CatBrat

Oto's are not considered scaleless fish. They are a member of the Loricariidae family (which encompases all species of plecos). Members of the family have "Rows of armour plating covering body, underslung suckermouth" (from Planet Catfish). Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey Stu, Congratz on the new spawn! How are the other babies going? How many do u have left? How big are they? It is quite common with many species of Pleco's to have more than one female spawn with the same male at the same time. When I was breeding my BN's, all 3 females would be on the same egg cycle, so they all spawned at the same time, and i would and up with 3 distinct clutchs of eggs in the males cave. Here is a report from a guy from Aussie that had 9 females spawn with one male at the same time HERE. Cheers, CatBrat.

I have kept and bred BN's using white river sand as a substrate. Just make sure the layer of sand is not too deep or it could compact, and cause pockets of gas, which are bad for fish. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey, I bought myself a male Clown Pleco (L104) on the weekend to go with the female I all ready had. I will be attempting to breed them soon. I just thought that I would post a pic (not the best pic ever, but it's all I have, lol).... Is anyone else here keeping these guys? Hope you like it... Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey, I have been wondering the same thing about my pair too. My male has the same pattern as your first pic, and my female has the same pattern as your second pic. Have a look at these pic's..... Male: Female: I'm almost 100% sure that it is not the fish that you posted in your last link. If you look at the general body shape of the two species you can see that the "matto grosso" has a much flatter body appearence. Also if you have a look at how the bristles are aranged on it's face you can see a major diffrence. The fish in the link has very few and they only go up the center of the face, where as the "matto grosso's" bristles are much larger and come up the face in rows. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hye, Why don't you try building a large plywood/glass tank? Some thing like - THIS. But maybe not quite as big. If you do a seach on the net you will find a lot of info about them. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hahaha, everything is going good at the moment, but nothing is breeding. I have just set my pair of Butteryfly Pleco's (L052) up together, but nothing yet. And when I get some time I have a pair of Matto Grosso's to set up togther as well. At the mo I'm on the hunt for a male Clown Pleco (I know where one is, I just have to get there to buy it) and I'm also hoping to get some Queen Arabesque's (L260) again, through PetWorld in Chch, but I'm not sure if that will happen yet. Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey everyone, I just thought I would share a pic'c of my L129 Hypancistrus sp.... And if anyone out there has a female that they would be willing to sell, or knows of one please let me know. Cheers, CatBrat.

I'd be very careful if I was you, getting him out. He will almost certainly extend his odontodes (the spiky things around his gill plate), and these will wedge him in tighter, and make it almost impossible to get him out undamaged. Pleco's like to wedge theselves into tight place's (and it's normal for them to stay in them when you take what they are hiding on out of the water), and more often than not get themselves out. I would leave him a few more days to make sure that its not just his hide out. Can you check after the lights have been out for a couple of hours, or in the early morning to see if he is coming out? Cheers, CatBrat.

Wow, cool. $600 isn't too bad bad for Zebra's. They sell for around $100-$150ish in America and $1000+ in Aussi, so it's not too bad a price for NZ. How big are they Kyle? Sexable?

Thanks becs, All my others are looking good, but nothing is breeding at the moment. I will have to set my Butterflys and Matto Grosso's up in there own tank soon, I've just been a bit busy lately. Cheers, CatBrat

Cool Rob What sort of tank set-up do you have them in (ie - tank size, temp, pH, breeding cave size, etc)? Much current? And do you have all 12 in the same tank (male:female ratio? how big are they)? Sorry for all the questions... Cheers, CatBrat.

Hahahaha, very funny Kyle . lol

Hey everyone, I just thought I would post a pic of the new Butterfly Ploec that I got today (I'm pretty sure that it is a female, because of the rounded shape of its pectoral fins, and it has very few odontodes on it pectoral fins). I bought it to see if I could breed it with my male. Anyway here it is.... Is anyone else keeping these as well? (Kyle I know you do.) Cheers, CatBrat.

