The Cookie Crew

After reading so many stories about how fickle they are when first introduced, I'm anxious on an entirely new level right now, lol, but fingers crossed they'll all be ok... 

Lovely looking fish. The should do well in your tank.

Nice looking otto's cookie  i have 5 aswell and they are great fun to watch. I was always dubious about getting any due to the stories you read on the net but i have had mine for over 3 months now and would't hesitate buying any again. 

One thing that is interesting and has only just come to light really is that removing one of the two large chunks of bogwood has changed the dynamic in the tank significantly...  Many of the Tetras are now swimming higher up in the water column, the Corys are out & about more and the biggest change is that I can now see the Lemon BN Pleco grazing algae (presumably) from plant leaves - whereas she used to stay almost exclusively on either piece of wood...  I am especially pleased about this as I think she will likely do a better job of algae munching if she ventures off the now lone piece of wood more often, which was of course one of the principle reasons for getting her in the first place... 

Gonna have to try and catch the lone Platy again soon though, as he's bullying the Red Phantom Tetras...  Although, there is a part of me that thinks it might actually be no bad thing in some respects, as they're bickering between themselves far less whilst being hounded by the Platy...

Just looked them up... they are stunners! Like mini plecs. Quite rare too by the sounds of it... but that's warf for you.

I think they get a bit bigger than 'normal' otos i have read up to 6cm thought I can't imagine that's a problem for you.

Lovely fish 

I just looked them up too. PlanetCatfish calls them Hisonotus leucofrenatus with the common name Niger oto https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=1386  I have also found it as Ototcinclus niger. Presumably it's one of those species that has been reclassified into another genus.
Aha! look here
Shops do have a tendency to use older names.


Lovely little fish, whatever they are called 

Just playing with google:-

I already knew that 'leuco' meant white or lacking in colour (eg leucocyte = white blood cell)
Frenulum - a bristle or group of bristles on the front edge of butterfly wings.

So does leucofrenatus refer to the white spots on the edge of the fish's pectoral fins?

Newest pic, after all the work gone into making the plants take off again: 

Spectacular. 

Can I also see a flowering bucephalandra? Lovely. 

The new living room blinds were done on Friday, after a lengthy wait...  Really chuffed as it has made a considerable difference to how much natural light enters the tank - the one main last bastion of potential algae causes...!!!  Correspondingly, I have now cut out the liquid carbon too, with the new daily fertiliser regime being simply 1ml of TNC Complete...  Fingers crossed things will remain on a nice even keel and the algae will ease off even further in the coming weeks...