It would be amelanistic rather than "albino" as the pupils are not pink.

A guppy is not very likely prey for a raph. Something smaller and more of a mid-bottom fish is more likely food.

This fish looks very similar to my Squaliforma cf. emarginata. Same shape, coloration and markings. Pretty confident on this one.

I think it is great getting so much response on the topic, but I sense a wee bit of a competitve vibe on some of this "first to spawn" stuff. While I am sure I would get a certain amount of accomplishment from being the first documented breeder of any species, I would feel good having been...

As was mentioned above yams are an excellent food for P. maccus. If they are wild caught my experience is that it can be quite difficult to get them to eat regularly at first, especially if the importer had not had them long enough to stimulate captive feeding. It is really quite sad, but many impor...

As long as your waterchange regime is pretty regular, (30%+ once a week), it should be no problem having a group of 5-6 smaller cories. I would see if you can fink C. habrosus or C. pygmaeus, but any smallish cory would be fine.

Good information guys. I think I am going to stick with live plants, however. I have this aversion to artificial looking things in my tanks, (filters and heaters excluded). If I don't have luck I give the spawning mops a shot.

Do the C. axelrodi use the spawning mops? This is something new to me if it is the case.

The C. loxozonus do seem very social with all six taking station in the same quadrant of the tank 90% of the time. I think with the right conditioning and some luck I may be able to get them to go. Mark, some details on your C. axelrodi spawning, in terms of wet/dry season temps, pH, and dissolved s...

Thanks guys!!

I would stick with what you already have in there.

Powerheads and good quality sponge filters. On my 8 smaller tanks its all I use. Simple system...great success.

If anyone has successfully bred this species of cory, I would be most interested in finding out what conditions worked. I has a group of six in a 20g breeder and am in the process of conditioning them. I have bred C. aeneus and C. habrosus previously but hoped this would be a bit more of a challenge...

I am curious as to the parameters of the tank including temp. I have found that intrducing new fish when the water is at a lower temp is total recipe for ich. This was discovered after two mail orders of expensive plecs were almost entirley lost. On of the most successful treatmenta for ich also inv...

I also noticed that you aquired "shark cats." If these are the same catfish that is often called "Columbian Shark Cat," or "Black-finned Shark Cat," you have run into another fish that will outgrow the size of you aquarium and also requires brackish to fully marine wate...

Oxbow may also apply to a river type that consists of many "u" shaped meanders in a rivers course, not only the lakes that are formed when the river changes course and cuts the "u" off from the river channel.

They get much more boisterous and social as they age. I have had a group of four for about two years now and they are some of the most fun fish I own to feed and watch. I also have a lone (sadly), male H. littorale, and I would say he is the most active fish I own. So what I'm saying is maybe hold o...

If you do a forum search on breeding cories there is a wealth of available information on the topic. I beleive there are at least a couple of very good articles on the site as well. As an accidental breeder of cories all of my experience comes from changing tank parameters in terms of temperature an...

I'm back and within hours the news I had expected whilst on 3-4 month sebadicle is confirmed. I couldn't imagine a better advocate for responsible and informed aquarium hobbyists' and catfish raconteurs. Cheers Mats.

(excuse the spelling...I figured I had to dip into the vocab for this one)

I am a breeder of cichlids and an accidental breeder of cories and I would not suggest keeping any of the cichlids you have mentioned with either cories or pictus cats. They will be tormented and in perpetual hiding in short order. I recently moved a pictus out of a tank with a 3" acara and two...

I would say that $10 a peice is a fair price at that size. If they were proven breeders, (meaning they would need to be an inch or two bigger as well), they might go for more.

I have found in the past that areas of the strongest current are prone to developing this sludgy bacterial mat, be it filters, powerheads or rocks in front of aeration bars, you may want to ease up on the aeration quite a bit it shouldn't affect total dissolved O2 that much.- Just a thought

A river set-up is a great idea. There are a number of threads dealing with their set-up and plumbing requirements if you do a forum search. How I would handle the glueing aspect, (and I do have some plumbing experience), is: First rough up both contact surfaces with a light grade sandpaper, then blo...

I have used river sand from a clear stream near my home and rinsed out for at least an hour with silt still clouding the water. I have come to the conclusion that the silt is actually not a bad thing. My reasoning is that I plant most of my tanks and have found that the stream sand supports plants m...

signed

(In his best national geographic documentary voice). Like many omnivores, such as the grizzly bear Ursus arctos horriblis , the loracid catfish of South America will not hesitate at the opportunity for valuable protein. The Alpha female give the indication to the pack members that vulnerable prey is...

Try this link. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/liposarc/88_F.PHP It is also, fairly well recognized that this fish lives a long time and often attains sizes considerably larger than the conservative estimate in the catelog. It needs a considerable tank in order to do its best, I wouldn...

If you don't care about getting your money back from the store for your fish, I would suggest keeping him for a couple of months and watching him. I have bought a number of fish that I eventually took back to the pet store for someone else to enjoy, and to clear tank space for something different (t...

The "best" air source for a multiple tank setup such as this is a "blower". These belt or fan driven air pumps produce a large psi and volume for a relativley small power draw. Common models that suit this purpose are the hagen 20 and 40 models and similar enginered designs. I pe...

This may well be a question for the experts. I just purchased four fish labled as Lasiancistrus scolimnus(sic), from a local shop that just received a new shipment from Columbia, (and I mean the fish kind of shipment). The fish as I can tell are much more likley to be L. tentaculatus. I based my sex...