That reminds me of the first time I had Kuhli loach babies and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I had done to induce the parents to spawn.

BTW: Your wife is reacting normally. My eyes glaze over when my husband goes on about his steel mistress. LOL!

Hi
Well this time I followed none of the suggestions for culture lol. No dry or cool rest no supplemental feed even kept the water too warm. I did use top soil as a substrate
and the water runs consistantly at a p H of 6.7. Using rainwater straight from the barrel.Natural sunlight
Interesting when you read on the culture of these plants .everyone has a different way .About the only thing they agree upon is they are "difficult" gary

Gary:

Your using topsoil interests me. I have a 125 Long out in the greenhouse that I want to use primarially to cultivate aquatic plants, but would also want to house fish in it and once I have it established, have been thinking of turning about 50 "micro" rasbora of 3 different species loose in it, to see what they might do in so much space.

But are you using the topsoil alone, or as a base under some gravel or sand? One of the best and least costly "gravels" for planted tanks that I've found so far, has been what is sold here as traction sand. It's coarse builders sand mixed with very small pea gravel and supports root development very well, but lacks any nutrients. Would laying it over topsoil be beneficial?

Mainly, I'd hate to see what a tank with only topsoil as a substrate looked like after water changes and tank cleaning.