I feel for you guys out east as it's been sunny and 13+ Celsius out west. I guess for the same reasons, I have had spawns from L333, L066, L260, and my BNP's nonstop. I'm hoping for something from my L239 and my L134 which have mysteriously stopped for over a year now.

Post some pics. Is this your first clutch? What I have found is that the long fins don't compete well and don't grow as fast as the short fins. So if you have had die-offs, it's likely that the long fins died first.

In my calico BNP, bred by lf man and sf female, I can tell the lf in about 10 days to 2 weeks. There'll be the odd one that looks like it's long fin where they are free swimming, but usually it takes a little while.

Yep, I leave mine with the father for days at a time. If there are no predators in the tank, just leave them be and the father will raise them until they come out on their own. When I don't need the extra babies (because I have lots to sell already), I just let the father raise them. I only take the...

You can keep just about any smaller plecos with your L24". Where you would run into problems is if you keep same sized or bigger aggressive plecos. There are so many different ones that you can keep it would be much simplier if you asked about the specific ones you're interested in.

L273 would be shy. L600 is much bolder. At least my L600 is. Either would be fine in your 75 as long as you don't get a monster to start with.

True albino would lack any pigmentation. This isn't an albino for the same reason that isn't an albino.

My L600 grew tremendously in its first year (I've had him a year). He is now 6". The growth rate seems to have slowed down. So my experience seems to be opposite from Linus_Cello. I also got a 2" L114 at about the same time, and the growth rate on that one is equal to the L600, so it has s...

Yep. I buy it in bulk. $20 worth of leaves lasts me a year in 3 tanks. I buy it from this lady from Singapore and buy the lowest grade (cheapest) stuff since it all breaks down anyway. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amys-200-grams-Grade-C-INDIAN-ALMOND-CATAPPA-KETAPANG-LEAVES-betta-discus-/251243537682?pt=...

Or you can just leave the leaves in there. I do that to create leaf litter at the bottom of the tank. It does break down and make a bit of a mess, but nothing that my weeky maintenance doesn't deal with. The caveat is that I use India Almond leaves so I'm sure sure if it would be safe with oak and b...

this is my roma 240 which has very good stock and as u can see the discus spread out nicely and are very comfortable and confident Yes, but those aren't wilds. I'm not a huge fan of planted discus tanks as even though mine is planted (mostly wilds with a couple of Cuipera Crosses from Forrest). The...

Very cool and thanks for documenting with such great detailed pictures. Gives me hope that some day I can do the same.

That's great. I bought a group of 5 after many failures to keep them alive and still have 3 but they have not bred for me...so I'm encouraged by this thread, since it took you almost half a year to get them going.

Did you test for phosphate? There are thought that in the absence of phosphorus that plants cannot metabolize nitrogen properly and hence the poor growth and spiking nitrate in your tank? Not saying that's what it is, but it seems it could one possibility, or maybe a contributing factor.

Mine were at 1.5 years, but fish are like people in that each fish is different. The easiest way is to catch the fish and put them in a white bucket filled with water and if they have odontoides you will easily see them. That's how a friend and I sexed over 30 fish he was selling once.

The flow has to go directly in front of the caves in my experience. I found that out when I bumped my powerhead while cleaning and my P. compta stopped breeding. It looks to me that your fish are the right age and size. Might just take a bit more time for them to work things out as they learn to bre...

What Barbie said. Lots of flow in front of the caves and 82 - 84 degrees F will get them spawning. You didn't say what size tank you have. If the tank is too small they might be too busy fighting to breed.

Thanks for doing this Jools. It was a shock since I've been off the forum for a week. I thought one of my favourite forums was broken! Luckily it's a change for the better.

Sorry to hear of the minor setback (as that's all it is in a project as big as yours). Perhaps a "cage" around the drain will prevent this from happening in the future? Preventing contact with the immediate space around the drain should alleviate the suction problem.

I concur with Apistomaster. My group of L260 bred without me knowing in a tank with growouts of L114, L14, L134 and L239. Only 2 fry survived for me to catch them. Very very slow growing.

Are any of the other plants being damaged?

Depending on whether any veggie content is given in their diet, many supposedly carnivorous plecos will gnaw on plants. This is based solely on my own experience with L201, L333, L340, L260, and other Hypans. Of course the omnivorous plecos will devour anything if they want to. I have been able to p...

Wood isn't absolutely necessary, but hiding spots are. In my experience, people have very little hiding spots in discus tanks for plecos and it can be stressful for them. My wild discus tank is full of wood and rocks for the plecos to hide so they are very comfortable in there. If you have sufficien...

Congrats on the family addition!

The eyes also appear to be a bit sunken, which is a really bad sign. It's really unhappy about something. Perhaps it's getting beat up by the others? Any chance you can QT it?

A friend of mine is running an Alita from Kensfish and I've seen it in operation and it's super quiet for a pump that puts out that kind of air. He's had it for close to a year now. I think it's this one. http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-supplies/air-pumps/alita-al-15a-air-pump-12-gang-manifold.html

Krylon Fusion.

There is someone already trying to do it in Indonesia, as well as already mass producing H. zebra.

http://www.bellenz.com/about.php

I have had cories in gravel and in sand. They do better in sand, but in my experience, they do fine in gravel also and only seem to get barbel erosion if the substrate is very dirty. Since I have upped the flow and filtration very significantly in my 125 gallon tank, I have all kinds of cories in th...

MTS are livebearers and Assassin snails are self-limiting once they run out of other snails to eat. That's only partially true for the Assassins. I brought some in my 20 gallon breeding tank to take care of pond snails and they ate all the snails and are now happily eating fish food. They do seem t...