Happy Lunar New Year! We had a party last night complete with a Sichuan Hot Pot feast that my wife prepared. No pig brains, though--not that anyone who attended was disappointed. All of our friends loved it. May the year of the snake bring good fortune to you!

Did you just get them? If so, I would wait around a week before chasing them around with a net. Let them settle in and destress a bit before netting them just to take pics for ID purposes. After all, is ID'ing them more important than their long-term health in your tank? I think not. On the other ha...

Viktor, looking good. I hope the inspectors give/gave you the thumbs up. Make sure you keep plenty of rabbits or chickens on hand for when that 'gator gets a little bigger.

Mats, congrats on the Geophagus spawning. Those parents are some beauties. Best of luck rearing the fry.

My condolences for your loss. At 28+ years, that catfish sure had a good run!

IME when you hear of all these multiple factors it's just 'things people did' and not essential. Well, the people I know who successfully bred and reared the syno species I listed mentioned all of these factors as things they considered important in getting the fish to spawn. I can only report what...

IMO, the 2 adult angelica synos should be okay together in the tank size you describe as long as it has enough separate hiding places. I would recommend doing a water change and moving the tank decorations (driftwood, rocks, etc.) around when you introduce the new specimen. In my experience, females...

For the past year, I have been regularly collecting rainwater for my aquariums that have relatively low pH & soft water. I live in northern NJ--a half hour drive from NYC and Port Newark/Elizabeth... lots of pollution around here. The fish seem to love it right after water changes, swimming arou...

Definitely not a "Witch" synodontis. They look more like this:


Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Howdy, Raider Mick!

I would not recommend trying to lower your tank's pH with baking powder. What's that?? Yeast? http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm I have no problem with adding some baking soda in order to raise pH--especially in emergency situations with my soft water, pH 6.5 riverine tank t...

Nutritional studies on Panaque spp. indicates that they are mainly getting their nutrition from the fungal mycelia in the wood, details in last post on this thread < http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35425&hilit=+German > and some recent research < http://www.planetcatf...

Have you tested the pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates of your well water? If so, are those levels similar or different than the levels in your tank? The wood in your tank should slowly leach out tannins which will help to lower the tank's pH. I would not recommend trying to lower your tank's pH wi...

given a hypothetical person who buys a puppy with the intention of enjoying the young years of its life and selling it when it becomes a 4 years old young adult I think there is some info missing in order to make a judgement on the level of responsibility of our hypothetical person in this hypothet...

...the MSPCA has nothing to do with fish. It's dogs and cats and mammals... ...And catfish can usually adjust to different temps. The link I provided indicated the MSPCA provides and enforces services for ANIMALS. You can check any biology text to see what is included under the heading: ANIMALS. Ca...

There are a quite a few people in my state that have 1,000 gallon ponds so who knows. Something else struck me as illogical about this statement. You live in Massachusetts, yes? Looking at the Cat-eLog, Oxydoras niger requires a temperature range of 21.0-24.0°C or 69.8-75.2°F. I am assuming that mo...

As for the niger, once he gets big he will be in a 300 gallon, and then if someone can prove to the owner that he has a tank above 300 gallons, he gets sold. There are a quite a few people in my state that have 1,000 gallon ponds so who knows. I'm sorry to say that this just does not seem like a re...

Welcome!

By "Niger catfish", I assume you are referring to Oxydoras niger . This type of fish will quickly outgrow a 125gal tank. Even your Megalodoras uranoscopus will eventually get too big for that tank. I would highly recommend that you get a bigger tank soon or that you think about getting dif...

Ma'am. <nods head>

Howdy, Mark. Very nice setup for plecos... especially them wood lovers! Like you, there is a soft spot in my heart for panaque. Good to see another fan out there. Welcome to PC.

Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself! As I'm sure you will see, Planet Catfish is quite active with a large number of very knowledgeable aquarists. Don't forget to use the search function to check the plethora of information in old posts on the forum. And, the Catfish of the Month (CotM) arti...

Why mix synos from tanganyika to a malawi tank??? Why not? Most of the Tanganyikan synos will do fine with Malawian cichlids. If the goal is to have a purely Malawian tank, then S. njassae is the way to go. However, the OP didn't ask for Malawian catfish recommendations. They asked for African Catf...

If you are really in a bind and need to empty the tank, get yourself two new (and clean them well) 30+ gal rubbermaid garbage cans. Transfer all of the water and inhabitants from the tank to the garbage cans along with an air-pump/airstone and heater. If you have a canister filter, use that on the g...

I would not recommend S. angelica for a rift lake cichlid tank. Any of the Tanganyikan synos should do fine, however. S. lucipinnis are relatively inexpensive and get along well in a mbuna tank.

My RTC tank has got to be close to the size of arapaimag's tank, no? You can see a pic of my tank here: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 89#p252489

Jools, I'm thinking the same thing. However, I might as well play scientist for a bit and experiment... once I can find the time to do it. If I knew the synos could and would clean the plants like the shrimp do, I wouldn't even be asking about this. However, those shrimp do a marvelous job keeping m...

When I have some time to observe, I'm going to try putting some shrimp and one or two S. lucipinnis in my smaller planted tank (which currently has no shrimp in it) and watch what happens. I'll report back with my findings once this is done.

Happy Thanksgiving back at ya!

I'm about to break down my 90 gal rift lake aquarium to convert it into a marine tank. I'm going to give the mbuna to a friend, but I'd like to keep my Synodontis lucipinnis in another tank. Checking the clog, I was surprised to see that they are okay with pH down to 6.5. My planted tank is usually ...