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<\/a><\/p>\nHyalobagrus<\/b>. There are three different species of these fish from Indonesia, none of which gets bigger than one inch. They get a gold sheen, and sexes are easily distinguished, as the females get a gravid spot and males have papilla, much like the gonopodium on many livebearers. They will school all over the tank, mostly staying in midwater, but will come up to the surface to feed. They are not found in planted environments in nature. They will be found in areas where a meadow has flooded. They are blackwater fish, needing soft water and a low pH.<\/p>\n
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Hara<\/b>.\u00a0 There 10-12 different species showing up in the hobby, going by a number of different common names, such as \u201cmoth cats.\u201d They get no bigger than .5 inches. They tend to stay on the substrate. They have been spawned in the UK.<\/p>\n
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Centromochlus<\/b>\u00a0\u201cis a group of fishes that ten years ago no one kept.\u201d Due to the planted aquarium hobby, they\u2019ve really taken off. They stay under 1 inch, and are pretty with interesting color patterns. They are mostly nocturnal, \u201cbut with a planted tank, fish don\u2019t have to be the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dwarf corydoras<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s hard to do a small heavily planted tank and not do corydoras.\u201d Some \u201cnormal\u201d corydoras will also stay small and are suitable for a small tank. Stay away from those that come from the coast of Brazil, because they need cold water.<\/p>\n
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For the larger tank:<\/b><\/p>\n
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Farlowella<\/b>\u00a0is Shane\u2019s personal favorite: \u201cI\u2019ve made it my goal to collect every described species.\u201d He describes it as \u201cthe absolute perfect planted tank fish.\u201d\u00a0 It is unobtrusive, never bothers other fish, and is happy to spawn in a planted tank. As a bonus it will also help keep algae off of the glass. (At this point, Shane took a moment to address the \u201cthe myth of the worker fish.\u201d There is no fish that will make your tank cleaner. Some fish do help keep algae under control, but every fish adds waste to the tank.)<\/p>\n
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Some people have trouble with farlowellas, just as with otocinclus. After they eat all the algae in your tank, they will starve unless you feed them. They cannot be expected to live off of what they find in the aquarium. Before adding them to a tank, Shane runs lights longer than usual to get a good growth of algae. After that, he rubber bands cucumber, spinach, lettuce, or pumpkin to a piece of slate. If you really want to keep this fish, food must be available to them 24\/7.<\/p>\n
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Farlowellas may make the occasional opportunistic meal of bloodworms or other food if they find it before other fish, but they will never be able to outcompete their tankmates for food. Shane has tried \u201cprobably everything\u201d for food. Algae wafers are hit or miss; some fish eat them, others won\u2019t touch them. They love Repashy Soilent Green, although Shane does find it a \u201cpain\u201d to deal with. It is really good for fry, however, and he describes Tetra Bits as a \u201cmagic food.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Loricariids<\/b>. Shane showed us a slide of the Peruvian Amazon with big \u201cfloating meadows\u201d –big mats of grass that float on the river. A four meter seine is used to catch the loricariids here, by pulling it under the floating mass and bringing it to shore, where it will be found to be filled with Loricariids.<\/p>\n
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Sturisoma<\/b>, often called the \u201croyal farlowella,\u201d is another favorite of Shane\u2019s. There are six different species, and he has never seen them labeled correctly. They are a \u201cworker catfish with a lot of personality.\u201d They will spawn on an Amazon sword leaf or on the glass.<\/p>\n
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Ancistrus<\/b>\u00a0are a \u201cmixed bag\u201d for the planted tank. There are individuals who live 10 years in a tank and never hurt a thing, and others that will do damage to plants. A planted tank \u201cis never right without an ancistrus,\u201d but \u201cwatch them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ancistrus that are all brown are whitewater fish. They come from habitats where the water is faster flowing, with water the color of \u201ccoffee with milk,\u201d and rocks and wood. These ancistrus are more likely to eat plants. Ancistrus that are dark gray to black with white, gray, or off white spots are blackwater fish. These are better in planted tanks.<\/p>\n
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Kryptopterus vitreolus<\/b>\u00a0or \u201cglass cats\u201d are transparent, silvery, and look good against green plants. They are a schooling fish, and the bigger the school the better –8-15 in a 30 gallon tank looks great. These fish are less skittish in a planted tank.<\/p>\n
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Hypoptopoma<\/b>. These are often called \u201cgiant otocinclus.\u201d They get to be about 2-3 inches, and are a better planted tank choice than ancistrus. Like the otocinclus and farlowellas, they will need some \u201cTLC\u201d in a quarantine tank after purchase.<\/p>\n
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Shane showed some slides of different habitats, and the tanks he has created to mimic those habitats. \u201cAn aquarium needs to look like a part of nature,\u201d he told us. \u201cLook at the environment where your fish comes from. Get the habitat right, and the fish will reward you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He advises against getting \u201ctoo bogged down\u201d in trying to create a biotope. Showing a picture of one of his tanks, he conceded that java moss may not be found in Venezuela, but \u201cdo you really think your fish can tell the difference?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Shane admits to being \u201cthe cheapest aquarist ever.\u201d None of his tanks has co2, and for lighting he uses 4 ft shop lights from home depot. \u201cYou can do a nice planted tank for very little money.\u201d He does say that if you are going to use cheap lights, if you do not replace bulbs after 6-9 months \u201cyour plants are going to go downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Shane concluded his talk by stating that there are many catfishes for your tank, whether you have a planted tank and want to choose the fish that will work in that tank, or you pick the fish first and want to build the tank around that.<\/p>\n
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The meeting ended with our usual mini-auction.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Viktor Gyorffy hosted the October 26 meeting at his home in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Shane Linder, of PlanetCatfish.com spoke on the topic of \u201cCatfishes and the Planted Aquarium.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meeting-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1529,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Catfishes](\"http:\/\/gwapa.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Catfishes-in-the-planted-aquarium-500x375.jpg\")
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