I agree with the Synodontis!

It could be on West African syno's keeping to the smaller more manageable sizes for the average person, more specific examples of biotopes and a discussion on breeding scenarios would be great, possibly Microsyno's as well.

Thanks,Birger

Cards are okay, I would get some, but my mother probably would not understand why she is getting a picture of a hairy catfish in the mail. The calendar idea is good with room for notes, I always keep one around to jot down what's going on, downside would be PC having to sell dated stock which can be...

Today I brought home a couple more S.ocellifer, they were at the LFS for a few months and are not in top shape. This particular one is 118 mm TL and has these cysts or blisters maybe, they seem to be only in the area pictured, his behaviour is no different than the others, and yes they are in quaran...

I am preparing for a trip to Africa and find this site helpful, It seems to have good explanations of most things we have to watch out for and covers most places on the globe http://www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm but there is nothing more helpful than the experience of others who have already been there

Scroll down on this, it's a start
http://www.mongabay.com/fish/biotope_african_rivers.htm

Birger

I have flown across the country for a cichlid gathering why not to the States for Catfish! Especially after the reviews of the recent one.

Sid, this is likely the site you mentioned or very similar
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/
follow the fish link

Birger

I read somewhere that some ceramics were glazed with toxic glazes for artistic purposes

If I remember correctly it was lead in the glaze that was the problem.

Ceramic bio media made for this purpose is more porous than regular ceramics

Birger

Use the above search engine, punch in deworm and that should get you started on what you are asking for, its been covered in a few past threads.

Birger

Found this link hope the imformation is correct.http://www.africaguide.com/country/nigeria/info.htm

Birger

Nigeria is in west Africa. There are no Microsynodontis in east Africa.

I realize this (should have written my question better) but do they only have one rainy season in West Africa.

Birger

I too have an even dozen of these and have split off a trio of one obvious female and two males,I have them in with broken pottery and some small anchored spawning mops,they sit in the mops but as soon as I get near, they dive under the pottery,I am doing the rains for one week on and one week off w...

I have seen a few of these out here as well, they are getting around,I will try to find out where they are comeing from.

Depending on the subject, if it was to be on one of your trips, I would be equally interested in the experiences gone through just to get to these fish, or the collection sites, a lot of us do not get to these locations very often or not at all as some seem fairly remote, just this sort of imformati...

What do you think these two S.ocellifer are, I have a hard time with this and start second guessing myself. The upper is darker throughout the body and is 135mm TL, the lower seems to have a deeper body, lighter color and is presently 125mm TL, there seems to be a slight difference in location in re...

You will have to let us know how it was and what you found

have a good trip,Birger

I know this has been covered in the forum here somewhere I just can't remember at the moment where, quite possibly in the pleco forum,when I have more time I will try to find it.

Birger

Do some research on the size of clown loaches,they can get quite large

check this out
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/bo ... nthus.html

Birger

They should be fine as long as there is some kind of shelter they can be secure in just making sure there are enough places for as many or more pleco's than what you have,for example they may not want to crowd together under the same piece of wood. As for the shrimp go back to what INXS wrote earlie...

Read the " Pleco BreedingTechniques " article in the reproduction section of Shane's World above, it should answer your questions.

Birger

Read the CotM artcle on them, it says they are extra shy, Have patience and just make sure there is a little food for it at night.

Good luck

What other fish are in the tank?
Sometimes moving sticks and rocks about creates more damage than good, for me young syno's seem to dive under them before you even set them down so it is easy to set something on top of a fish.

Birger

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, their looks and character are what people get attached to, but the "pretty" ancistrus would do what you want, check for A.claro as well as they are sometimes available and stay rather small See what you can find at your local fish club if there is one...

What are these two,please
thankyou in advance
12 and 14 cm long at the moment

They would find it, if you continue useing the same spot for the clip they will get used to that location

You are most likely going to pay more for the catfish than the Oscars and unless you are getting some expensive oscars you may want to change your way of thinking slightly as well, in my tanks it's the cichlids that do the cleanup work, you have to make sure the catfish get enough food as the cichli...

I have kept these for many years and am continually amazed at how colorful a group of them can be when they are feeling comfortable in a tank, the variation in colors and patterns seeming different for every fish, for me they revert back to the usually described drab fish when any but the most peace...

I let my mouthbrooders drop their fry in with my adult Petricola dwarf's and I do not worry at all,not sure how they would be with the smaller fry of substrate spawners, that might be a hard treat for them to pass on.

I am sure someone else can provide more detailed information but there is a whole group of fishes loosely being called the Petricola complex, it has not been in readings of late because it still needs to be sorted out and the people you are doubting are the ones that will be at the forefront of this...

I suggest take the time to go through the african forum,there is a lot of the info you want there and more,the suggested tumbler works great and you can keep a number of them on a simple rack with an airflow control for each one,I have also used a small submersible pump to pump water through a modif...