zeta Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Hello, I thought it was about time to show my face. I've been lurking for a while. I'm studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, and I've been keeping fish since the start of March 2002. My tank is about 100L (30"x15"x15"). In it I have: 2x Pearl Gourami 2x Golden Angelfish 2x Albino Corys 2x Hoplo Catfish 2x Rosy Barbs 2x Kribensis 1x Bristlenosed Plecostomus 1x Clown Loach 1x Pakistani Loach 1x Kuhli Loach All the fish were juvenile when I bought them, so none should be much older than 4 months. I love all the fish, except for the Rosy Barbs, they get on my nerves somehow... There are photos of all the fish at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/refrewst/fish.html I've been injecting CO2 using the yeast method, it works wonderfully. I've got a 3L juice bottle half-filled with water with a cup of sugar and a tsp of yeast, it's been steadily producing CO2 for at least 3 weeks, the plants are growing great and it keeps my usually high pH (~7.5) down to about 7. I consider Kritter Kingdom on Blenheim Road to be my home petshop, they've been great. My fish-keeping experience hasn't been entirely trouble-free so far, so I look forward to getting lots of help from you guys! Zeta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Hi Zeta, Good to have you with us. Plenty of interest here, and you have lots to tell us about. Nice pics, love the Pleco Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Hi Zeta, Welcome. I liked your photos too. Is your fish a bristlenose or a plec? They are two different fish. A bristlenose will only grow 15cm but the plec will grow over 40cm! Rosy barbs are a shoaling fish and would be happier in a group of 6 or more. Perhaps they would not get on your nerves so much if they were in a nice group. I like the hoplos as they are a nice chunky fish with personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta Posted June 11, 2002 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Isnt the bristlenose just one of hundreds of plecostomi? People often refer to it as Ancistrus. Hope that helps, zeta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Hi Zeta, Caryl, Can't see the bristles, but it seems to be a Ancistrus hopogenys, but whatever he/she is, it looks real contented So Caryl, how DO we distinguish a true Plecostomus from the others, apart from the name, there are so many variations?? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 As far as I know, the Ancistrus, or bristlenose, is not a plecostomus, although they are often called plecs by mistake because they look so much like the Hypostomus plecostomus. Don't quote me though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatman Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 Another Christchurch person YAY YAY Did you know that kritter kingdome has a new shop,, The Fish Tank is now owned by them, they will be importing fish soon as there is a MAF quarintene (sp) area at the shop. Welcome to the family Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 That Bristlenose is just a baby. It's way too small to tell if it's a male or female, no bristles yet and hasn't doesn't have a definitive body shape. I've got Ummm...Lemme see...9 bristlenoses. The males are ugly little things, but the females are better. You should get some geophaguses! Yes! Lots and lots of geophaguses! Ummm...Forget that last bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted June 11, 2002 Report Share Posted June 11, 2002 If you want to be pedanitic there should really only be one pleco and that's Hypostomus plecostomus. But the term pleco gets applied to pretty well any sucker mouth catfish you come across eg Clown plecos (Peckoltia or Panaqolus) bulldog plecos (Chaetostoma), sailfin plecos (Glyptoperichthys). So how did this 'pleco' madness come about - the story goes that the first suckermouth catfish imported were identified as Hypostomus plecostomus (though some say it was mis-identified). Then when different types of sucker mouths were imported (often prior to their being described scientifically) the importers just gave them some fanciful name with pleco tacked on the end (meaning it had a sucker mouth) eg Royal pleco (Panaque nigrolineatus) or Imperial pleco (Hypancistrus zebra). Now 'pleco' (meaning sucker mouthed catfish) is very wide spread. For the superstitious you may want to write pl*co - the belief being if you write pleco then you have doomed your wee fish to an untimely demise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 14, 2002 Report Share Posted June 14, 2002 Oops! There must be a lot of dead plecos about then! Is this belief held by those people who also don't mention the play Macbeth by name? "Alas poor pleco, I knew he wasn't well" :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulkeepeR Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 wait a min, are you sure its a brittle nose pleco? that thing looks an awful lot like a gold nugget pleco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 I don't think you get many gold nugget plecs in NZ SoulkeepeR and when you do they are pricey. I am sure if that was what it was, Zeta would know. Bristlenoses are a lot cheaper! I have only ever seen one gold nugget plec that I can recall. Are they more common where you are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulkeepeR Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 o yea, they always have most of the species of pleco in even at petsmart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 Hi SoulkeepeR, Just checked on the net and it appears we might not have a "Petsmart" over here. Many of the fish and product brands are not available to us here in New Zealand, and this includes many of the fish species that hobbyists in the States take for granted, but hopefully some of the restrictions that MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) imposes may be eased slightly in the near future. Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 Pegasus said... > ... it appears we might not have a "Petsmart" over here. Petsmart (aka Pet-stupid) are a chain in the US. Kind of the McDonalds of the pet trade. The quality is generally about as good... Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted June 17, 2002 Report Share Posted June 17, 2002 Even if MAF species resrictions were loosened I doubt we would see many more gold-spot plecos (Baryancistrus sp.). There just aren't enough people prepared to spend $80+ on a fish (even beautiful plecos - which some people are still going to consider as _just_ an algae eater). Most people wouldn't even consider spending $40 on a pleco (I'm not one of those people though). The price of these things means that only the large stores in large metropolitan areas (ie Auckland) will even stock them - other smaller centres have access to these fish, it's just not worth their while to stock them. For these things to become common in NZ it would require someone here to start breeding them regularly - that still means someone is going to have to fork out a fair amount of dollars to get a potential breeding colony - and they'll want to recover their costs - so still wont be cheap. Also some of these things aren't the easiest to breed eg Peckoltia brevis can take 6 months to condition for breeding (no surprising it takes so long for the female to condition considering the eggs are between the size of a baby and adult pea ie about 7-8mm and she laid about 50 of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted June 18, 2002 Report Share Posted June 18, 2002 i have spent many a dollar on fish. My siamese tiger cost me $120. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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