LOL @ Sean! Most of mine aerate the hell out of the water. Meaning of course that they are excellent CO2 removal devices.

Great fish and good pics.

Looking forward to fry in the future...

In a newly set tank that is not heavy in total plant mass yet - as Francine's new setup is right now - I would rather depend on mature filter media from an established tank. The plants can use the nitrate almost as well as the ammonia, and there should be less chance of algae with the nitrate than t...

The bloom spike tip swells a bit before opening to reveal the buds themselves, but I think the major swelling is after the individual buds are exposed. The plant has multiple flowers per scape, but that may be a maturity thing and definitely resets with moving the bulb - first spikes after a move/re...

Good Grief, do they stink! We used to have a neighbor who loved sweet fragrant flowers - the blooms went to her. Finally her husband said something about moving out while she had them in the house, so after that I just cut them off and tossed them before they open. Very sweet, very strong. Sort of l...

I plan to be there.

They are not small, and while not mbuna, are quite territorial. I'd keep a single pair, not two, in a 40BR. That is only 4.5 square feet, a trivial difference from a 40-long or 33XL in footprint..

I had 6 juveniles in a 40-long for grow up and hopefully pairing while i set their tank. I go two pairs, so had to quick-set another (but the second was easier. ;) ). Traded the two left-over back to the LFS, along with occasional fry/juveniles. Both pairs were still going when i traded them off sev...

I kept two tanks of them for quite a while. Both 33XL, massive current, rock clumps with PVC pipe caves, some "open areas" in the lee of some of the rock clumps where fry could be brought out. Really cool fish. They were my whitewater tanks. Fascinating fish, easy to keep/breed/rear (excep...

Some of us don't do all-in-one container filtration anymore, so canister loading is highly specialized for me at least. i have always been a bit of a multi-filter nut anyway, but part of that is because i like better water quality than an all-in-one unit can offer with standard upkeep. The classics ...