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I have a Queen Arabesque coming in about a week. After reading the Cat e log on the L260 I've put a 9in air stone and an air disk in to increase aeration and current. I have bog wood, caves and was wondering if there are any other top tips on prep I can do to help her before she gets here??

powerheads will be of more use than an airstone. airstones merly move a little water around (i use air powered box filters on my fry tanks. but i'd say their effect is minimal. i'm looking at changing the rilters to HOB with sponge pre-filters, or setting them up via a centralised filter using overflows and a retur, as its haveing minimal impact on the cr@p the fry produce (i keep malawi c!chlids, so lots of fry))

if you get them online thier only around a tenner, (my LFS tried to claim theid cost £40+)

the way i'd set it up, decide whish way your tank "flows", ie set your filter inlets 1 side outlets theo other, and set up the bogwood to go with the flow, ie as you see it in a river. then make sure that some flow from the powerhead is directed @ a peice of bogwood in order to try and keep them out in the open.

however the above is based on my LIMITED experience with catfish,

edit - also if you can get a surface skimmer (to remove the bio-film, i got 1 on my fluval and it keeps the surface SPOTLESS) and make sure the surface is being moved around plenty, i use a spraybar submurged about 8" and then pointed at the surface at around 45degrees so that it provides both surface movement and flow around the tank

Cheers
I'm running a 180l Juwel tank so the filter is pretty much fixed. Current isn't too bad but will look into the powerhead suggestion.

(my LFS tried to claim theid cost £40+)

Good ole LFS eh!! I've just had to find a new one as some fish were about as over priced as the powerhead you were on about!! He drives a Ferrari the owner of my new LFS drives a van!!

I would recommend an airstone and powerhead.

In a closed fish tank with covers and condensation trays there are limited gaps for gasses to exchange.

An air pump forces air into the system, so there is always fresh air to diffuse oxygen into the water.

The powerhead provides water movement to ensure that circulating water is always in contact with the fresh air.

Airstones also have the advantage of lifting water from the bottom to the top in a much more efficient way than most setups I've seen with powerheads (unless you actually aim it from the bottom up, which is "unusual" in my experience).

I agree with racoll, a combination of powerhead and airstone(s) is the best idea.

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Mats

I don't know if this is relevant for you but...

...my L260's are the most heat-loving fish I've ever held. I usually don't heat my aquaria as they're in heated rooms, meaning that the temperature normally is somewhere in the region 20-26 degrees celsius. And all fish accept that just fine. Except the L260. They hid and refused to eat until I added a heater to their tank and raised the temperature up to 29-30 celsius. After that they've been pretty unproblematic fish.

Cheers will bear that in mind when I get her in the tank.

You can also buy a venturi device for the juwel filter, costs about a fiver.

For about five bucks you can hook a sponge filter to your air hose; seems to cut down on ammonia very quickly.