Faran

Nice pix, PJ! If that tank gets any direct sunlight, the java moss will take off like a rocket (growing, not launching ). Great little fishies, I'm sure you'll enjoy them heaps. One question though.... what kind of filter is that? WCMM fry are TINY and will easily get sucked into anything stronger than your standard Diacks sponge filter...

A bulk bag of filter wool is the answer to all the noise probs with the Aqua One filters. Stick some under the spray bar to lessen the fall of the water and dampen the noise, use a bit to keep the filter and light hood separated, and stuff some down the outlet pipe (just a bot, don't want a flood) and almost all noise is gone. I run the hood filter as well as an external and find that the hood filter does an excellent job, though releasing a cloud of gunk every time it gets jostled annoys the heck out of my discus (gunk + slime = itchy fish).

That's a beautiful strain, good luck raising them! Look forward to some pics, though I really should spend some time trying to take pictures of mine as well. Do yours seem to get camera shy?

Just wanted to say that I got Riccia from dubbieboy a LONG time ago and have never had a chance to pay it forward due to dim lighting in the tank it was originally in. All my tanks are now lit to the hilt and I have some for Ant or anyone else local that need some. I use it as a floating shade for the discus and, well, EVERYTHING. Fry love hiding in it, fish love resting in it like a hammock and it does an interesting job of filtering the water when you have an airstone in the tank. So if you're a local, hit me up for a cupful.

For the $280 you would spend on that you should try and get a proper "pro" setup. This will consist of a CO2 bottle (sometimes old fire extinguishers are used) with a needle valve and regulator. You'll be controlling the flow so you don't need a bubble counter, though they're easy to DIY or buy a pro one. Either way, it'll be as simple as refilling a CO2 bottle instead of playing with little sachets of mix and making a mess. Others out there will recommend making a DIY solution out of two empty coke bottles... mix yeast and some other stuff in one sealed bottle with a air tube going to a second sealed bottle. Then a second air tube from that bottle to the tank. The purpose of the second bottle is to collect any gunk from the yeast mix and keep it from going into your tank. You should, of course, do a search on these forums for CO2 and be sure and Google it!

Calcium Sulphate Hemihydrate tastes AWFUL... but it's really not toxic at all. I'm speaking from personal experience (with humans) but can't really see it hurting fish. Mica is definitely not toxic in any way, though it may irritate lungs. Glad that's not a problem! Cellulose - nah Keratin - well, yer fishies will be seeing better in the dark! Crystine Silico - I'm guessing Crystaline Silicates on this one. May be dangerous if in powder form but doubtful if it would be harmful to fish. If anyone wants to correct me on these, feel free. This is just my opinion but then again.... I've never dropped any of these in a fish tank to "test the waters" Good luck and let us know if anything bad happens. Oh, and good luck cleaning up the mess!

Wow, exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. I have an Electric Yellow that I think is holding.... guess in 2 weeks I'll have a go at stripping her. Thanks for the wicked post, VERY helpful!

Hi there Just a guess but...do you recall the salesperson mentioning somethng about Prime eliminating nitrates and nitrites from your water? Did you test the water before adding Prime? Basically, the salesperson prolly foresaw the cycling problems that you may have and wanted to give you the product that will save your fish if/when you get a spike. I just used Prime this morning to save a 3ft-er that I'm rushing through a cycle as I had to add a lot of fish in a short time for the bacteria to handle. It (Prime) is great stuff though pretty expensive. Can't recommend it enough for show tanks and starting off your first tank. Good luck and use the Prime if you get any spikes. There's also those chem-absorbing bags, but Prime is cleaner and easier. By the way, did you win the auction?

Pretty much depends on what kind of sucker you have over there. Just a normal run-of-the-mill pl*co doesn't need wood in the diet, but the prefer some driftwood in the tank to rest on. http://www.aquariacentral.com/fishinfo/ ... leco.shtml is a nice quick site about the care and needs of the common pl*co.

Hi Caper! Pretty much, hun. It's an essential part of the diet and can be substituted with processed foods which include wood fibre in them. Mind you, I was talking about a certain type of pleco (royal) which eats mostly wood.

LOL, well, it seems you got a great price for it! They're great plecos and well worth the money. Just keep in mind that they can be sensitive to water changes and should be fed plecobits or similar products. Driftwood in the tank is usually a must, as well.

None that I've ever seen. Where are you? Quite often tank makers make cabinetry as well, like Port Nicholson Glass in Petone (Wellington), but DIY is always a good option. Just make a wooden box that will fit on top of the tank, add braces to prevent it from going past a certain point, then brace the corners and add a big hinged lid with desk stops to keep it open. Drilling holes on the lid or back of the "box" is always a good idea, to allow circulation under there.

No kidding about the panaque's having large teeth. Our Royal Pleco (nigrolineatus) chows down on driftwood all day and it sounds like a mouse chewing at the walls....

Hi Hamish, Whatever "rare pleco species" it is, the normal retail for something like that is in the $150-$200 range in fish stores. Can we ask how much you paid?? Oh, and my guesstimate (by body shape and colouration) is a peppermint pleco. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/parancis/189_f.php has some pretty bad pictures, but you should get the idea

Animates has them all the time, and they arrive quite fat and happy from the wholesaler. Average cost is about $7 each and they're mostly clear with blue highlights. For my money I decided to go with Emperor Tetras -

I just gave it a go and only found this as the best lead - But I'm going to bed now, rather late night!

Hiya Caper, When you have "rasping" fish (suckers) you should feed them primarily veggies and have some driftwood in the tank for them as well. As long as the pleco is getting the veggies it needs whether by your feeding or scraping algae, it will be good. As it grows, you'll notice a larger dependance on veggies you add to the tank. I feed all my tanks with catfish of any kind pleco wafers. Your ottos will probably love them as well

Yeah, I think it'll be hard for anything that big to hide in a 98cm tank.... so yeah, we'll be looking at getting a nice big 400 litre like yours, Jude Then again, 10 years is a long long time....

Wow... these guys really do grow into impressive creatures. So here's my research results. The "blue-eyed royal pleco" grows to about 30cm and these guys are closer to 40. Males have very thick, spiney pectorals but bith sexes have very similar patterns and body structure. check out this pic if you're seriously thinking about getting one of these....

Hi Caper, Would you like me to point the way to some local (Canadian, at least) fish rooms for you? We love having you here and the only reason I suggest it is so you can make local fishy friends and get help finding plants and fish and such like we do from each other. If the other person is anywhere in Canada they can send you cuttings and such quickly and inexpensively. Something many of us would love to do for you if we could expect them to live and not cost an arm and a leg to get there! blue

Congrats CB, well done!

PMed for black non-plant eating ones

Ah, yes. I used tha pic tonight to show the guy that spotted him what he'll grow up to look like. Well, I hope that he'll get settled enough to come out with humans around. The main problem is that the BNs in that tank are quite skittish and scatter when there's movement in the room. Not very social at all. As this is a group behaviour, it's likely that the Royal Plec will follow suit until he outgrows the hiding places and comes out (rather like Syno Cats). I'm just glad I can finally stop checking under furniture to find where the cats took it if it jumped Happened with a spotted dojo that got out (they're like huge kuhli loaches) and found him mummified under my bed when we moved years later....

Just saw him again. Looking good, but much smaller than I remembered :lol: I'm glad he's okay Hope he gets braver soon, too! Would be really awful to have him hiding all the time. Maybe when he gets a little bigger... say to 28cm So does anyone know if this one has a max size of 28 or 38? I get conflicting reports but I'm afraid it's 38cm.... gonna have to get a bigger tank!