't say with any certainty if your fish is a vittatus , a " vittatus ", or an entire...

Provided the ficus really is a species of Ficus isn't poisonous, or at least not significantly so, but there may have been insecticides or other chemical residues on the leaves.

[The way I see it, there is nothing stopping farmers in the country of origin raising large numbers of fish. Yes, and that would contribute nothing to the preservation of the habitat. It would perhaps be more fair , as people in the area of origin of the fish species benefited, but it would remove ...

I have argued elsewhere that managed collection is a far better conservation tool than a total ban, but that argument, sadly, does not get any traction with decision makers. Well, for what it's worth I absolutely agree with you. I'd like to hear more on this. How is the incentive to protect common ...

I haven't kept A. paraguayensis but a very large petshop I know will not carry this species because it was "pound for pund the most aggressive fish we've ever had" and people who bought them tended to return them because of their aggressivity. My suggestion would be Hyphessobrycon elachys ...

Is this not simply because effects are rarely studied and quantified? For all intents and purposes collection for the pet trade can be considered low-volume artisanal fishery. It differs from normal artisanal fishery in that the return to the community is much greater and that otherwise unfished an...

FTA: "Smuggling is a drop in the bucket." That is how it is. The trade for chinese medicine has extinguished a dozen or so species and endangered hundreds, the Three Gorges Dam alone extinguished over a dozen species, untold numbers of species have been extinguished by clear cutting, conve...

Looks a lot like a to me...

I've only seen gas bubble disease once, but it was literally air bubbles under the skin and I don't think that's what your fish has. I've seen cases like yours reported several times, and AFAI remember it's always been Corydoras . In short, I have no idea what that is, but it is something which seem...

Zebra snails (Neritina spp).

Bijn wrote:He looks a lot like the other one's in this thread but I think he's not the same. What do you think?

Well, for what it's worth the patterning on the fins is different.

This guy?

As for the big catfish, I think one should keep things in perspective: the Pangasius etc sold in pet shops are a tiny percentage of the vast numbers produced for pond aquaculture in south east asia. I am not at all convinced that the aquarium specimens on average have shorter lives, or worse quality...

It's just a baby. Males don't start develop tentacles until they're, oh, 5-6 cm long.

Aren't they a leaf litter species? If so they may burrow in sand/gravel not because that's a normal behavior for them but because there's no leaf litter to burrow in.

As I understood it the point of "my cats" is to allow finding people who've kept a species so one can ask them for advice, right? If so it doesn't matter if they're no longer keeping the species; I can still give general advice on the disposition and care of Bunocephalus even though I've n...

No one's mentioned common ancistrus?

EDIT: FWIW I haven't seen a Bunocephalus for years, and I've been looking.

Euthanize the fish, then barbecue it. Serve with potatoes, lemon, and the sauce of your choice. Problem solved. I'm not being facetious, most of these huge catfish are bred in mass quantities as foodfish - that's the main reason they keep showing up in the trade - and are good eating. EDIT: Shane, t...

That reminds me... does anyone know if there's any good way to reliably tell a nigroviridis from a fluviatilis?

this has been discussed a number of times before, e.g. here and here.

"Mopskopf"/"Pug-head" is a fairly common deformity in fish, but as far as I know the exact cause is not known, and may be complex.
As for me personally I wouldn't breed on fish like that, I would cull them.

Add to cat-elog as Auchenoglanis sp. 1?

Did you use Myxazin or Protozin? Myxazin is formalin, Protozin is a mix of malachite green, formalin and copper. EDIT: Steatocranus ? The cichlid? The catfish may be sensitive to malachite green & copper, but a cichlid should not be sensitive to either myxazin or protozin - unless you overdosed ...

Richard B wrote:Don't we just have to right-click the link and select "open in new window" or open in new tab"?

Yes. Also if you've got a mouse with three buttons/scrollwheel clicking the link with the middle button automatically opens in new tab.

(just trying to guage potential future availability in the UK Haha that was my reaction to the photo too - great minds think alike! ;) As it turns out L-457 is presently available from a wholeseller here in Sweden so they may be available in the UK too. Sadly, at £51/ea they're outside my pricerange.

It's really more a chart of mimics than of corydoradinae phylogenetics.