Saw a news story recently about plecos in Mexico. They are using them to make cat and dog food.
-Shane

Friday night crew!
-Shane

Headed to the airport. Looking forward to seeing everyone this afternoon!
Will do my best to add some photos to this thread.
-Shane

What a wonderful tribute to a fantastic hobbyist.
-Shane

Looking forward to receiving it!
-Shane

Clean water, good food, and time to heal. Do not medicate unless you have a very clear diagnosis and know what (and how) to treat that specific ailment. Many catfishes are very sensitive to medications so the "cure" can often do more harm than good. Many of us have learned that through direct ...

Some pictures of my current basement fishroom below and some thoughts and opinions. "- have individual glass tanks plumbed to a sump?" I would strongly advise against this. In a limited space sumps take up too much valuable real estate. Same for canister filters. It will only take one disease ...

Keep in mind, if you use totes of any kind, that they do not need to meet display aquarium filtration standards as you will be doing large water changes every day or two.
-Shane

Halloween is coming.

The biggest issue I have had with Ancistrus fry is that a few dominant fry will establish themselves and get the most food. This results in a brood with 4-5 fast growing fry while their brothers and sisters show little growth. To keep growth equal among the group it's necessary to occasionally ...

Take a look at . However, as Eric said, without collection information we are just guessing. L192 does sporadically turn up in shipments from the Colombian llanos.
-Shane

See you there!
-Shane

Just recently came across this.
-Shane


https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _Indonesia

"Eric, it Lee's Feed and Pet. I'm sure you're familiar."

Are you implying Eric is often visiting Folsom? Lol

Also, with Bagrichthys... Out of my current 8 set ups their tank is the only one without a single snail of any kind. I find that very odd.

-Shane

"Bagrichthys macracanthus 1 $12.00 US!"

That's amazing!
-Shane

To fully cover this, I need to rehash some taxonomy so that we can all be on the same page. In "Catfishes of Venezuela" (1944) Schultz described Ancistrus brevifilis bodenhameri and Ancistrus triradiatus martini as two new sub species. In 1980 Isbrucker raised both to the species level (and many ...

I have always had good success using a short formalin dip. "If you want to use Formalin as a dip on a fish that has NOT been shipped or severely stressed, I would recommend a mere 50-100 ppm (2-4 cc per 10 gallons) for no more than 1 hour, much less if respiratory difficulty is seen." -Shane

I am in Vegas for work this week and will jump on this as soon as I am home. There was also a major paper published on Ancistrus from this region published a couple of years ago that may provide us with some additional clarity. One very interesting thing was that they described a new Ancistrus from ...

Agree with Eric on the identification. This is a "wild type" meaning it looks just like specimens collected from the wild. There is also a man made strain in the hobby with a lot of orange on the body. These fish come from cooler, clear streams in the Rio Tuy system. Temperature should be in the ...

This is A. triradiatus. The only other Ancistrus in that area is A. amarus. See De Souza, L. S., Taphorn, D. C., & Armbruster, J. W. (2019). Review of Ancistrus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the northwestern Guiana Shield, Orinoco Andes, and adjacent basins with description of six new species ...

Personally, I would not use a pond. Just too difficult to monitor the fish and make sure they are healthy, eating, and getting along.

Yes, submerged leaves from living trees along the banks.

-Shane

Yes, look in the Catelog and Shane's World for pictures and further habitat information. I don't think the tank needs to be gigantic. You could raise a group in a 100-125 gallon tank easily. Once you have an identified pair (or even trio) they could be housed in their own 125. You could sell off any ...

I have captured hundreds of P. nigrolineatus new born fry in the Venezuelan llanos, so they definitely hatch there. They are usually found on the submerged branches and leaves of terrestrial trees. They appear to feed in this environment until they reach about 1.5 inches. Beyond that size they are ...

Even in the tropics temperatures fluctuate due to the rainy season. Surface temps in the lake can range from 75 to 84F (24-29C) throughout the year. Keep in mind, however, that fishes would only be exposed to the extreme lows and highs for a short period during extensive rain or dry spells. For long ...

LOL!
-Shane

Please scroll up and read my previous postings. I never said that this guy (Bobby?) was faking anything.

-Shane

Tough one with a fish that size. Is there a friend willing (perhaps a fisherman) that could do blunt or sharp instrument? Eric's suggestion is good as are clove oil, alcohol or even vodka in a pinch. But submerging an animal that size to euthanize may not be realistic.
-Shane

Sorry, but $30 dollars for a fish you can catch by the hundreds in a few minutes seems crazy to me. Also, no need to venture far from a major town to collect them. Lastly, natural lifespan is longer than Otocinclus but not by a lot. This is not a fish that is likely to still be going strong 5-6 ...

Take a look at Never understood why this genus is not more common in the hobby. They can be found in huge numbers near many areas that are hubs for fish exportation.
-Shane

Something I have found over the years is that the key to growth in many lorcariids (that are not specialist feeders) is that volume of food available plays a bigger role than quality of food. If the pleco has constant access to zucchini, carrots, broccoli stems, etc you will see faster growth than ...