Well with my own; If I have taken them out of the cave and added them to a fry tank I wait till the eggsack has completely gone and then start feeding them on powdered flake food (which I get by shakeing the crud out of a small tub of JBL flake then wipeing my finger around the inside of the tub, th...

I'm not sure how your database is set up but would it be feasible / possible to add a search by river, or habitat type to the cat e-log ? eg search by 'Xingu' might return all fish in the catalogue known to be found in the Rio Xingu 'Fast Water' might return all fish known to prefer fast rivers. 'Le...

Thanks for the tips Shane. After much much debate and consideration I decided to go with several small racks each on its own sump rather than seperate filters / heating for each tank purely on a cost consideration. Quality equipment is expensive here in NZ my Eheim 2324 cost me around $450 USD :( an...

Thanks guys, thats exactly what I was after, never occured to me that the bottom tank could be a concern but of course its going to be. Back to the drawing board as far as rack dimensions go. Im planning for a 4 level rack with 36"x18"8" (200mm) high tanks divided in two with internal...

In the process of designing my first 'rack' of tanks for keeping a few small cory's and plecs. A couple of questions for those who have practical experiance... Is an 8" (200mm) clearance from tank top to bottom of shelf above going to be enough 'working room' ? Im a tallish guy (6'2") what...

I have a 50 Gal tank set up for warm water Xingu type plecs (2 gold nuggets and a L014 sunshine at present) shareing it with 3 smallish discus a pair of young adult discus and some cardinals. The water straight out of my tap is 3 degrees dKh ph 6.8(yeah I'm lucky) temp is 86f no2 0 nh4 0 no3 2-4ppm ...

Yes, Id love to be able to provide them a bigger tank, but with a wife and 2 young kids draining all my money it isnt going to be happening any time soon. The plants were Val and a Crypt (Wendeti I think) there were not any sword plants in that tank. I have since broken it down and reset up with a d...

Had to use the flash to get a pic, is bit overexposed and the $%^& siamese algae eater kept gettign in the way. Thats the but end of my female common ancistrus at the left

20 years, thats way cool.
Yes he is a bit lean, he shares the tank with a gibby who generally beats him (and everything else) to the food.

My two have never been any problem with other plecs. They share the large hollow log I have in the tank with my much larger Cactus Leopard and a small Royal Plec with no real problems. I have a power head outlet diverted to run through the hollow part of the log and they seem to love sitting in the ...

Thanks for that Silurus, I suspected that might be the case. I notice all the cat-elog pics are on light substrates, both my fish are a lot darker, Ill try to get a decent pic and post it here.

I have 2 of these that are doing really well in my main plec tank, just not sure exactly which they are. http://mikesfishing.com/pleco/images/picture_691.jpg http://mikesfishing.com/pleco/images/picture_278_edited.jpg Aqualog 2nd ed L075 Ancistomus sp L124 Ancistomus Sabaji L301 Ancistomus Sabaji LD...

Hi all. Been trying to work out roughly how old my common Plec is, I think he must be getting close on 12 years old. He was about 2" when I got him and has stopped growing at around 14" in my 48"x18"x18". I have noticed just recently he is taking a bit longer to heal from mi...

plants grow like weeds. I have 3x36w (4') fluro tubes on 10 hours a day + 1 moonlight tube for dawn / dusk simulation (90 mins before and after main lighting). I cant tell you what the bulbs are I dont remember, but I bought them from the LFS specifically for plant growth. I also use laterite under ...

My gibby is in a 4 x 1.5 x 1.5 and has stopped growing at around 13 or 14 inches. He seems happy enough and appears to be in good condition, he got big pretty quickly. But be warned they eat a lot and produce a lot of waste, so good filtration is a must. Very easy to keep and feed though. There are ...

The situation 48x18x18 planted tank w 1 common plec (large) 1 Gibby (large) 2 male 2 female common ancis. 1 Leopard Plec (L114), 1 red tailed lasiancistrus (L128), 1 Flounder Plec (L168 or L052 not sure), 2 Lemon plecs (small) (L 075) 6 ottos and 1 twig cat species unknown. Obviously things are gett...

Well there are no catfish native to New Zealand none nada zilch. So according to your theory we should have the most catfish fanatics down here. Still only 3 million of us spread over 2 islands. Only catfish I know of are in the North Island, foreigners introduced at some stage or other, think they ...

I find with my Sony the trick is to set it to macro mode, and then zoom out as far as possible and focus by moving the camera slightly. Leave the tank lights on but turn off all room lights and draw curtains to reduce glare / reflections. (I get best pics after sun has gone down, and fish and genera...

Hi all, Im a pleco fancier from way down in New Zealand, all I get to do is drool over all the cool pleco's you guys have access to, the prices down here are real high for anything but the commons. Anyways I have made a small tribute site for my beloved Plecos, call in and take a look and leave me a...

Anyone able to help me out with this fellow, I think he is Lasiancistrus spec , maybe L178 ? photos on my site here... http://mikesfishing.com/pleco/unknown_pleco.htm Very much like a common ancistrus in appearance, but more laterally flatened and with red eyes on top of head rather than on side. He...