The Juwel backdrops come in two sorts. The flat (cheaper) ones are painted expanded polystyrene. The more three-dimensional (more expensive) ones do seem to be polyurethane. I'm not 100% sure, but when I looked at them in the store, that was the impression I got.

If a Panaque wants to scrape these ...

Hi Mats,

Well yes, obviously, she's going to scrape everything. But if there's more rock and less wood, I'm assuming there will be fewer wood chippings in the tank. I don't plan on removing wood altogether, and certainly not doing anything likely to compromise her health. I'm not an entirely ...

I suspect it's a little more complex than this. The plastic filter boxes for example are 100% covered in tooth-marks, so she's obviously consuming some plastic as well as algae. She doesn't need to eat plastic, she eats it "accidentally".

So in a tank with lots of wood, some of the wood is digested ...

Thanks for the comments. I do already have the black plastic background outside the tank. The problem is that my tank is heavily planted at the moment, and while she doesn't harm the plants directly, as she swims through stuff it all gets uprooted. And then there's all the wood chippings from the ...

I'm considering adding Juwel 'Rock 450' backgrounds to the tank containing my Panaque nigrolineatus. But will she destroy it?

These aren't the ones made from expanded polystyrene, but from some sort of hard, plasticky foam a bit like cavity wall insulation. My worry is she has left scrape marks on ...

Hello all --

My Brackish Water Aquarium book is weeks away from press, but I still need some photos of specific brackish water fish. In particular, we're short of pictures of:

Colombian shark catfish
Aspredo aspredo
Plotosus lineatus

Other brackish water species (Platystacus, Mystus gulio, etc ...

Just an update really. After it started getting a bit cold here, I emptied the pond and brought in the catfish. They were fine. Put them in the main tropical tank after acclimating them to the warmer water over about an hour. They were going from daytime peak of 17C to a steady 25C.

Anyway, within ...

Don't worry, I'm in the UK for a start, and pond is above ground and surrouded by patio. Not much danger of any fish escaping!

They seem to be doing very well. It's rather fun to view them from above, and when the swim as a school, it's follow the leader, nose to tail in a little column.

Cheers ...

What with it being so warm right now, I thought it might be fun to put my Corydoras paleatus outside. I know they're subtropical fish, so assume that provided it doesn't get too cold, below 15C, they should be okay during a British summer.

The pond is a small but thickly planted one, and though ...

Thanks for all the feedback.

She does get various veggies, but not spinach, so I will have to try that. While I was in town today, she seems to have finished off the cucumber and moved onto the stand of Bacopa monnieri at the other end of the tank. Perhaps keeping her in an underwater salad bar isn ...

Simple question really. How 'normal' is it for adult (15 cm) P. nigrolineatus to be active during the day?

I've had my specimen about 11 years, and she's been in the present tank for almost exactly a year. During the last couple of weeks she has become very active during the day. If I put any food ...

Good call. Thanks for letting me know. I've just renamed and updated the file accordingly.

http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/software ... KI_win.zip

Cheers,

Neale

Hi Jools,

It's written (if that's the word) in REALbasic.

http://realbasic.com/

I write the things on my Mac, and then compile them as Mac, Mac Classic, and Windows applications. In theory I could export as Linux versions as well, but I don't have a Linux machine to test said applications on ...

Mats, Jools,

Thanks for the positive comments, and the ideas for general improvement.

Originally the program had 24 fish, then 48, and then a whole new version (with the original name of More Can I Keep It?) that has another 48 species.

http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/software/software.html

Taken ...

Folks,

This is by way of an introduction...

I have written a handful of little computer programs for aquarists, and among them is a program called "Can I Keep It?". It's essentially a compatability matrix, you press a name, and incompatible species are removed, and by repeating this you ...

Mats,

Thanks for your comments.

Trust me, there's plenty of hidey-holes. There's at least 4 other bits of bogwood the small catfish could be under, and the entire back pane of glass is hidden with Vallisneria spiralis and Vallisneria gigantea. My school of glassfish spend a lot of time there, and ...

Folks,

Some of you might enjoy this. I have a 10 year old Panaque (L.027b I think) and an Ancistrus (no idea which one) that are completely inseparable. I got the Panaque some time in 1995, and when I went to live in the US for a while, it moved in with a friend who kept Malawi cichlids. She'd also ...