New Fish Keeper and his Fish

[LittleMick]

Hi everyone, just thought I would introduce myself as a new fish keeper. I'm Mick from the UK. I've had my aquarium for about 3 months now. I got a 300l Juwel Rio. It's a nice community tank with a range of fish. I started out with 6 Yellow Tuxedo Plays, then 6 Dalmation/Marble Mollies, 10 Glowlight Tetras, 4 Apple Snails. Then I got my plecs, 1 Tiger Pan and 2 Buldog Plecs. Although the Bulldogs were labelled up as Bulldogs I have a funny feeling they are not, after viewing the Cat-eLog about export restrictions
As a new keeper I was totally unexpecting the breeding frenzy that has been going on. My Platys, Mollies and Snails. Then tonight I was totally shocked to see 2 baby Bulldogs munching on the bottom. I didn't think they would breed unless I was creating a species/geographic specific aquarium. I'm trying to spot the differences between the 2 using the Cat-eLog as a guide bt there only seems to be one and that is one of them has white/cream edge on the dorsal fin.

Regards
Mick

[andywoolloo]

welcome! Can we see some pics of your tank and fish.

the plecos could surely be identified.

Congrats on your babies also!

[LittleMick]

Thanks Andy, as requested here are a few images of my tank and catfish.
This is how I started, as you can see, it's abit sparse, I add 6 Platys as a first fish.


Then as I added livestock I added more plants, with the theory that each planted area would be a particular territory, but it didn't quite work out like that, they all just go where they want to go.


I went all plastic on the plants as my first attempt with real ones didn't go to well. I'll try and get a recent image up as soon as... But now, I switch the clinging plant over the other side to cover the filter housing, also moved the sword plants there as well, I got 2 bits of dead wood, and I also got a massive deadwood that is hollow inside. The Catfish stay in there. The Bulldogs don't mind coming out during light hours but the Tiger prefers night time, although lately he/she seems to be more daring the last few days.

Anywa, here's my Tiger


And here is one of my Bulldogs, I wouldn't mind a confirmation on identity as the images I have seen on Bulldogs show them as being rather large. But according to my research they are supposed to only grow to about 12cm. Apologies for the poor quality of the image, I still need practice with a camera.


I'm thinking of putting more vegitation in there, to give more hiding places, certainly more floating plants for my Gouramis, and I am thinking of going with live plants, just a couple for now to see how I get on with that, as algae does grow quite quickly in there.

Mick

[Richard B]

The bulldog looks like a common ancistrus/bristlenose

[MatsP]

Mick, Welcome to Planet Catfish. Nice tank.

Definitely agree with Richard [when don't I ;)] - it is certainly a

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

.

--
Mats

[LittleMick]

Hi and thanks for the confirmation, I was looking at the specs of the Bristlenose and I concur, sexing them was easy, I have one with bristles and one with out, which is probably obvious as I have 2 babies turned up, lol.
Here's a better pic of one of them, the babies are a little harder to photograph, as I don't have a decent lens on my camera, only a standard 50mm.

[MatsP]

Two babies probably means that you either have something that eats bristlenose babies, or you haven't found all of them yet.

--
Mats

[sojapat]

Nice pic of the Tiger , Really nice fish ..Ignore the ancistrus
What was he called where you bought him?

[apistomaster]

I gave a friend of mine some young Bushy nose of the species you have and they began breeding when they were only about 9 months old and they have never stopped since. He coined the name, "Guppyostomus' for them and we have used it ever since. Mat is quite right that it is likely you have more fry than you have seen so far. A first spawn from a small pair may produce 25 fry easily. If predation is not a problem, then you should have little difficulty growing them up in the community tank.
They aren't the first species most beginning fish keepers breed but one that surely will pique your interest in catfish.

[andywoolloo]

Also you might want to check in your filters. The babies could be living in
there, if they weren't eaten by another fish.

Nice tank and pl*cos!!

[apistomaster]

You do have a nice looking Peckolia species. It looks like a Peckolia vittata "teenager" but I'm not 100% sure of my identification.
Looking over your list of fish I didn't see any that would go out of their way to eat Bushy Nose fry but you don't have very many good hiding places for them so I also suspect many found their way into the filter intakes. Some fry may be alive and well within the filter but some probably didn't survive either. I recommend adding more decorative structure to your tank like some wood and small caves made of rock piles. A pre-filter over the main filter's intake will prevent fry loses. I don't know if saving any is something you want to do or not. In any case, your Bushy Nose will regularly spawn for many years to come so if you ever decided to try raising them in the future you will have many more chances to do so.

[MatsP]

Larry, you MUST learn to tell the difference between Peckoltia and (tiger-striped) Panaque species - it's relatively easy: Peckoltia have roughly the same size stripes at the face and the body, the Panaque's have fine lines in the face and coarser lines on the body.

--
Mats

[andywoolloo]

I know you're teasing Larry but it's like 'Peckoltia' is a nick name referenced or what?


http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=735

L002, L074, Tiger ''Peckoltia''

L002 is also L074. Often labelled as Peckoltia vermiculata although the dentition matches that of Panaque spp. After comparing photographs of the type specimen of Peckoltia vermiculata which is held in a museum in Vienna we have no doubt that L002 is not that species. It is an unidentified species. L074 appears to be a very faded L002.

