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The beak actually can grow back. I had one break most of it's beak off once and it grew back eventually, although it was a bit abnormal looking. Just stay on top of water quality and it should heal just fine, additives are really not necessary.

I like Hikari's frozen foods (their bloodworms are excellent), but I'm not a fan of their pellet/disc offerings. Their algae wafers are terrible for herbivorous fish. HBH veggie wafers are by far the best I've tried.

I don't want any, I've already got 4 of them :cool:

It's normal for otos to jump up and hang onto the side of the bag/tank/container, etc. It's just a flight reaction, and doesn't mean the water is bad. AC's are great, btw :cool:

I'd recommend a slower, more gradual acclimation procedure for them. Try floating the bag for ten minutes, then adding about a turkey baster full of tank water every ten minutes or so. After doing this a few times, start removing bag water before adding more tank water. This works well for me...

For zucchini and cukes I cut it into chunks and peel. I either use plant weights or impale the pieces on driftwood. Fish won't touch it for a while siometimes, until they learn that it's food. Sometimes they won't eat until it softens up a bit too.

The things carttman mentioned are good (although I've never fed potato). Brussel sprouts and cukes are also excellent for otos. If there is no algae left, try to make sure they constantly have some form of veggie in the tank (but be sure to remove any uneaten portions before they decay).

Yup, prepare yourself for fry. With platies it's pretty much gauranteed that you'll get fry if you have both sexes (or in some cases, even if you just have females).

There are many other plecos that stay small as well. Just be sure to research first and be certain of which species you plan to buy. Clown plecos are fairly common and are a good "dwarf" pleco. IME dwarf and honey gouramis are ok together (at least mine are). I had two dwarves in the same...

It's not true that a tank has to be neglected to "lose" a fish for months. My 40 BR is well planted with lots of caves and various hiding places. I don't see my clown pleco for months at a time but am confident that he's alive and well. Every now and then he'll show himself, but not very often...

I tend to like little fish in larger groups. My biggest fish is a curviceps cichlid at about 3", and I consider it to be on the "large" side for my taste. I'd love to have a huge tank stocked with large groups of small fish someday.

Beautiful plants, and I love the roots on those! I bet my 'beaks would love them. My duckweed needs to be eradicated - it outcompeted my azolla in a hurry, then my red root floaters died off. Now the last of my frogbit is barely hanging on. **** duckweed :mad2: I think water lettuce would...

I'm fond of small, unusual and rare/semi-rare fish myself. My fish are mostly ones you won't find in the local fish store, with some exceptions. Goo-Obos have been on my want list for a long time, but I just don't have the tank space for them yet. I sure do love my peacocks though!

Sorry to hear that Lunchbox. It's hard to say whether or not the fat belly was related to it's death or not, without doing an autopsy. From the pics I don't see any redness that would indicate an infection, and it sure looked like a gravid female to me. I wonder if internal parasites may have...

That's the same species as my fish, but a much better picture. I don't find they look like otos personally, but maybe it's because I have both and I can tell the difference easily. Interestingly enough though, my characidium was sold to me as an oto because the employee didn't know what it was...

The only advantage I can see with Biowheels (as far as biological filration goes) is if you want to replace your bio media often, and I don't know why anyone would want to. Biowheel or not, the bacteria colonies will grow to match the amount of waste. Perhaps there would be an advantage in tanks...

I always use my mouth, and haven't got a mouthful of water in years. Once the water gets over the edge of the tank the siphon will start. I think a lot of people keep their mouth on the hose longer than necessary, which is why they get a mouthful of fish water.

The similarity between the fry and characidium is interesting. Hope you don't mind me posting this (if you do, just say so and I'll remove it), but here's a pic of my characidium (yeah bad pic, I know). Characidium are actually in the order characiformes, which has always puzzled me but I'm...

It should be easy to tell if they're oto fry or not. Do they look like tiny otos and stick to the glass/plants/etc.?

Most of your beneficial bacteria are in your filter, unless you are using undergravel filtration. Vacuuming the gravel shouldn't deplete your biofilter enough to cause problems.