Great update! I love the stock. That's a healthy tank if the fish are breeding
Thanks Egon. I find fry everywhere (in my overflows, filter socks and in my sump). These Arulius barbs breed like rabbits. I'm doing 50% water changes once a week now, which keeps nitrates below 10. In order to be able to do large scale water changes in the winter (without emptying my 40G hot water heater), I'm having a tankless hot water heater installed in October. I wish I could run a drip system like you, but my setup isn't really configured for it.
Thanks for the kind words. I know the stingray river biotope you are talking about...that tank blows most public aquarium displays out of the water. It's really beautiful. I for sure like that tank better than mine too.
Thanks!
I may be guilty of embellishing, but I think the largest one is ~10". The smallest is about 4". For size reference the fork is 7" long.
They are all pretty much at a size where growth really slows. I've found that I can get CLs to 4" relatively quickly, but their growth rate really tapers off after that.
The photos below were taken in March of 2012 by the guy from whom I bought the 3rd, 4th and 5th largest loaches currently in the tank...it's been 1.5 years and I would guess that they've grown at least 1". I'm not keen on pulling fish out to measure them, so if anyone says the biggest one is only 2" unless I take it out to measure it, I'm going to agree with them and say it's 2"
It took me about three months before I realized that the guy below doesn't have any pelvic fins. Wonder if he was born this way, or they were gnawed off?
Here's the closest I got to measuring my biggest CL on 11/25/2012 as I was moving him from his quarantine tank to the big tank:
