I went to the lfs and bought... a pleco!

[pleconut]

So folks it's time for another one of my weekend 'getting to know you' topics let's contrast last Friday and this Friday for me last Friday i went to the lfs and done what most of us have done i spent two hours wandering around the lfs the first half an hour deciding i wanted to buy a nano tank and plants basically everything but the fish for a rocket killifish setup. And the next hour and a half wandering around between the tanks for sale the plant display the decor section, wood section, gravel section, food section, and the tank with the beautiful rocket killifish and arguing with myself as to why I so needed this tank talking myself in and out of it - many times. So after two hours i thought I'd get some lunch next door over lunch i decided not to go back to LFS that I could go to an LFS and not buy anything and wanting to prove a point i went home with a smug grin as I'd proved my point. Now fast forward to today i went to a different LFS with the full intention of buying a pleco i knew there were green phantoms, adonis plecos, snowball plecos, galaxy plecos, a Columbian zebra, and are usually others but sometimes also the odd gems or one you've never seen you just never know it's that kind of LFS. Well now i have a 25 cm para pleco sat in my tank and a big grin on my face. So why was i unable to talk myself out of it. Probably the cute sucker mouth on these creatures. So my questions are what's the latest LFS purchase for you whatever it is fish or otherwise and what is it about those sucker - mouthed creatures we find so hard to say no to and what would be your ultimate prize pleco . Like to know your thoughts.

[bekateen]

Yep, I think we've all gone through those emotional and intellectual gyrations... "To buy, or not to buy - that is the question!" (Did you know William Shakespeare said this long before he put those famous words about "being" to ink and paper in Hamlet? Yep, he was the first person ever to visit a LFS and walk home without anything, and he was also the first person ever to visit a LFS and impulse buy a pleco which he totally regretted later. Okay, maybe I made that up. Or did I? )

Anyway, I'll turn your decision making in two contrasting, opposite directions - read these (LOL):

• Please help me feel better about exercising judgment in a fish store
• Quick answer needed for an imminent pleco purchase: Guahiborum, gold nugget, or Panaqolus?

But given the dilemma, and acknowledging that we will flip-flop throughout our lives to one choice or the other (depending on the level of excitement about the impulse and the level of dread about our ability to fit it into our already-crowded tanks), I'll offer that it's not simply being smug when we wisely pass by purchasing that impulse fish.

IMHO, more often than not it is good judgment to say no to ourselves about these purchases. Besides to ourselves and our families, we have a responsibility to provide high quality care to the fish which we already own. Therefore, unless we are able to, and are prepared to, offer equally high quality care to the fish we impulse buy, without compromising the care of the fish we already have, then we need to leave the fish behind, for some other hobbyist to take home, care for, and enjoy. And in that case we need to live vicariously through the knowledge that the fish is better off (and so are the fish we already have) because of the prudent decision we made that day.

But if the rarity or uniqueness or desirability of the fish is really high, and you know you can house it properly without harming your other fish, then by all means - GO FOR IT! (I'm going to go out on a limb and claim that Shakespeare said that first, too. Prove me wrong. )

To buy, or not to buy... "There's the rub." (Actually, Shakespeare really is believed to be the first to put that to paper, no lie )

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Thanks for the links I had a good read of them.

[pleconut]

I've always had problems with golden nuggets i read notorious for getting them feeding. The panaquolus i hope i've nailed it now. Mr para -thats not his official name -although a bit subdued seems to be doing well. Now for that ultimate pleco prize in my eyes it would have to be a group of 4 1 male 3 females L 114 demini leopard cactus plecos in a tank with dad in the cave with eggs females queuing up outside and a big fry tank nearby. To big a set up for me. The second link to put those mustard spot plecos i saw some exactly like this at the lfs today and i was planning to look further into it before I took the plunge but they were listed as galaxy plecos although i did ask convinced they were mustard spots when they were netted they didn't appear in the best health to me a bit thin and didn't have wood in the tank and we're probably being treated as galaxy plecos (carnivorous?) If i did get some my first choice would be to get them where in know the person selling them knows what they are and how to treat them Mr para was treated as he should be I'd been researching for a while the guy thought he was a demini leopard cactus which got my attention for the price he was i knew he was not this but a para pleco when he was netted he looked really healthy so i took the plunge. Re the mustard spots as i'm iinterested now i just read in your further link mustard spot project are they actually carnivorous they are at £50 sterling the owner thinks they're galaxies is it worth going for it with the healthiest ones.

[bekateen]

Re the mustard spots as i'm iinterested now i just read in your further link mustard spot project are they actually carnivorous they are at £50 sterling the owner thinks they're galaxies is it worth going for it with the healthiest ones.

Hi Teresa,

Actually, I suspect that mustard spot plecos are no more carnivorous than my clown plecos (P. maccus), which are basically not very carnivorous. The mustard spots I bought are supposedly wild-caught. I picked them up at my LFS on the same day that the LFS received them from the importer, so they had no acclimation period in the LFS. After their purchase, it took my mustard spots a few weeks to adjust to my aquarium before I saw any signs that they were eating (i.e., producing poop). But once they started, they never stopped. They are now constantly eating wood, sweet potatoes, and boiled Brussels sprouts. They've ignored some "omnivore" sinking pellets and some frozen "cocktail shrimp" that I've added to the tank on several occasions.

Although the CLOG's "Feeding" information suggests that mustard spots are more carnivorous than other Panaqolus (it reads, "Sinking pellets, live and frozen worm type foods"), you will also find that the comments from "Registered Keepers" say that they eat veggies, algae wafers, and wood, with only one mention of meaty food on the menu:

upc239: Love algae tablets, zuchinni, freeze dried shrimps.
tony57: love to eat soft bogwood and potatoe.
Papa Moe: eat a lot of wood, which can be heard as a scraping sound at night.

