Shelter selection in zebra plecos

[Silurus]

Ramos, FM, LB Recuero, TVN Silva, RY Fujimoto, JT Lee & M Ferreira Torres, 2013. Shelter selection in the Amazonian zebra pleco, Hypancistrus zebra Isbrücker & Nijissen, 1991 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae): requirements in rearing conditions. Journal of Applied Ichthyology doi:10.1111/jai.12176.

[MatsP]

Any chance of a copy?

--
Mats

[Suckermouth]

I honestly thought this was an April Fool's joke.

[Silurus]

Well, April Fool's day was yesterday where I'm at.

[TwoTankAmin]

Unless you have access via an institutional membership etc., the only way to see it is to pay.

There is no abstract for the piece so I have no idea what it might be about beyond the title. Given the conditions where these fish live in the wild and the extreme difficulty of trying to observe them there, I am unwilling to pay up. Who knows where the authors did what?

The article may have some great stuff, but I can't see buying a pig in a poke. If anybody does have access would you at please post enough info so one can make a reasonable decision if it is worth paying to read. Why there is no abstract is beyond me.

[Suckermouth]

Unless you have access via an institutional membership etc., the only way to see it is to pay.

There is no abstract for the piece so I have no idea what it might be about beyond the title. Given the conditions where these fish live in the wild and the extreme difficulty of trying to observe them there, I am unwilling to pay up. Who knows where the authors did what?

The article may have some great stuff, but I can't see buying a pig in a poke. If anybody does have access would you at please post enough info so one can make a reasonable decision if it is worth paying to read. Why there is no abstract is beyond me.

It's a short communication, which often don't have abstracts.

[racoll]

There is no abstract for the piece so I have no idea what it might be about beyond the title.

I think this is simply because it's what's called a "Short communication", which minimises space, and don't have abstracts.

Unless you have access via an institutional membership etc., the only way to see it is to pay.

Yup. The situation is an utter disgrace. You*, the taxpayer, paid for this research, and they want to charge, again, just to read it! One of the reasons they give for not changing the status quo, is that you're too dumb to understand it anyway. Seriously. Here's a really good article on the current state of affairs: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/.

If I have access, I'll send it too you.

*actually the Brazilian taxpayer probably did, but the situation in the same everywhere.

[Andrewjw]

I have it in pdf form, if anyone is interested.
...and the Journal makes the money for the reprint, not the researchers...
email me: white@kids.wustl.edu

[TwoTankAmin]

I had the opportunity to read the study. I must say I felt it was a pretty poorly designed study, one whose results are almost meaningless.

My impressions was that nobody involved with this bit of research had actually spawned zebras, or perhaps any plecos, in an aquarium type setting. I must be mistaken in this but can't figure out why.

What is nice about it is that somebody is actually trying to do hands on research regarding zebras (and other plecs).

[racoll]

results are almost meaningless.

They found that H. zebra prefer rock or clay caves over plastic ones. It's pretty basic stuff, I agree, but that's a little harsh I think. This looks to me clearly like an undergraduate student project, or part of an MSc project, and even if there's nothing groundbreaking in there, learning to publish is a really useful and confidence-building part of training a student to be a scientist.