Hmm, I never thought of rocks being hard to find. Here in MD, limestone is everywhere, though not the holey kind, and rocks in general are plentiful. Occaisonally, a few good-sized plastic/resin ornaments can be found on e-bay as well. I just got this one recently for my 55, I have a similar type in...

You'll definitely want more rocks/cover for the fish, both cichlids and catfish like to have cover available. Depending on the species of cichlids, you may also want some dither fish, to make them more comfortable/visible.

Petricola's, like any social fish, are more active in groups. You could start w/3, but 4-5 would be better. S. longirostrus isn't a rift lake species, but will adapt to the pH. As for availability, they may be difficult to find. S. eupterus (featherfin) is more commonly available and fairly inexpens...

Yes, yellow lab's are also calld electric yellow's, a relatively peaceful mbuna. I also have 5 petricola's in the tank w/the male BN, recently moved the other 7 to a 38 for spawning. Petricola's or multi's are best kept in groups, and get along well w/cichlids. If you prefer a larger, single Syno, t...

The cichlids ignore them, yellow lab's and Julies in one tank, plagiostoma eels and N. gracils juvies in the other. The gracilis are a brichardi-complex spp, still much too young to spawn. Unless you have really aggressive fish though, they should be fine. Just provide a cave for them to hide in by ...

They should be fine at that size.

I keep BN plecos in my African cichlid tanks for algae control. They do fine w/8.2 pH, just acclimate them slowly. I us an airline ssiphon/clothespin to drip water slowly into a bucket, taking about an hour to allow the BN to adjust to the change, before putting it into the tank.

For a large, single Syno, S. eupterus is commonlky available, and not too expensive. Otherwise, a group of petricola's or multipuctatus, if you have stocking space for them.

Rinoloricaria sp. L010, what's the pH range, hardness, etc for this species?

New Life Spectrum.

I lost some of my petricola's to the hob filters. It seems they like to swim up the outflow, and weren't making it back into the tank on the way back out. I finally found one dried out on the glass cover, I figure the dogs ate any that hit the floor, due to the absence of other corpses. I put a stri...

Ask and you shall receive

Petricola's or BN's shouldn't be a problem with tropheus. Neither one will eat fry.

The tank is filtered by a 100GPH hob filter, as well as an air-driven sponge filter. Plenty of plants, and weekly partials. Cherry shrimp are very sensitive to nitrates, and have been thriving w/no losses, (other than from hydra, which I have been removing w/an airline siphon whenever I find them, c...

Are hydra capable of killing .5-.75" pleco fry? I have seen them decimate cichlid fry that weren't free-swimming yet. I had 7 in my 10 gallon planted cherry shrimp tank, all died in less than 2 weeks. They were active, getting plenty to eat, then suddenly died off within a few days. I noticed a...

Most fish eggs/fry in the wild never make it to maturity, only the lucky few survive to reproduce.

OOh, I know, it's a CATFISH
Probably an undescribed species, or else a hybrid between a petricola and a giraffe-nose
Sorry, I couldn't resist

Pricing in Edmonton is quite different than what Americans experience. Albino shortfins are $35ish, 1.5 inch standard Bristlenose are $15ish when available :shock: Ouch! I thought $15 for 1.5" albino's at my lfs was too high. I bought some baby commom BN, uncertain species, but still great for...

USD or Canadian, $300 for 6 BN is still a high price IMO. Although, if you can sell the babies for $15-20, it's not a bad investment. Personally, I buy young, less expensive fish and grow 'em myself.
Why can't you ship across the border?

Your lfs is charging way too much for them. Check this:

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1147113572

I just received a shipment of (7) 1/2-3/4" unidentified Ancistrus fry. They are currently in a 10 gallon tank with cherry shrimp, since they would be snacks in any of my other tanks. The tank contains loads of Java fern, Java moss, duckweed, hygro, (unplanted, thin substrate layer) driftwood, a...

Try a google search?

I have petricola's that like to swim up the outflow of the HOB filters. I lost a few that way before I realized what was going on, finally found one dried out on the glass cover. Angelicus doing that I can understand, they're a river species, but petricola's are lake fish

I had an ornate bicher that chowed down several small S. eupterus. If it's mouth is big enough, it will eat Syno's.

I saw a custom setup for hillstream plecos that does a nice job of simulting river current. PVC pipes. run from lest-to-right, with sponge filters on one end, and powerheads on the other. There was also a HOB filter on the tank. The main problem with breeding angelicus is the tank size required to h...

They've also been known to squeak when netted, though mine never have. If they aren't disturbed too much, they're quiet

I currently have 9 that appear to be spawning size, a couple of the females are looking gravid. (Big bellies, not from recent feeding activity) What size tank, and what kind of setup, would be best for this group? I have been considering setting up either a 30 long or a 40 breeder tank for the proje...

I had a polypterus ornatipinnis that chowed down a few young Synodontis eupterus. I had expected the spines to be sufficient defense, but the bicher thought otherwise. The poor little Syno's would squeak when the bicher caught them, almost like they were calling for help.

I tried a couple 1"+ albino BN in my other 55 community tank, but they disappeared after a few days. An adult brown that formerly resided in the 29 was moved in to clean up the algae, with no problems. I read somewhere that juveniles don't adapt as well to the water chemistry, and adults are al...

I know petricola's have a reputation for eating eggs and fry of substrate-spawners. Do multi's have the same bad habits? I have a 55 containing Paracyprichromis nigripinnis and Lamprologus` multifasciatus. The tank could use some cats to clean up leftovers; which would be better?