I leave my vegetables in (a slice of each--zucchini, yellow squash tonight; shrimp and sweet potato Wednesday night, etc.) for 12 hours from 7PM when the blue moonlight comes on until 7AM when the overhead light comes on and the moonlight goes off. Each week I do a 20% water change, cleaning the ...

You are right! I shall stick to Sweet Red Bell Pepper. But, I love hot, spicy food--Thai, etc. Don't know that Blue and Spot would agree with me, though. (I had seen a list of foods and Capscium was listed--thought that it was the hot red pepper.)

Matt, I had the same problem of not seeing my plecos until recently. Now my L81, Spot, is out quite often during the day and night, cleaning diligently (no algae--great little housekeeper)and seems to enjoy the waterfall area upon occasion. My L239, Blue, still stays in the composite cave during the ...

My L81 and L239 love zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, golden beet, lima bean, broccali stem and sweet red bell pepper. I am going to try mushroom, stringbean. I just saw a list of favorite foods in another forum that listed eggplant (aubergine), pea (which I have tried, but either they don't ...

I guess I should have called her a "pet communicator" since some people seem to think that this is "hocus pocus". She receives what the animal visualizes and then interprets it. It is an amazing gift and she has helped many vets, trainers, etc. in our area. It also carries a lot of grief/sadness ...

I forgot to add that Blue also told her that he watches me sitting in my chair (the tank is in a pass thru area between the kitchen and the family room and I see him look out the cave, both front window and back door, and watch me!). Joyce

ljse - No, I hope that they expect to live a long time! They are happy and I monitor their water quality, do 20% water changes weekly, maintain 7.2PH, 78-80 temp, supply a variety of food, etc. According to info that I received today they should live 10 - 15 years and then some. I am trying to keep ...

:D Amazing what they told our local pet psychic! Blue said I have had him for a long time. Spot said that he is older (I think he meant that I have had him for a month longer). Both love their cave and talked about the large variety of food. Problem that sometimes the food is cold! I now microwave ...

Bought golden beets and tried a slice on my plecos. They love it! Doesn't color the water as normal red beets would and tastes more bitter to me, as opposed to the sweet red beets. But, they love it! Also, gave them zucchini and a carrot slice the other night. Now they are not interested in carrot ...

For about a month now I have been noticing black specks on the leftover food that I remove each AM. Am I seeing baby snails, or something else? This morning there was nothing on the zucchini. Have decided to only place one type of food in daily. Have to purchase a tiny bottle to try the lettuce ...

Thanks, everyone, for the info. I am certain that the snails came in on a plant from a LFS that said that the plants were "clean" - fo fish, etc. NOT! I wash my plants but must have missed a couple of snails or eggs. Shall continue squashing them. I don't have a clue what kind they are - they seem ...

What can I use to kill snails in my tank? I have been smashing each one with my finger and thought that I only had a few but now babies are appearing. I hate to use chemicals, but is there anything that I can use that won't hurt my plecos? If I have to I shall simply continue to smash!!! Thanks ...

What a beauty! In fact, they are all gorgeous! Double wow!

Deb, that is amazing. I can just imagine how you felt when you found him. Poor little guy! You should be very proud of yourself--what a MOM! Kudos to you! It seems that freak accidents happen when you least expect them. I have noticed that my plecos do not like noise at all! My tank is between my ...

Thanks to everyone who gave me great advice before leaving on vacation. I am back from 80 degree Florida Keys to 40 degree Cincinnati, Ohio. Both plecos are in fine shape. Tank looks great. Suprised that they didn't eat the Elodea! Gave them sweet potato upon arrival yesterday afternoon and last ...

Great! Now you give me more to worry about! Didn't think about my tank exploding or other horrible things happening! Another worry is the possible electical outage due to a storm! Yikes! That would be the worst. Had an outage for 74 hours a while back and had to rent a generator and hook up my ...

Thank you, Jonas, for the info. Since I only have 2 small plecos I feed around 7PM when my overhead light goes off and my Aqualight Blue/Moonlight comes on. I remove the food which is rubber banded to flat rocks at 7AM. Therefore, nothing decays in the tank. I do know that I overfeed because food is ...

Thanks everyone! My plecos are nice and plump and there is some algae on a couple of the rocks and on the glass so they will have some food available. They have 2 driftwoods for cellulose, if they want it. I will do a water change before leaving and not clean the glass. Please be assured that I ...

Thanks, Mats. My pet sitter is actually for my 18 year old cat, but would feed plecos if asked. I shall let them work on the little algae in the tank until I return and can monitor the quality of the water. The hard slurry mixture on the rock will be added to their weekly diet. Think I shall try one ...

Mats, I read your article in Shane's World regarding feeding Plecos. Am leaving for a week vacation Nov. 4 and am wondering if I should not feed my L239 and L81 for the week (pet sitter) due to water quality deterioration or if your recipe for the "slurry" painted on the rock would work since it ...

I really appreciate your information. I do have a bypass on my water softening unit, however, I would have to run the water for quite a while in order to first clean out the system. My outside water is not softened but I live in Ohio and we are experiencing very cold weather. I can get gallons of ...

:idea: Thank you! I have learned the error of my ways and from now on shall use straight R/O water unless you tell me that I need to add tap water due to lack of minerals. If this is the case then I can use a friend's tap water to mix with the R/O. MatsP, I would appreciate your advice.

Off of the ...

Thank you. The term "black water" threw me. My tank has soft water (use potassium in my water softener system). Mix R/O with tap water and am now around PH 7.2. I realize that this is close to neutral. This would be on the high side of the L183's range. Since I do water changes every week I could ...

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum.

My common outgrew my tank (awesome cleaner) so I found a good home for him with a large tank. Now have an L239 Blue Panaque and L81 Gold Nugget, who will occasionally clean glass and rocks, not plants and gravel. Am looking for an herbivore that will cohabit ...