Interesting behavior!

I am so crazy about my plecos now! I originally got them for their excellent housecleaning abilities for my husband's fantail golfish tank but have since claimed them and they are quickly becoming an obsession :geek:

Well it's been a few weeks now since I lost my first batch of eggs to a temperature flux and my slow reaction to it , Dad has a new cave with no dangerous edges on it and has claimed it and is guarding it, cleaning and I think trying to make it look good to his lady! I think he's forgiven her for going into his man- cave and they are quite close. It's funny to me because I never observed them as diligently as I do now but they are very cute He will go close to her and she'll move just a couple of cm away and he'll do it again and she'll move again, it is absolutely fascinating :geek: They have both been eating cucumbers and zucchini and carrots like its endangered! Her belly is swollen and I can see its becoming quite reddish/pinkish again, which before this happened I thought she had injured her under side

But I think she may be 'with eggs'

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I hope now that it happens again!

Sounds very promising

Good luck with it The temp needs to be about 26c for them.Have they got some wood in the tank and do you test the water? What is the ph level?

does sound good! just make sure you keep the babies away from the goldfish, all he will see is a tasty snack!

Thank you for the positive feedback and I welcome the questions also!

Yes I do test the water the ammonia is 0 ppm s, nitrates and nitrites are also at 0 ppm s, the only thing is the pH remains at 7.8 just like in my other two tanks. I have never used any chemicals to alter parameters since I have been fish-keeping, since 2009 and I am weary to start now. I do use 'Nutrafin-Aqua-plus' to make my tap water safe. I like to do research and find a natural way and with hard work (testing and cleaning my tanks and filters and water changes) to maintain a healthy environment for all my fish... but I do want to put some wood in the tank with my BN's because the pH should drop naturally but am having difficulty finding bog wood. All the LFS's I have contacted only have giant pieces of (misc.) aquarium wood which would not fit in my 45G tank and the other option is driftwood that is used for terrariums, there are pieces that are more suited to my tank size but the people at the stores are not sure if it would be good for an aquarium and so I have been reluctant to go ahead with putting in a terrarium driftwood piece.

I would appreciate any feedback on the type of wood, species, etc., that is OK to put in a tank, online I have found that bog-wood is the recommended wood.

Also yes, now my BN's are in a planted tank, with otocinclus also very fascinating little catfish!, and guppies. Poor goldfish!
Honestly, my husband lost his BN's quite some time ago to me and my fishy-ideas!

Sounds like you know what your doing, although I would keep the PH around 7. BN's need wood to rasp on and digest all the roughage they eat, I use African driftwood from my LFS which some times need soaking in de- chlorinated water for a few days, my lady BN loves it!

Good to see youve got things sorted. But you must get some wood for your bn. It shouldnt be that hard to find a piece of wood for that size tank as most woods that you can use for reptile enclosures are suitable aswell. Just make sure its a hardwood to make sure it sinks