Yup, I feed my plec's just about anything. Yams are supposed to be a favorite, but mine didn't seem to like it much (I will have to try it again). Also try potato, kumara, pumpkin, carrots, lettuce, apple, corn on the cob and try other stuff too (as long as it's mushy). I tend not the cook the vegies as they seem to break down a lot faster in the water, and therefore foul it up faster. As for the pumpkin, I have never had any troubles with it, and it seems to last for 3-4 days in the water, but as I said I don't cook it. Cheers, CatBrat.

They should be fine with it, as long as you don't overdose. I have use melafix with some of my pleco's before, and they didn't show any adverse affects. Cheers, CatBrat.

Lol, cool . I have read of BN's spawning out in the open a few time's, but it's not that common. I think it is normally when there is not a sutible spawning site in the tank. Pleco's prefer to have tight fitting caves with only one entrace/exit for spawning in, and by the looks of it those pot's are just not tight enough (although, I would have thought that they would have spawned in there rather than in the open ). If you want something that your BN's should spawn in, try buying a coconut, drilling/cutting a hole into it about 1-1.5" in diameter, cut it in half through the middle of the hole, take all the coconut out of the middle, boil the remaining two halves, and put them in the tank. My BN's and GBA's loved spawning in them. Cheers, CatBrat.

Thanks everyone, I will hope fully be getting a female this weekend. Oh, I forgot to say howmuch I paid for it (I got it about 4 months ago)......Only $2, lol, and it was about 6-7cm!!!! Lol, thanks for the comments about the photo's. But to me the are not good at all! (I will post some better ones soon ). The camera I am using is an Fuji Finepix S5500 Zoom (it can and does take much better pic's than these), and the settings for these shots were.... Camera in Manual Camera in Macro Inbuilt flash on Shutter Speed - 1/30 sec Aperture Value - 2.8 ISO 64 Original Image Size 2272 x 1704 Cheers, CatBrat.

Hey guys, this is the only type of Cichlid that I keep, and I really don't know much about them....but is this the normal colouration of a krib? The colours in the last pic seem to match the actual fish the closest (it had to be the worst pic of all! lol). Also is this a male? I will have to get it a partner to try to breed them, and put them in there own tank. BTW, sorry about the awful pic's!!! (the tank is in a very difficult place to photograph!). Cheers, CatBrat.

Hmmmm...thats really not a good sign!! With these guys (if they look like that they will most probably be Port Hoplos) the medication should not effect them, I don't think. Port hoplo's are one of the hardest fish that I know of, so I'm not sure what could be causing the problems sorry. How long has the tank been set-up with you? You said that you bought the tank from someone...did you keep the gravel (wet with tank water) and some of the tank water when you moved it, or did you just fill the tank with tap water? What other fish and how many have been in there? Hope for the best... Cheers, CatBrat.

Hi Mass, Would you be able to tell us what sort of catfish they are? This is because a lot of species of catfish are scaleless (ie- species of Synodontis, Pictus etc), and if you treat their tanks with medication it can damage the fish. I'm not really sure weather they will survive or not, but if you have removed them from the medicated tank, and they are in good water quality they will hopefully pull through. Cheers, CatBrat.

I have kept the Crocodile Whiptails before. They wern't too hard to keep (Until there tank broke, and then both of them became riddled with tumors because of a weakend immune system). As far as I can tell they are most similar to Hemiloricaria lanceolata, but I'm not 100% sure on there actual ID. The one in the second auction look's to be a Crocodile Whiptail, but I think the one in the first Auction is a Red Whiptail (L010a) (I can't be too sure from the quality of those pic's). If you have any question's just ask..... Cheers, CatBrat.

Well thats good news. I just like keeping an eye on what happening in the pleco scene......that and I'm really keen, lol. Hope they keep going well..... Cheers, CatBrat.

Wow, nice sized tank!! Thats about 945 liters i think, but I'm not sure how many you could fit in there (I haven't seen a private tank that big! lol). I would think maybe 3 or 4, but I would stick to the 2 gibby's you have and the common as well and then keep only smaller fancyer species. But as I said I've never seen a private tank that size so it's hard to judge! Cheers, CatBrat.

Congratulations Guppy!!! Good luck raising them. Cheers, CatBrat.