Like most forum members here I am not very familiar with Brazilian laws and bureaucracy on breeding projects and therefore much appreciate any additional information you may have which helps widening our understanding. I'm sure you have similar laws and bureaucracy in Australia as they have in Braz...

The pictures is not so clear but the first species could be and the second maybe .

Janne

I think I will write an article for PC about breeding projects in Brazil, it's very complicated and difficult due the bureaucracy, the low knowledge and the cultural differencies, even some laws prevent conservation efforts in Brazil. It's not easy to explain in few lines here in the forum.

Janne

I only clipped the fin below the damaged part. Ok, it's good to verify how much you cut so not everyone start to cut of the whole fins to close to the body, I don't think these would grow out again if doing this wrong. It was no doubt bacteria. I think bacteria can be one of several reasons, everyt...

The fry were only 2" long so I took a pair of finger nail clippers and cut off the damaged fins and put them in a planted tank. They disapeared in the plants and driftwood and I forgot about them for 6 weeks. Then one day as I moved a piece of wood that was in the way of catching some tetras I...

Plant nutrition, plants is good either they are higher plants or true water plants as long they thrive and grow.

Janne

Yes you are right, it was a bad example. I only wanted to show that the outcoming water from the RO will react with the carbon dioxide in the air, if the RO water not was in contact with the air the pH should be ~7,0. Aeration only helps if the amount of Co2 is higher in the water then it's in the a...

The RO membrane removes all ions and comes out neutral pH 7,0 When there are no buffer what so ever in this water it will react on the smallest change. For example, you wrote that the pH was 6,7 in your RO water, your RO water reacted on the carbon dioxid in the surroundings, if you had areated this...

I used Kents RO Right for to add minerals to the water, and i also used; bicarbonate of soda and epsom salts, to increase the kh & gh. But when i raised the kh & gh to 1 degree, my ph went up at 7.5. Then when i raised the kh & gh to 2 degrees, my ph went up to 7.8. I stopped raising th...

Mike wrote:Well, for species, if a group of animals have any diagnostic characters, then it must be considered a species. If there are no such characters, it isn't.

I'm a splitter, subspecies feels 1800 and have no place in modern taxonomic.

Janne

I have never seen such nice L002 and I have seen many, your fish looks to be around 9-10cm adult and at this size L002 become more stubby, brownish like the below pic. http://www.planetcatfish.com/images/full/loricariidae/panaque/sp(l002)/19.jpg Even that your fish have such nice cheek odontodes the...

combined microbial and phytoremediation is much more effective than microbial filtration on its own. This is very good, in the past I used higher plants in my central filter (only the roots in the filter tank). If the plant thrives there will not be any measurable nitrate or extremely low levels, t...

You can exclude L002 and L398, not sure if L306 is the same species as L169 just another locality/variant but it's very similar to L306.

Janne

Copper is much more toxic in soft water (low conductivity) then it's in hard water (high conductivity), studies have been made that fish exposed for a certain level of copper in water with very small amount of calcium carbonate have a much higher mortality then the same species of fish in water with...

It happens even with artificial hatching of the eggs, it doesn't matter if the father take care of eggs or fry or if the aquarist do it.

Janne

Ok, I didn't know what a hma unit was :) I think it may be overkill to use carbon in the filter if you already use a carbon filter for your incomming water, if there are something you want to take out from the water you are already doing that. Depending how much water you use and the amount of organ...

I think it's much more effective and cheaper to use this kind of carbon filter http://www.avonsoft.com/Treatment/filters/Carbon_Filters.htm direct on your incomming tap water, if you have a tap you only use for your aquariums you can install it only for this purpose and the filter will last much lon...

If it was down to water quality, how could i have had a pair of zebras breed every month for a year back in 2008 and loose 95% of their fry in their first few weeks after leaving the cave, and at the same time i had a pair of L333 in a tank two above them, breed every month for a year as well and i...

My point is, i was told that my Water Authorities add phosphate to my tap water to stop the soft water affecting the pipes. Water authorities add Ammonium phosphate (converts to Chloramine) and Sodium hypochlorite (increase the pH), the higher pH increase the lifetime of the distribution system for...

But, on the other hand, my piping does contain copper as well - but I'm not breeding Hypancistrus But your pH is maybe little higher then 6.4? The lower the pH is the more copper are disolved, a pH of 8,0 has extremely little effect on copper tubes compared with a pH lower then 7.0. There are other...

if the water in the pipes dont stay for ages in the pipes, there is no problem. Depends how frequent you change water, between each changes there will always standing water in your copper tubes because you don't use these tubes for other places in your house. I mean if you take a shower each day, d...

I am no genius on genetics so maybe someone can help me out here. If it was genetic would they all have the same problem? Surely they are not exact replicas of each other or how would evolution work? If it was genetic you would see this deformities in every batch of fry, maybe not all fry but alway...

One more thing I saw now in your pictures, you use copper tubes for refilling the water and with a low pH in your tap you will disolve copper into the water, copper even in small amounts is toxic and affect the fish negatively or kill it if the level gets to high. Use PP or PVC tubes and connections...

The pictures is still not enough good for id, if both species (it's 2 different species) is of similar size I would say that the darker is not L340 and it might well be L401. The best way to make good pictures is to leave them in their aquarium, have lots of patience and take photos showing their si...

The values in the tankrack are : NO3= 25, NO2= 0, GH= >14, KH = 10, Ph= 6.8 Tapwater values: NO3= 0, NO2= 0, GH= >7, KH = 15, Ph= 6.4 Are you using an electronic instrument for the pH and is it calibrated correctly? With a kH such high I would expect a pH more close to 8,0 then 6,4 if you not add a...

Yes it happens in nature, but in rivers and lakes still untouched by humans it's extremely rare you find deformed species of fish, in habitats with pollutions and affected by humans it's much more common to find deformed species of fish. Many fish species is specilized in a certain kind of food, the...

I would say that snubnose is much rarer then deformed or even missing pectoral fins in fry, fry and youngsters with deformed fins is rare to find as adults but not snubnosed specimens... why? I have to guess, higher mortality in fry with deformed fins, aquarist maybe not accept to buy a specimen mis...

If they was sold as (which I think the light ones are) the dark ones can be that in the past was sold as L333 H. sp "New Alenquer" and often mixed up in the trade as true L333.
The pictures is not good enough to make a 100% certain id.

Janne

I agree with the last 2 posts, deformities in fry both in fins and snubnose is caused by contaminents and low oxygen level in the bloodstream preventing cells to develope correctly. Poor water quality and bacteria pressure is the main reason, maybe in few cases where food are lacking some trace elem...

Caught in a small tributary to Rio Guama and it's not H. incognitum but looks quite similar to H. guianensi, what you think... a new species? Janne