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I am not sure if my bns are insanely happy in their new tank, or if they aren't getting enough air, or if a couple of weeks of living with cories (who do like a flit to the top for air) has polluted their minds, but my bns are flitting up every so often for a gulp of air and then back down again. All three are doing it but they don't linger up there at all.

Tank is the new 3ft x 15" x 18" and is being dosed with stability as its a new setup. There is a large filter (cycled in another tank for a few weeks) which I checked and is working, and an airpump and round 4" in diameter flat airstone. There are also numerous plants and some are floating ones. Only the 3bns are in the tank. No other fish at all. What do you think, are they normal?

Hmmm, I haven't seen my bn's come up for air, even being kept with 12 Corys. That said, some plecs can breathe atmospheric oxygen through their gut. Does the original tank they were in have more water movement? It could be just the change that they're dealing with after being switched over.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I had a common pleco that would do that(I do not know if it was "breathing" though) relatively often. I have had an albino BN for several years now. And now that you mention it, I have never seen him act that way, though.

AFAIK, Pterygoplichthys species, including the common plec, are more specially adapted to breathe air.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Correct. Hypostomini and hypoptopomatinae are highly adept at extracting atmospheric oxygen--understandable, given their preferably pseudolentic habitats.

Not to mention Pterygoplichthyini.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

If you agree with Armbruster. I don't think the revisions on his site have been officially published, and the Baench people+Isbrucker are at odds with this classificatory system, I believe. I'll just play it safe. I think we've had this exact discussion before.

EDIT: Wrong. It was published in 2004. But still debated, apparently.

A paper describing the new genus Lanceapelta, that will be placed within the tribe Ptreygoplichthyini, will probably help further define and expand on the definition and validity of the tribe. I've been waiting quite some time for this paper.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

One of the "pseudo" hemiancistrus of the annectens group, iirc.

Indeed, Lanceapelta will be what Armbruster calls the H. annectens group.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I turned up the airpump and stopped adding stability and they are all staying down. /:'