Two of my dwarf petricolas were fighting each other this evening. It was very interesting to watch -- they were swimming side by side all over the tank trying to jab each other with their pectoral fins. There are six of them in a 6' x 2' x 2' tank with a breeding colony of Labidochromis caeruleus ...

I don't know if this is worth mentioning, but I had let the tank and the filters get quite mucky back at the end of December and January. I did some serious cleaning in February and have been much more regular with the cleaning and water changes since then. Maybe this has triggered some kind of ...

It is the only Chaetostoma in the tank. There are plenty of other plecos in there, but none of them are remotely similar to the the Chaetostoma Do fish only become gravid if they are with others of their own species? I don't think so: I had a bristlenose pleco that became gravid on her own ...

Unfortunately I don't have a photo.

It's not showing any signs of ill health. Everything is normal except for its new appetitie for algae wafers and the weight gain.

Hi all,

I've had a bulldog pleco (Chaetostoma spp.) for a couple of years now. It's a fiesty little thing. Until recently I had never seen it eat any food, but now it is eating algae wafers at every opportunity. It is also starting to get fat.

Is it likely that my fish is gravid?

Hi all,

I've got an opportunity to do a spot of catfishing in the Tambopata river in the Peruvian Amazon and was wondering if anyone here could let me know what kinds of catfish inhabit that river.

I should be very interested to read that paper. LOL.

My S. petricola seem to love their Hikari wafers (both types). I typically feed them at night so the cichlids don't grab the pellets before they sink. If I want to see a good display during the day I add a cube of frozen daphnia. As the cube thaws, the daphnia sink to the bottom and coat the gravel ...

So, what do you say guys? Is 720 l too small for a M.tigrinus? (and isn't it too small for a couple of fishes on that list, such as juruense, perruno and L.pictus?)

Yep, I'd say it is too small for these fish. Also L. marmoratus will get way too big for that tank.

>"What Rocks would be best to use and where may I get them from as none of my stockists store rocks"

I'd go out looking in your local river or stream. You are bound to find a lot of nice rounded stones there.

I picked my L114s up for £17 each.

Hi amber, welcome to planet catfish. Your pleco will soon outgrow your tank. These fish grow very quickly and within a year it will need a 100+gallon tank. You need to think about whether you are going to change your tank to suit the fish, or change your fish to suit the tank. There are lots of ...

It looks normal to me. Mine have a slightly darker background colour, but some variation in colour is normal.

My evil terrapin Bob just latched on to my finger and had to be shaken off :evil: I was trying to be nice to it, handfeeding it terrapin sticks, when the little bugger missed the stick and bit my index finger. To be fair to him he was being distracted by a shoal of Nimbochromis venustus, all trying ...

I have heard of 'fishless' cycling. So have I. Never tried it though! What do I need to add to the tank to get the necessary bacteria for ammonia and nitrite breakdown? Half a dozen tiger barbs :wink: They are indestructable. As you work at an LFS, perhaps you could borrow them for a month or so ...

BTW, I bought 3 Hypancistrus zebra (L046) a few weeks ago, for about $100 each, and two of them have since died. I'm sure they did it just to spite me for spending money I can't afford

You could try looking in the cat-eLog.

If you check the eLog by common name (all common names) and scroll down to L, you'll find several hundred gorgeous plecos along with info on how to keep them.

Hope this helps

I use both the algae wafer and the smaller "sinking wafer" (in the orange packet). I'm fairly sure I've seen them eat both.

Have you seen your fish yet?

Your L114 is probably hiding in the log in the one place you can't reach with your fingers!

You could try luring it out by placing a Hikari sinking wafer (my L114s' favourite food) just outside the entrance to the log.

Are these the "true" S. petricola? I seem to remember you saying that the "true" S. petricola has never been spawned in an aquarium. Are these The Real Thing (TM), or just S. pepsicola? The reason I ask is that the S. petricolas that I bought last month were labelled English-bred "True" petricola ...

Sorry to hear about your loss. I lost two zebra plecos last week.

No, there's nothing sharp in the tank. The substrate is smooth gravel, rounded river cobbles and bogwood.

Well, I did a water change and added some Melafix, but the little guy didn't make it. :cry: After it had died I took a good look at it under a hand lens and found a serious injury on its belly. It looks like a straight laceration almost 1.5mm long. I didn't investigate the depth of the wound, but ...

Sorry no pic and only patchy tank stats, but can anyone help my little zebra out. Overnight, one of my three zebra plecos has developed an ugly, irregular bronzish patch under its right eye. It also has a smaller round bronzish patch just above its right pelvic fin. The fish appears to be breathing ...

I picked up 12 for £75 + £10 p&p. They range in size from 0.5" to 1". I had originally planned to buy six for £40 + £10 p&p, but they guy at the shop talked me into doubling the order.

I'm new to S. petricola as well. I added 12 of them to my 150G Malawi tank last week. It takes a while for me to spot them as they are tiny <1" SL and they do like to hide in the rocks. They will eat any leftover cichlid food. I also feed them frozen daphnia, which sinks to the bottom, coating all ...

Cool

Should I rehouse my $500 pleco collection while I sit back and watch the show?

Uh oh, sounds like the dreaded MTS (Melanoides tuberculata) Yep, that's the one. Dare I ask why it is so dreaded? IME, if you take out all the substrate, they're easy to eradicate from a tank. That's not the most popular idea though, I've found Sounds good to me, as I have nine kuhli loaches ...

I don't think they are that abundant over here. None of the shops I know have any in stock at the moment, and when they do, they quickly disappear at £60 ($100) a pop. That's why I only have three in a tank that could happily house 8-10 of the cuties. I'm hoping to build up my stock over time, but I ...

I would be tempted to use that 10 gallon to breed river shrimp to feed to my cichlids and pims. That's exactly what I'm planning to do with my 15 gallon tank once I rehouse the current occupants).

Or keep it as a quarantine tank.