Are any of the other plants being damaged?

Depending on whether any veggie content is given in their diet, many supposedly carnivorous plecos will gnaw on plants. This is based solely on my own experience with L201, L333, L340, L260, and other Hypans. Of course the omnivorous plecos will devour anything if they want to. I have been able to p...

Wood isn't absolutely necessary, but hiding spots are. In my experience, people have very little hiding spots in discus tanks for plecos and it can be stressful for them. My wild discus tank is full of wood and rocks for the plecos to hide so they are very comfortable in there. If you have sufficien...

Congrats on the family addition!

The eyes also appear to be a bit sunken, which is a really bad sign. It's really unhappy about something. Perhaps it's getting beat up by the others? Any chance you can QT it?

A friend of mine is running an Alita from Kensfish and I've seen it in operation and it's super quiet for a pump that puts out that kind of air. He's had it for close to a year now. I think it's this one. http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-supplies/air-pumps/alita-al-15a-air-pump-12-gang-manifold.html

Krylon Fusion.

There is someone already trying to do it in Indonesia, as well as already mass producing H. zebra.

http://www.bellenz.com/about.php

I have had cories in gravel and in sand. They do better in sand, but in my experience, they do fine in gravel also and only seem to get barbel erosion if the substrate is very dirty. Since I have upped the flow and filtration very significantly in my 125 gallon tank, I have all kinds of cories in th...

MTS are livebearers and Assassin snails are self-limiting once they run out of other snails to eat. That's only partially true for the Assassins. I brought some in my 20 gallon breeding tank to take care of pond snails and they ate all the snails and are now happily eating fish food. They do seem t...

You can swish the cartridges around in a bucket of tank water (after a water change) to knock off any loose stuff and you'll be all ready to go. I wouldn't bother with any supplements since you're already starting with a whole seeded filter.

Agreed with the above, I just wanted to mention that I actually prefer starting tanks with established filters, makes it way easier and takes a load off the mind when you don't have to worry about cycling. Same here. I usually don't use a whole filter, but just some media from the other filter, or ...

One thing you might want to do is clean it (the tubes, impellers, etc.) to make sure it'll run with good flow a few days before you bring it home. That way the bacteria bed can be at full efficiency when you transfer it over. Otherwise when you first run it flow might be reduced and some built up sl...

It's only risky for your fish if his tank has disease. So if you're getting all new fish which are not guaranteed disease-free and in a tank by themselves (ie, not from a LFS), you're not running any more risk than if you're starting a new filter. However, you get to skip the cycle and not have to w...

Is P.compta fairly common? Currently there are a number of breeders in Canada (I see you are from NS). Davej on here breeds them (from Metro Van) and if you look on Canadapleco.com, a number of guys breed them in Ontario and will ship. I know for a fact that Davej has lots but he's currently on vac...

Jools wrote: January 2014 will be P. spinosus. L024/L025 I am waiting until it or they is/are described. Hopefully that will get the ball rolling and we can get back on track.

Jools

Wow, awesome, you read my mind!

How about Pseudacanthicus sp. (L024)?

100 watt is plenty for anything up to 55 gallons normally, unless your house is extremely cold.

What's the wattage?

Yes, I can't imagine space being a problem in that tank.

What size tank are they are in? I also have mine in a 125 gallon. The biggest is 8" long and the smaller ones are about 6". I grew out the smaller ones separately from 3" in another tank and put them in there when they were about 4"+ and I have not ever seen any aggression betwee...

Jools wrote: Could you provide a list of plecos you've observed eating live shrimp?

Cheers

Jools

Second this. The only shrimps I've seen plecos eat are ones which were already dead.

Unless it was by accident none of my plecos have eaten my cherry shrimp. The plecos include Hypans, Peckoltia, Scobiancistrus, Pseudacanthicus, Ancistrus and Baryancistrus.

Why not just build a 2x4 frame and skin it instead of trying to reinforce the stand or using cinder blocks for a new one? Cheap and fairly simple and you can make the inside and outside look like anything you want. Joey Mullins' series on Youtube (a fellow Canuck from Nova Scotia) is awesome if you ...

I use Estes white silica sand in my non-planted tanks (non is relative as there are still plants in them). I pump water out for water changes, so I use an Eheim sludge extractor to clean the sand. I run an Eheim 2078 in the tank and sand in the filter has not been a problem for the impeller, but did...

Thanks for clarifying Jason. I didn't mean inverted. I meant that they are not independent. The partial pressures are dependent on the other partial pressures of all gases in solution, that's all.

I don't think oxygen replaces CO2, I think their relative concentrations are independent I don't think that's quite accurate since the partial pressures of all the dissolved gases in a fluid are interrelated. So having higher O2 and other gases will affect how much CO2 may be dissolved in a fluid. ...

I've never been able to keep Baryancistrus long. I have had B. demantoides, B. chrysolomus(L047), B. xanthellus, (L177) and B. beggini (L239). Of all those, I have had the most success with B. beggini. I currently still have 3 of the 5 that I got last year. The longest I've ever had any Baryancistru...

Unfortunately, I agree with the previous poster. I've never been able to keep a juvie to adulthood. I've tried numerous times and they either eventually stop eating or they die after months of happy lives. I've never been able to figure out why any of mine died, and I've had 5 or 6 of them.

Too bad. But as you suggested, now that he's done it once maybe he'll be a better parent the second time.