I'm still trying the shrimp occasionally, but so far they've shown no interest.

Mustard spots are the ONLY species of Panaqolus for which wood does not get mentioned in their Feeding info; this seems suspicious to me. So in my other thread I asked the rest of PC whether their experience is consistent with a wood-eating or meat-eating habit for mustard spots, and nobody replied one way or the other. So I'm under the impression that this "customization" of the feeding instructions for mustard spots may be accidental or at least out of date.

Are they worth it? Well, they are nice looking plecos. And mine don't hide as much as my clown plecos do, so that's nice also. But on the downside, even at sizes of 60-75mm SL, they are challenging to sex: After a couple of months of conditioning, mine basically all look alike, except for some slight differences in body contour and slight differences in the size of the odontodes on the pectoral spines (only small lateral odontodes on the posterior body, and no clear differences in the genital papillae). I hope I have one male and two females, but I am really insecure about this. I might have all males, and that would be a bummer, because I don't want to buy more (I'm saving room for some

Hemiancistrus guahiborum

and still trying to acquire some

L397

).

Myself, I don't like to buy fish singly. I am of the mindset that it is better socially for my fish if I buy them in small community groups of 5-8. I don't buy any fish solely for the purpose of breeding them. But I expect that if I give them good care, then eventually they will breed; so that means I have to set aside tank space for fry also. I bought just 3 mustard spots partly because they were an impulse buy, partly because my tank was too small for more, and partly because I am still reserving room for the guahiborum (which I still hope to get before Christmas).

So you have to decide for yourself if they are worth it.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

They are labelled as galaxy plecos but not one of the galaxies in the Clog matches the ones i saw at LFS were 5 inches total length so if misidentifed mustard spots id say are adults they are similar to L007 but with a panaquolus style lyre tail if they are actually galaxies or something completely different altogether unless you're a pleco identifying genius -not like me- which you need to be in an LFS like this then I'm potentially buying a group of what I think are some nice panaquolus and for a tank of such size that may be in fact be tankbusters and not something I could easily put right a theme of this topic you've so aptly addressed in this case I think i will have to pass on this but should I find these mustard spots correctly named as such I might go for it.

[bekateen]

Oh, Teresa, you asked what was our most recent impulse-purchased or not-purchased? Well, for me, there was an "almost-bought impulse buy" which fortunately I restrained myself: it was

Corydoras melini

.

Ever since @Mol_PMB discovered and showed off a little baby melini he found in his tank about a year ago, I've just been really impressed with their stiff tall dorsal fin and their crisp, sharp black coloration - it looks almost like a professional two-tone paint job on an automobile. At that point I decided that sometime in the future, I will get melini, but I haven't yet set a plan for when; thus for now they are still an impulse buy.

Currently my local PetSmart (yeah, I know... please don't judge me) is selling small melini as a "seasonal" offering for only $4 USD. That's almost as cheap as albino corys!

Very tempting to buy, but as stated elsewhere, I don't have any extra tank space! I'm still holding out for the other plecos mentioned above, PLUS I have a LOT of babies which I've got to make room for right now - nearly 50 baby P. maccus (1/2 to 3 months old), between 50-100 albino BNs (~1.5-2" TL; born between Feb and June), a bunch of new baby albino corys (probably more than 200, just 2-3 weeks old now), about 15 C. perugiae almost one month old, and as of yesterday I had another 68 C. perugiae eggs hatch, so I have more of those little guys wiggling in a fry basket.

Nope, no space for unplanned fish, that's for sure!

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

They are labelled as galaxy plecos but not one of the galaxies in the Clog matches the ones i saw at LFS were 5 inches total length so if misidentifed mustard spots id say are adults they are similar to L007 but with a panaquolus style lyre tail if they are actually galaxies or something completely different altogether unless you're a pleco identifying genius

I agree that the lyre-tail of mustard spots should be distinctive; I don't think that galaxies have such a tail fin. Additionally, I would suggest that you look at their dentition, which should be definitive also. The teeth of

Panaqolus

and

Leporacanthicus

should look radically different, reflecting their dietary and phylogenetic differences.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

I do try to avoid unplanned fish there's enough of lot of other unplanned things can occur in the hobby we can't always control as with the L397s at some stage I will have to invest in fry tanks and equipment. I also spoke to the guy I bought these from as he knows his plecos he's certain these are mustard spots but he also noted would have really big problem on my hands with say 6 galaxy plecos. I think i will just need to settle this as: one day when I have the right tank and equipment for mustard spots and managing well and succeeding with the fish- and possibly fry -i have already they now are stored in my pleco project plans for the future along with the L114s but much more of a reality. lol

[Mol_PMB]

Another null response from me, I'm afraid. I haven't bought a catfish for ages (only because my tanks are already well populated with them).

Even so, I still can't quite believe I walked out of Pier yesterday without a little

Pseudacanthicus sp(l273)

.
They were about 2" long and soooo beautiful.

Young L273s at Pier

But although I could easily house one for a couple of years, I only have one tank big enough for a Pseudacanthicus long-term, and that's already home to my

Pseudacanthicus pitanga

. Here she is last night.

'Tuka' finding out whether squid rings are tasty.

Sorry for the quality of both pics; I'll have a proper photo session one day.

Paul

[pleconut]

I'm not a good photographer either i do try with good intentions i will try to get a pic of the para pleco in the end I called him Champion he's that kind of pleco still hides a lot though.