Did you try suction cups? I use them mainly to mount driftwood pieces to the back and sides of tanks, but they will work fine anywhere. Just buy a couple of big suction cups, attach them with screws, and "poof" you have what you want. Most commercial driftwood is attached to slate via meta...

Yann, Are you sure they come from Brazil? Cucuta is the capital of Norte de Santander Department Colombia. I notice they also have "Ancistrus meta (sic)," which I assume is a made up name for an Ancistrus sp. that they are getting out of Meta Department (or even the Rio Meta). There are se...

I asked a local exporter friend to get me some S. aureum a few weeks ago and they finally came in today. His wife had put aside a bag of 30 for me and I had to explain that I did not quite need that many. Anyway, she told me to just grab as many as I wanted from the bag. When I stuck my hand in the ...

Saylaveev, I am in Bogota, Colombia now, which may seem far from British Columbia, but I did my undergrad at WWU in Bellingham and spent lots of time during those years combing the fish stores of Vancouver. I noticed your posting on sand and you are in a great area to collect natural driftwood, rock...

Andre (and others), I looked at few pictures of L 333 around the internet and it is NOT the same as the small black and white loricariid that I have been seeing out of the Orinoco. I believe that the fish I am seeing is a variant pattern L 129. Sorry for the confusion and thanks for correcting me. -...

Guya,
I'll look around and contact Lyn and see if they are still saved in the Cat-L archives. I believe that Dinyar, Heok Hee, and maybe Jools will remember the articles.
-Shane

Guya,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. This article, with a few modifications, is lifted from a series of e-mails I wrote on Cat-L in 1996 after Doug Underwood used my technique to spawn P. nigrolineatus. I'll contact the website and let them know it was plagerized.
-Shane

I never knew there were so many options. I change a lot of substrates and here is how I do it. Go to any hardware store and buy about 4 feet of one inch diameter clear plastic hose. Remove the fish, start the suction, and just suck out the substrate into a bucket. When the bucket is full you just du...

Is it enough to just give these fish a good home for a few years in a glass box or should we be doing something to prevent the disappearance of these species from their natural habitats? Is it a good or bad feeling to know this species of fish you are looking at every day may not be around in a gen...

Andy,
Sadly, this is why you can never really have a whitewater biotope tank. Look at my photos in the "Natural Catfish Aquarium article." Who would want to maintain an aquarium where you can not see the fish? True to nature, yes. Practical, no.
-Shane

The Rio Magdalena has a very interesting fish population for a number of reasons. It is completely independent of any other South American river system and is seperated from all other river systems, especially along its upper course, by very high mountains. Leaving Bogota, you have to cross through ...

Actually, I am working on a book about my two years in Venezuela and working on a second book with some Venezuelan scientists on the reptiles, animals, and fishes of the llanos. I would also like to work together with Heok Hee (Silurus) at some point on bagrid book. My Venezuela book is pretty much ...

Some loricariids from the upper Magdalena near Giradot. I also finally managed to speak to a collector from the Magdalena about Panaque sp. "blue eyes." He said that they are still plentiful around Bucaramanga and a few other places, but that all the places where he knew he could find them...

All fish can jump out of a tank. Sadly it is a trick that they usually only do once...
-Shane

Klaus, I am basing the A. triradiatus comments on two things, 1) The VAST majority of Ancistrus photos we receive at Planet Catfish are A. triradiatus and 2) The huge numbers of this Ancistrus sp. exported out of Colombia. Maybe most of these are just ending up in the States and not crossing the oce...

Perfect Tim, although I was going to use thoes photos in other posts.. Thanks again.
-Shane

Hello all, Spent yesterday at the Rio Magdalena in the village of Ricaurte which is between Melgar and Giradot. The water was very high and which did not make for a great collecting day. http://eheim-uk.com/albums2/Shane/Magdalena.sized.jpg I actually ended up doing most of my collecting with a smal...

Andre, You did not see any police or military because that area is not under government control. The Colombian Navy patrols south to the rapids at Samariapo, but beyond that you pretty much in FARC territory. The Colombian Army will only patrol right around Puerto Carreno and they get nervous when t...

Tigrinus, No worries. What I keep changes pretty often as I am always bringing home new things. Today I brought home some pretty blue hued Pimelodus and a very interesting Pseudopimelodus . Both will get too big, but I brought them home to photo mostly. In a few weeks I'll drop them off at an export...

If no new Ancistrus have been shipped to Australia in 30 years, you could be correct as most aquarium shipments in the 1970s came out of Guyana. If there have been shipments since then HH is probably correct that they are A. triradiatus.
-Shane

I have no clue why they are called Police Cats and I have asked a lot of people. Not such good collecting due to high water. Lots of Pims and a VERY interesting Pseudopimelodus. I can not find a photo of anything like it. Thanks for the paper (Peces de Magdalena) HH, it was a big help. Not only high...

All I have is that they come from the Essequibo system. Are they being imported? I would love to see a photo.
-Shane

Yann and Andre, Let me check the photos that were published of L 333 again to be positive of my identification. There is a loricariid that, if it is not L 333, looks very similar that is coming out of the upper Orinoco. As to assigning L Numbers by country, this is not a good idea. Only humans respe...

Sorry Jools, I'll try to stick to at least one per week, it is a reasonable request. Headed down to the Rio Magdalena at Giradot this weekend. I'll get some good photos and ask around about blue eyed Panaques. On an interesting note, Colombians do not use corroncho or panaque. All loricariids, and a...

Jools, any provenience on this. It would help.
-Shane

Tigrinus, It was not the point of my message to say anything good or bad about the fish in question. Big Blue asked if they were expensive or rare and I pointed out that they are a common food fish here in Colombia. The fact that the meat is not very good was just a factoid since I doubt Katfishguy ...

The species name is Pinirampus pirinampu or more commonly "pobre blanco" which I always translate as "White Trash Catfish" (it literally means poor white catfish). It is very common and one of the cheapest catfishes to buy as the meat is OK, but not great. Since it grows to over ...

Most of the Pims are very adaptive and are some of the few fishes that easily move between white and black waters. I assume that this is true for P. ornatus as it is true of P. clarias and other similar fishes. I have caught P. clarias type cats in black waters, clear water lakes, and white waters s...

Amy, I would say that L 91 is a pretty easy fish to maintain. The only negative characteristic about the species is that they can be aggressive. I placed four L 91, each aboout 4 inches SL, with three L 200, each about 7 inches SL, and the L 91 really beat the L 200s up bad. They jump on the L 200's...

Adela, In the future do not use a net. It is much easier to move any pleco over two inches by just grabbing it. My two big Panaque L 333 have been moved so many times this way that they do not even react any more.
-Shane