Pleco Wishlist

[nmonks]

I'd love to try, but I suspect my royal plec will just hammer them. I know some of these larger plecs are pretty territorial. She actually put up with a bristlenose for about seven years until it died from old age (I assume). So possibly worth a risk. Anyone kept Panaque nigrolineatus with a whiptail?

As for the leaf litter idea... it's in the process of happening. I re-did my tank this weekend, shifting all the sand and Vallisneria to one end toi make a "river bank" and leaving the other half basically empty save for a scattering of sand to hide the glass. I'm going to try either oak leaves or coconut fibre to re-create the leaf litter. I have some Pelvicachromis taeniatus and a pair of C. irrubesco puffers that I imagine will look amazing against a brown, woody substrate.

Cheers,

Neale

Oh, I think you owe it to us, Neale. We need some vicarious lipbrooding whiptails!!! And I've always wanted to see a really good leaf-litter tank.

 

[Bex]

Breeze7050: Cute baby albino BN. Everyone seems to have one except me. Not fair because even if my LFS gets them in, I haven't got any more room for one

nmonks: Those whips are so cool! This thread has got me thinking about keeping a whiptail tank. There are so many different ones that I really like and it would be interesting to try and breed them. It would be such an unusual tank. Whenever friends come round and see our 2 red whiptails they always comment on how odd they are. Especially if they start moonwalking on the sand! Got any pics of a leaf litter tank?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

awww this threads making me all jelous, we've downsized our tanks and all we have in the way of plecs and catfish is the chocolate albino common and a common syno

 

[nmonks]

Bex -- No don't have any leaf litter tank pics yet. But apparently it's been done with Apistogramma. Oak leaves are the way to go because they don't mess up the water chemistry much and take years to decay.

A couple nice pics of the whiptail in question here:

http/www.amazon-exotic-import.de/Galleri...20apithanos.htm

Supposedly, they change colour when exposed to light (i.e., the leaf litter is disturbed) as some sort of camouflage. The really sound awesome. That's the problem with plecs -- so many cool species, just not enough tanks or money!

Cheers, Neale

 

[Bex]

Awww, Miss Wiggle, I read the thread about you guys down sizing. I just couldn't re-home my plecs. All the other fish, yep they could go if they had to. But not my plecs. I consider them my babies I need to get a life

Methinks I will look into this leaf-litter tank idea. Sounds interesting. And different. Everyone has cichlid tanks, community tanks, salt water, etc but I've never even heard of a leaf-litter tank until now.

If you get one set up nmonks, we will need piccies

 

[stang1]

I agree Bex, I could give up all my fish except for Plecs, catfish and my fighters. Don't get me wrong I love all of my fish but these ones are definitely my favourite!

 

[nmonks]

I know the feeling! My royal plec destroys every attempt I make at creating a planted aquarium, and prevents me keeping brackish water fish. Even when I moved to the US for a few years, I had to find someone to home her for a while (in a Malawi tank!) so that she'd be safe and sound when I came back. I am fond of her in a way I'm not about my other fish.

Cheers,

Neale

Awww, Miss Wiggle, I read the thread about you guys down sizing. I just couldn't re-home my plecs.

 

[Bex]

nmonks: Your Royal rips up your plants? Ours (Eddie) doesn't touch the plants and our main tank is fairly heavily planted now. He is boss of all the plecs we have though. He sits on his gravel cave most of the day just looking over the tank. He is my favourite plec.

I think the one thing that I like most about plecs, is that they blink! It is so cute. Other fish don't blink right? Only catfish?

 

[nmonks]

She doesn't so much rip up the plants as swim through them. Anything not completely rooted in and sturdy gets turfed up. So she's fine with Vallisneria for example, but Cabomba gets pulled out. Anything too woody (e.g. Nomaphila stricta) gets eaten, and anything attached to wood (e.g. Java fern) gets removed while she digs into the wood herself. Anubias gets damaged by her teeth, and Amazon swords just get eaten. She's pretty destructive!

Not sure if any other fish blink. I believe loaches might as well. Something to do with living at the bottom and needing to keep the eyes clean from silt and sand.

Cheers,

Neale

nmonks: Your Royal rips up your plants? Ours (Eddie) doesn't touch the plants and our main tank is fairly heavily planted now. He is boss of all the plecs we have though. He sits on his gravel cave most of the day just looking over the tank. He is my favourite plec.

I think the one thing that I like most about plecs, is that they blink! It is so cute. Other fish don't blink right? Only catfish?

 

[LisaLQ]

Oh Bex, you've nicked the name I picked for my dream royal, if I ever get one *sighs*

My dream plec would be the 14" common in the LFS at the moment. Hmmph. How much do I really want those festivums I planned....

 

[DarkEntity]

Id just like a plec or 2 that my Kribs will allow in the tank

The Tiger Plec has now gone to a new home after the male Krib decided that he didnt like the Tiger and chased it around the tank for an hour or so (stupid Krib)

 

[Bex]

Oh Bex, you've nicked the name I picked for my dream royal, if I ever get one *sighs*

My dream plec would be the 14" common in the LFS at the moment. Hmmph. How much do I really want those festivums I planned....

Oh sorry! If you get one you can still call him Eddie! There's a very stupid reason behind calling ours Eddie. There was once a character in Eastenders called Eddie Royal! I think he ran The Vic just before Dirty Den and Angie

God, I've been watching Enders for too long!

 

[nmonks]

Just checked with Wildwoods. The Pseudohemiodon apithanos are £50 each, so a little out of my price bracket! They also have some Planiloricaria cryptodon for £19 a throw. Talk about a nice looking whiptail. Take a look at these Planet Catfish pics. Apparently, this is another burrowing species, that is a bit like a flatfish in the wild -- it goes into the sand with only its eyes peering out!

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=627
http/www.aqua-global.de/Info-Ecke-Dateien/Ansprueche.htm

So many plecs, and so little money! It's just not fair!

Neale

 

[stang1]

You're right, it's not fair!
We keep coming across all these wonderful plecs but unfortunately nowhere to put them. We are getting two new tanks shortly but still not enough room for all the ones we want!
I'm still trying to convince my partner that a fish house would be a great idea, but it seems it takes more than fluttering eyelashes to persuade him!

 

[nmonks]

Have a read of the Lysistrata. That could give you some ideas... And who says a classical education serves no purpose?

Neale

I'm still trying to convince my partner that a fish house would be a great idea, but it seems it takes more than fluttering eyelashes to persuade him!