Clown loaches...Is 4f diameter round plastic pond - 240G polyehtylene

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A recent video of my clowns with their new friends, denison barbs and siamese algae eaters which I added a couple of months ago. Sorry about the blurry video, the camera keeps focusing on the floaters instead of the fish..

The small loach is the newest loach addition. I bought him around September last year. He was quarantined in a small tank for a while. I also have two new baby loaches in quarantine which I bought 2 weeks ago along with harlequin rasboras. They brought columnaris. I lost a couple of the rasboras but I think they'll make it as they went through treatment fine, and will eventually be moved to the pond if they do.

These will be the last addition to the tank.


And a view of the emersed plant area.

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It is the best set up I've ever had. I haven't seen the fish happier and I've had some of them for over 5 years now. And I think the round shape and black sides play a huge role. They absolutely love the space in all directions. They are very playful in there too, and also a lot friendlier with me than they used to be.

I have 3 external filters, each 2000L/H(528G). That's plenty for the setup and flow amount. I also have pre-filter sponges on all intakes and majority of the media inside is sponges. I wash the prefitler sponges at every water change, not so often the filters. I love sponge filtering, gives me the best, cleanest water and does the biological filtration great too. The outlets are just spaced apart positioned on the sides in one direction, and turn the water in a circular motion.

You will not regret it having a setup like this. The water is also crystal clear. Its really pretty to see the fish live because there's no problem seeing the smallest details at the very bottom.

The only downside is, its difficult to photograph or take video of the fish to show :) The light reflection and shooting from above makes it difficult to capture the real colours. My Denison barbs now have grown up quite a bit and have a magnificent green iridescent colour on their backs, bright red noses and line across and lovely yellow tails but when I take a video or picture, it all blurs and they appear greyish dull :) I really want to get an underwater camera....

Some more pictures and I'll take a recent video soon of the clowns.

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Thank you for the update, your setup is beautiful and very inspiring!

Where did you get the pond liner? Are you supporting the pond sides with anything? Is the pond sitting on something to elevate it? What light are you using? What are the tall potted plants and what substrate/dirt is in the pots? Do you usually have a top on on the pond to prevent jumpers?
 
It is actually not a pond liner. Its a standalone, above ground pond made from MDPE. It does not need support. You can place it directly on a flat surface, and that's it. They also sell them here as potable water containers up to several thousand litres sizes, very sturdy and they also have 10 year guarantee. If I had more space, I would have bought one with a larger diameter. I live in Europe, so you many not find the same but if you are in the US, they sell round fiber glass tanks which I couldn't find here. I think the round shape is really a key to the fish. I think they're really, really happy in that shape. They think its an infinity pool swimming the perimeter :)

The lights I am using is one kessil 350W, which is the one right above, and one 30W Flood light which only illuminates the tall plants out the back. When just the flood light is on, the clown loaches have a party :) They like having some light but not too much and it just gives them that "dusk" type of illumination they like :)

The tall potted plants are peace lilies, parlour palm and a fern I forget the name of(common one), but all do great with wet roots. They are planted in baskets with just hydroton clay pebbles. It works best as it gives water flow around the roots.

There are potted plants under water too. I use a layer of hydroton clay pebbles, a layer of plain top soil, capped with small gravel. The pots need to be sturdy because the clowns knock them otherwise :)

I do not cover the pond at all. I do not fill it right to the top. The water level is about 10cm below. It needs a really determined fish to make that distance... The pond also has a narrow lip around. No jumpers so far. Its been set up for nearly 6 or 7 months now. All fish I have are advertised jumpers, SAEs, denison barbs, kuhli loaches, and the clown loaches....two of which did jump out while in quarantine in the past...in a small open top tank..

I think jumpers has to do a lot with too big fish or too fast fish, in a too small tank or generally small tanks where fish feel threatened easily. I've had several jumpers out of my small tanks, same fish never jumped out of a big open top tank.... My clown loaches have been in an open top tanks for the last two years, and previously in a half open top tank for another two years, so most of their lives in open top tanks.....No jumpers if they've got enough space....
 
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Thank you for the info, I'll have to do some looking around and see what I can find.

Are you getting a lot of evaporation? What about humidity in the room?
 
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