No it was'nt a BN cave question. Someone suggsted bamboo to fill in undecorated open space and I think the BN hid out in the plants. I had a source of bamboo when someone asked where you can find it and by inference to provide a hiding place for the BN where you may see him more often got worked in ...

Hi Mattsp, It's 4 in the morning here in Washington State. 10-15 meters is deeper than i would have ever guessed the to Live. That's about 39 to 44 ft deep. That seems a little deep for an average cabocelos to be fishing for ornamental fish. What are these things? Incidental by catch of the gold dre...

I 'm glad you know where some bamboo can be found but it's pretty large diameter for BN. Mine prefer the snuggest fit possible which is approximately 1-1/2 inch or a little less. Sometimes I don't know how two of them manage to squeeze in there together.

I'm sure that my ignorance of the black and white plecos natural habitat is part of my problem understanding of how come these plecos with this coloration fit in and why it's so common. I'm also probably showing signs of my frustration at trying to get enough of the same species over the net for bre...

I get my bamboo from one of my friends. His yard is overgrown with 25 ft tall plants over half his property. We only use dead stalks from his big pile.(He gets defensive when I call it a junk pile). Anyway we could supply it if you want to send your specifications and quantities by a pm to me. I hon...

I use appropriate diameter bamboo caves(leave the joint on one end. Nice thing about bamboo other than esthetics is that if you boil it for awhile it will sink right away.
They are my standard BN breeding caves.
Larry

Funky,
You don't have your's yet. Better hurry or you will be the last guy on your block to have one.

Matt,
Touche' That's what I get for posting when I should be sleeping.

Hypancistrus was what I had in mind. Just did'nt check the spelling. I am becoming more curious about the large number of black and white variations and how hard they are for us to distinguish but must be recognizeable between the diffrent fish species. I suppose the adaptaion serves as a disruptive...

The list price is not the real price. After you add shipping and look alike different species mixed in with what you really want the prices easily double. Then you have some losses and the real cost of the fish goes higher still. It just isn't like buying a standardized product.

Then it seems you had the answers to your questions before you posted.

They are omnivores and love all frozen and live foods in addition to greens, that may be all he needs to be at his best. Does'nt he like staple flake and pellet foods you use on your other fish? All the ones I've kept,(a few hundred) did. Even an adult will go into feeding frenzy mode if you give th...

Thanks to bring these site to our attention. But they only make the black and white Hemiancistrus sp all the more formidable for would be breeders like myself. It is very expensive trying to put together breeding colonies of fish in this group together unless you buy large numbers at a time and hope...

The question of why so many plecos have black and white patterns is intriguing. The plecos with this type of patterning must serve a purpose and one thing quickly noticed is how visually oriented these(mostly Hemiancistrus sp) are. It is'nt the most concealing design possible so the function does'nt...

I am surely not alone in my utter confusion Identifying this group. The newest photos look like some of the fish sent to me as L333 or L066. To be absolutely sure to have any pairs one has to have many of these difficult to positively identify plecos. So many of them may be the same species,of diffr...

Medaka, Thanks for the reference it was my inspiration to get a breeding colony together in the first place. I'm seeking additional information if it's out there. I'm reasonably sure I'm on the right track with them but I lack patience. There are several tricks up my sleeve that I haven't tried yet ...

Hope one of you driftwood cat fans see my post about Tatia perugiae. By the way mine feed avidly when the lights are on so at least I get to enjoy them and they are an awfully pretty catfish. I am trying to breed them.

I received one pleco that is a dead ringer for this one in a group of L333 which in fact were all like this fish rather than L333 5 of the six died within a week and the lone survivor is living with some real L333's but they don't much care for his company. I was guessing my oddball was a L129 but t...

I have had a group of 20 Tatia perugiae, oil cats, for 4 months now. They are set up in a 20L bare bottom with potted plants, lots of driftwood, and numerous pvc and bamboo hiding spots. They are in prime condition and feed voraciously on frozen and F.D. blood worms as well as live blackworms. I hav...

Banjos are easy to get and keep, although rarely capive bred. I keep one small one with each breeding pair of discus to clean up left over food.

Hey Mona,
Aint that the truth. Sensitive little buggers at the early stages.

Suggestions to use small Botia species are good advice. They are discus compatible. I have found that L199 is another snail eater but not as good as Botia sp.

AquaClear powerheads can be run in-line outside of the tank to reduce heat transfer to the main water.

I made a nice find at my LFS this weekend. I bought all 6 Paraotocinclus they just received. They may be all cf. cesarpentoi although 2 may be spilosoma. They have to settle in before I can be more certain. They sure are an interesting cat. Seem socialable and hardy. Another breeding project in the ...

Barbie's right but being the cynical bushynose breeder that I am I suspect that this particular bn was never as vigorous as the rest when you first got them, right? It sounds like one that didn't pass through the distribution chain well and you may not be able to save it. There is such a thing as a ...

I use a modified razor blade algae scraper with a small box attached that catches the eggs as they are scraped off. I use a standard mesh breeding trap with a thin plexi-glas bottom and provide circulation with a nearby airstone and this set up yields good hatches and the plexi bottom reains enough ...

I know that a source of my routinely uses prazipro and maybe some wide spectrum antibiotic for a few days before shipping them on. It's a balance beween the need to turn over iventory promptly and moving the fish ASAP. They really need at least a week which is probably not done by any vendor unless ...

Loaches are exercizing their territorial imperative. Qne way to lessen or shorten the intensity and duration is the old trick of rearranging the landscape during a water change to refocus the loaches' attention and allow for the catfish to find it's own territory from which it can be dominant in the...

I have 150 gallon wading pool set up every summer and try different tropicals' fry grow out. Last year it was 100 black neons and 100 pygmy sparkling gouramis. This year it's 150 Cory.paleatus and 25 bn pleco fry. All were two week free swimmers before moving them outside three weeks ago and all are...

Hi whitepine, Sorry about your Sturisomas not doing well in the past. My guess is that they were not too strong when you received them. Of course there are also many different Sturisoma sp. I'm too lazy at the ment to double check my spelling but mine are Sturisoma nigrirostrum from Peru. The little...