[apistomaster]

I have never seen a Tiger Panaque in the USA, I am sure there are some imported from time to time but Peckoltia vittata seems to be seen more often.
Also the OP's fish appeared to be a subadult and most plecos have their best and most contrasting colors compared when they are full grown. It is more difficult to identify young specimens than it is to identify adults.
It seems that end sellers around the world often have different sets of exporter connections which results in some species being more common in Europe than the USA. We in the USA have lost one of our better pleco specialist importers and now there are more small individual dealers, each having fewer species than the now out of business specialty dealer, exoticfinds, is gone. Brazilian Hypancistrus were the most popular so once the Brazilian Hypancistrus export ban began taking hold the effect has been to see more of the less popular and often larger plecos from Brazil and from the Orinoco along the Colombian border shared with Venezuela. Only the few Orinoco drainage species of Hypancistrus are available in good numbers and Peckoltia vittata is one of the few Brazilian species that appears regularly on Brazilian exporters stock lists.

[LittleMick]

Now now guys stop throwing all these names at me, I'm only a beginner, lol. Anyway, The tanks has grown since those images, I will get soem more recent ones as soon as I have a min.

Although I have got live bearers in their and I have definitely seem one of the Mollies eat one of the fry, but I haven't seen any evidence yet to suggest they would eat any fry of another species, being a new keeper I panicked when I see my first fry and was running aroundshouting "save them, save them". But after some advice from the tropical store they said unless you are planning to become a breeder then just leave it to natural selection, so those that survive go to the local store and I might keep one for if I have any losses.
Previuosly I used to find quite a few of them hiding in the filter housing, but since those images were taken I have alot more plants (plastic), 2 log ornaments that are quite large, 2 pieces of dead wood and a couple of other ornaments, so there are plenty of hidy holes. I think the only thing I need to get more of now, is some floating plants for the Gouramis.

The Bristlenoses were labeled up as Bulldogs but the Tiger was labelled up as a Tiger, L numbers I can't remember off hand. When I first looked into getting some Plecs I was abit conscious of what I was buying as I read that alot of Plecs like a low PH and obviously some can grow very large. When I first started buying livestock I was after a Mustard Spot, LDA31 I think it is, but they had them labelled up as Snowball LDA33 which was incorrect. When I looked up LDA33 on this site it says they grow upto 9.8", abit too big for what I was after, then the common name was confusing me as well as it didn't match.

Well all the fry disappear on me, I was told this is normal, they can disappear for weeks and you think they have died, then all of a sudden they will pop up a larger size than when they disappeared.

My aquarium is only 4 months old so I'm still new to it all with loads more to learn.

Mick

[apistomaster]

I thought I removed all my Queen Arabesque, Hypancistrus sp L260 fry when I removed 11.
Later on I noticed there were at least 3. I just removed all the possible hiding places to move the breeders to a different tank. I found I actually had 8 juveniles, 1-1/2 inches long. Pretty good, I had 19 juveniles. Then a few days later I noticed I had some how missed one more. The final total was 20 1-1/2 inch juveniles. Only 2 sponge filters and the heater provided enough cover for that last one to elude me the day I meant to remove every last one. Amazing how skilled they make use of any cover what-so-ever.
My target is to have 30 tank raised Queen Arabesque breeders so I'm pleased I only have 10 more to go. That is now up to the breeders in their new tank.

[LittleMick]

As a new keeper I was unprepared for the fry, I think in hind sight I should have done a different ratio of the sexes with the Platys, I should have only got one male to 5 females that what I did with my Mollies. However it's diiferent with th ePlecs though as I only have one of each sex and going by what you said about their normal rate of births I should think myself lucky I only got 2 babies, lol

QUICK QUESTION - Do you guys use any chemical or water treatment for algae, I have all plastic plants, and althought the Plecs and Snails love it I do get a fair bit of algae growing on the ornaments and plants. And if you don't use anything how are you getting rid of your's? Seems the only other way would be to take the plants out for a clean. I was advised not to use an othe treatments apart from the weekly doses of Easy Balance, Nitrate Minus and AquaSafe.


Mick

[LittleMick]

Well there were more baby Bristlenoses, I was doing my 2 week maintanence. And I was looking for a Molly I hadn't seen for a while, so I had to move a massive log ornament and all the babies scampered out. Last count there was 9. I daresay there are some more somewhere. Good thing was I found a shrimp I hadn't seen for like... a month.


Mick

[andywoolloo]

when you mention algae and you say your tank is 4 mos old it makes me think it is diatoms. very common in newly set up tanks, it goes away as mysteriously as it comes. It doesn't harm anything and you can rinse it off your fake plants in the used tank water on water change day. if it is on the decorations also you can scrub it off in the used tank water with a toothbrush, used just for your aquarium of course.

Diatoms eat the silica off of stuff in the tank, like the tank glass and substrate and decorations, then when it is done it leaves. it looks rusty browninsh and wipes off easily.

your pl*cos are very pretty.

congrats on the more babies found! the like zuchinni and cucumber and sweet bell pepper strips, all raw. weighted down, and NLS Grow is good also. Their are tons of pl*co feeding articles on this site.

[apistomaster]

I don't use any additives except SeaChem's Prime to dechlorinate and neutralize the chloramine in my tap water.
If you do use anything other than a water conditioner like the Aquasafe or Prime to make your tap water safe those additives might help feed diatoms and algae. One thing about an all artificial tank, fake plants etc., is that there isn't anything to compete for the nutrients already in your water or those that may be in other purpose additives, trace phosphates for example. The artificial tank supports only a few hardy pioneer microscopic organisms and diatoms are among the first to appear followed by the algae. I would think the baby bushy nose would be polishing off most of these coating growths; they are pretty good at that.
Eventually even the simplest set up goes through stages of ecological succession and the first pioneers, the diatoms, recede in abundance.