can be fed with vegetables such as nettles, lettuce, spinach or carrots. Their diet can include meat; such as earthworms, blood worms or chopped shrimps. They will also eat prepared foods from a pet shop, especially sinking algae wafers. The best way to breed Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps is to feed them with wide spectrum of food. With a good diet, they will grow quickly (up to 30 centimetres in one year). Adult Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps may eat many aquarium plants. Reproduction It can be almost impossible to differentiate males from females. Males in a group can be determined as they may become more territorial. Reproduction involves females laying roes into caves or hollows of roots. There is a high rate of mortality until the spawn are five centimeters long. The reason for this is unknown. See also List of freshwater aquarium fish species References Hypostominae Fish of South America Fish of Brazil Fish of Ecuador Fish of Peru Fish of Venezuela Fish of the Amazon basin Fish described in 1854