Pureplecs and I gave you the whys and hows that the plecos can do damage you described and ways to resolve it. Believe what you will, must be the tetras even though they aren,t with the plecos any more. Logic and experience does'nt seem to help. Learn the hard way if you will or can. If your lucky t...

I have just set up a tank for the LDA025 "pit bull" plecos. I used an inch of very fine white silica sand that they can dive into easily. Added a few thin sawed slices of petrified wood for cover. Now they will spawn in a few weeks like the breeding article, right? It does let them do thei...

The guys are right on about the Malaysian snails they will also eat the minute particles of left over food that is contributing to the anaerobic zones. No excess food and substrate O2 and the sulpher reducing anaerobic bacteria will disappear. They are extremely utilitarian additions although it is ...

Hi MattsP I wanted to know what Chaetostoma do you think Bronzefry's fish was. I don't know them that well as I have only come across and kept the "thomasi" type most commonly sold in the USA shops. Also picked up 2 more male LDA025 yesterday so I have 3 pairs and 1 trio of P. spilosoma. L...

MattsP, A little off topic but last year I acquired a group of the biggest Corydoras pygmeus I've ever seen. Separated the sexes for what was going to be only a day or two and this huge female spawned almost 100 eggs all by herself with the males next tank over and never could get her to spawn again...

OK, just work with me a little on this one. I can understand your position on salt. If the tetra did not cause the damage then the plecs have been hassling each other. Try dipping them in 2 cups of tank water with a tablespoon of salt and 40 drops of methylene blue for 2 minutes. You want to see a b...

It does'nt make sense that the tetas chewed up you L134's. Take a closer look at the ragged edges to make sure you don't have a disease problem. Look for bloody or ragged white edges especially if there is no sign of regeneration. I agree with Matt that eh Plecos haven't damaged each other but I sus...

I bet you are right about that. Whenever we aquarists get a taste for some fish it all of a sudden becomes the rarest thing in the Universe. Perverse isn't it? I have a list of these fish but eventually we'll finally come across them in unlikely places and unpredictable times. I have come across alb...

Bronzefry,
You did get an interesting looking Chaetostoma , though, it's hard to tell if if it's the common "thomasi" or something else but in the photo is seems to be an attractive species. To make things more connfusing some Chaetosoma are sold as Bull dog plecos.

I guess the price paid for my P. vittata was reasonable enough and as Mars said they do come out a lot which can,t always be said for P. maccus.. They have actually been pretty out going and at times, as the photos you guys were able to post, they are nicely marked and colored. The photos of the fry...

I'm not sure what species you are calling spotted harlequins but I'm guessing that you are talking about Boraboras maculata which are indeed tiny. I have a bunch of them myself and they only get barely 3/4 inch. A larger rasbora such as T. heteromorpha or T. espei would add color, size and shape var...

That would be a good group to keep together.

It's too bad they don't stay about 14 inches shorter fully grown.

Check out the cat-t-log under LDA025 and see if that is what your "pitbull pleco" is. Bronzefry's photo looks a little like a Chaetostoma species which if I were dishing out common names I would give Chaetostomas the pitbull name but Paraotocinclus jumbo seems to have been already tagged a...

Even the dwarf African frogs can eat cherry and bumblebee shrimp once the frogs have begun to grow. Leave the frogs out or the shrimp. I think the shrimp are more fun and you can keep quite a few. I raise both kinds of shrimp so I am a little biased but I don't think so much as to give you bad advice.

Even the dwarf African frogs can eat cherry and bumblebee shrimp once the frogs have begun to grow. Leave the frogs out or the shrimp. I think the shrimp are more fun and you can keep quite a few. I raise both kinds of shrimp so I am a little biased but I don't think so much as to give you bad advice.

I've done the complete review of the data and Shane's reproduction article and I have no doubts that my fish are P. vittata. $20ea plus freight makes them seriously overpriced.

Hi Matt, There is no argument going on. My fish are probably Peckoltia vittata. I was misled in part by the vendor who sold me these fish "by mistake" trying to inflate their value to try to make me feel lucky to have these sent instead of L204's. I was under the impression that P. vittata...

This Peckoltia species is much more streamlined than P. maccus or P. vitatta. I have 4 of them, lost 2 when they first came in. They are much more outgoing than the species I just mentioned. When they get hungry they eat snails by extracting them from their shells, Physa, common pond snails that is,...

It's spotted and long finned it must be a BN. Only bn have the long finned mutation fixed and are very common. Common names are useless. It must be Ancistrus sp 2 or 3. The other "butterfly" plecos are wild caught fish and are typically more flattened in shape and have distict bands withou...

It's spotted and long finned it must be a BN. Only bn have the long finned mutation fixed and are very common. Common names are useless. It must be Ancistrus sp 2 or 3. The other "butterfly" plecos are wild caught fish and are typically more flattened in shape and have distict bands withou...

From my limited experience with Sturisoma sp. they seem to be the best algae eater out there for large tanks. Since I added them to my Heckel Discus tank I have not had to clean algae in the past three months not even the green spot algae. Having a number in this tank may save a lot of routine scrap...

I have come to accept that my Peckoltia will remain unidentified but the photo published is as close as anything I could have posted of the specimens I have. It was originally sold to me on line as L204! It clearly isn't that. Some photos of P.maccus look like it but it is much different in morpholo...

I will be most interested in finding out what this pleco's correct I.D. is. All I know is that my version was sold as L199 but that doesn't make it so. It is a recurring pattern making a correct I.D. difficult as there are 1/2 dozen possibililties that are close in appearance. I want to know what I ...

Butterfy Plecos are not long finned versions of bn. They are another species of imported pecoltia type pleco with brown and light tan banded patterns sold commercially as butterfly plecos. Any number of Genera and or species may be sold under this name but I repeat they are not the familiar tr varia...

This Peckoltia looks verymuch like what was sold to me as L199

Whitepine suggestio to use Hatchet is a good one, I think so because I do it my self so I'll admit my bias. Do qt them as they are ich magnets, the marbles are especially bad. Silvers are the best IMO because of their size, flash, greater disease resistance and can live many years. Just be sure to k...

I was posting just to let you jnow that Seattle has a wholesaler that has long been long involved with African fish and that you should'nt find them too hard to get there. You beat me to it and quickly found them so you are almost already there. Barbie's yellow labs are really nice and if that one y...

Money always seems the bottom line as to why OTF are hybidized or hormoned after hatching. In both cases fish are produced that are eagerly purchased by the less concerned casual fish keeper. The side effect is that only unbreedable fish get sold and over time these artficial fish displace the wild ...

I congratulate you on your success and fine photos. Your photos and those of another member's of the fry at about 1 month old are some of the more interesting or at least I should say my favorites. I love the way they are miniature replicas of the adults. Very cool. I have a couple of Paraotocinclus...