Thew white tips in the tail say to me Ancistrus, most likely the common A cf cirrhosus

The breed easily

To me, the main reason not to use chemicals to get rid of snails is, when it works, you are facing a tank with a lot of dead bodies - bad for your water. Besides, in a growing out tank, you need to feed a lot, and not all is eaten. In fact, that could very well be the reason why you have so much sna...

This is spam

Congratulations

If boys can be recognized at this size, than your first one must definitely be a girl.

First get them to mature, then hope for fry.

ichthyologist's heart belonged to a lady named Natalie and the catfish somehow reminded him of her... if this did happen to be true then it would be nataliei , I think thats how it would go. I would think nataliensis As far as I know, -i is for male names and -ensis for female names. And as Natalie...

Assuming it stays this way, She would be a girl. But as said, (s)he will need some growing to do.

I could not say wen these plates start growing in a male - @ 50 % or 80 % of aldult length.

I do agree however, it's a beautifull specimen. But then, I'm a bit biassed regarding Hoplos

I think it's too small to say. It's and and a half inch (not counting the tail) and it might grow another inch.

Males get overlapping plates on their breast, further the brest fin spines might become curved. Basically the same things as all the other species in Hoplosterinae, but more subtile.

As my smallest tank is 225 liters, I never worry about sizes for small fish.

For catfish this rule is often used - for quiet catfish. I would not use it for active ones, such as Pangasius. Among cichlid keepers the rule is often 8 L * 2L *2L because these are much more active, and much mnore agressive. Still for very agressive species such as Parachromis dovii I would sugges...

I did read about it in old, better put, ancient, books written before 1950.

Whether this has never been rewritten because of bad experiences, or 'cause the work to get it - I couldn't say.

As far as I know the adults live in sea...

I'm afraid the filter only works for 8 hours a day. That is not a good practise. Filtration does two things to a tank - it remouves large debris, which is not really important to your fishes and it supports the NH3 the fish excrete -> NO2- -> NO3- by bacteria. This latter is relatively harmless, the...

The problem with Microglanis is, it is the perfect catfish for a catfish hater: one never sees them, unless you would be netting a whole tank. Why not Corydoras or a catfish from Asia, such as Hara hara, which would combine perfcetly with the zebra danios. They, the bristlenose and Hara hare prefer ...

Putting it in my own words, these fishes live from the rotting bacteria, not from the wood itself.

Or would this be to bold to state?

TDS, GH, KH are all simple, linear measurements. That is, if you mix two similar amounts of water, one with 10 and the other with 20, the result will be 15. pH is much, much more difficult, and apart from what it stands for, the value is also stabilised if between 5 and 9, the values we normally see...

While I don't have a book or so on Ancistrus color morphs, it looks like short finned is dominant over long finned. Genetically speaking, that would imply that in long finned Ancistrus, the control mechanism does not work. Adding a mechanism that does work, will result in a working system, and thus ...

... clearly their is more of a benefit getting exactly the perimeters I want that are ideal for them using clean water without chemicals ... It's clear only on paper. When a newbie or even a seasoned fish keeper artificially maintains the water (see MarcW's exampe above), let it be hardness, TDS, o...

Why many fishstores use osmosis water? I cannot say whether this is true, in NL they don't, but fact is, many, most, fish come from soft, acidic water. Softer than the potable water available. RO with adding minerals is, I think, the best way to produce such soft water. However, the thing is, not al...

Chlorination is indeed outlawed here. We do heve rules regarding E coli and others, but there is no need for such drastic measures. What is odd, is that the regulations for potable water in NL are much fiercer than for bottled springwater. So yes, I drink water from the tap, but I like it cool. Refr...

What I think Darrel meant was Apparently the EU (European Union) has rules for the quality of potable water (new to me), and you may have heard Great Brittain has left the EU - implying the EU rules will not have any meaning for the UK. Darrel expects the rules for potable water to become less stric...