Hello all.

Im moving house, and setting up again, upsizing to a 4ft aquarium, and wondering what to do.

I'm thinking of having an aquarium full of individual different L or LDA number fish, (types that would require similar water conditions). It's a 60 gallon, fairly tall 4 footer. I have shed loads of bogwood for it, so lots of grazing area, and 2 Fluval U4 internal filters (or 1 rena xp3).

How many Loricards would I realistically get away with, probably including a small shoal of 'dithers' like neon tetras? bearing in mind the amount of surface area the wood would give, would it mean more than 3 or 4? (Based on max size averaging 6-7")

Just be carefull on the amount of wood your gonna add as to much will lower your PH......
Its an hard question really if you want to add diff L-numbers as some require diff water parameters, ie. bns require anything from a ph of 6.8 to 7.6 so if you add a diff species that requires a ph of 5.6 or 8.2 then you will have a few probz....so make sure you read the requirments of the plecs you want to add...

I might be wrong here but I always thought one of the important things about how many plecs you can have is ground area rather that amount of water or height of tank as they are bottom dwellers...
Could be wrong though

ur right, but the fact that there is lots of water upwards means that you can load it up with wood and rocks and effectivally increase the bottom area of the tank.

Are you thinking of having breeding pairs/trios or simply grabbing a heap of different Ls and throwing them in. If you are not going with breeding groups then I would go with about 12-15 depending on how much stuff you have in there. I'm picturing an aquarium loaded to the top with wood and rocks here providing ample hiding space for them all.

I would also recommend getting a cansiter filter for the tank. Internals may have the same flow rate as canisters, or even more, but they will never filter as well as a cansiter. even the worst canister is better than an internal for biological filtration.

I'm going with lots of wood and rocks yes, and it probly will end up bing a canister filter. I had the same impression that all the wood etc would mean more surface area for them. I imagine that an amazon flood, with all the wood in clumps is probly crawling with them.

It would be lots of individuals. Cant really do groups as I have nowhere to bring up babies anymore. I jacked that in after about 200 longfins got boiled by a faulty heater

Most of what I like the look of will keep together, I have kept an eye on what their parameters should be. The one I am unsure of is the green phantom...I've read it can be territorial, and fairly brutal?