Setting up my second loach tank.
- Thread starter MultipleTankSyndrome
- Start date
Good suggestions. Perhaps if I was allowed to set up some breeding tanks.
The current limit on tanks means the only possible way for that to happen is breeding in the main tanks and the fry somehow surviving. Plus, I think my current stock came from the same spawn, so they're not the best choices to breed together.
The current limit on tanks means the only possible way for that to happen is breeding in the main tanks and the fry somehow surviving. Plus, I think my current stock came from the same spawn, so they're not the best choices to breed together.
Another thing to keep this thread positive even with all the annoyances.
The barb/shark stocking for this tank is a decent situational parallel to some of my earliest ever plans for big tanks, even though it was not inspired at all by them.
When I had my first ever 'wishlist' tropical fish in their growout tank, the plan was to build a custom 8000 liter and have the barbs/sharks be a mix of bala sharks and tinfoil barbs, inspired by seeing both at the zoo in the Indo-Malayan exhibits.
At the time I did not want to fork out the cash for roseline sharks and was not familiar with Odessa barbs, so they were my go to.
Needless to say, for this tank at least, a roseline shark/Odessa barb mix is a 1000x better choice. This tank is an appropriate size for good size groups of both, they aren't big enough to snack on the loaches, and their insectivorous diets make them dietarily compatible with the loaches, all of which are more than can be said for balas and/or tinfoils.
Plus, at this point, my tastes have changed to preferring the more appropriate choices! ?
I believe the superior colors of roselines compared to balas is well worth the price, and Odessas are 1000x nicer looking than tinfoils even though they cost the same at the same sizes.
The barb/shark stocking for this tank is a decent situational parallel to some of my earliest ever plans for big tanks, even though it was not inspired at all by them.
When I had my first ever 'wishlist' tropical fish in their growout tank, the plan was to build a custom 8000 liter and have the barbs/sharks be a mix of bala sharks and tinfoil barbs, inspired by seeing both at the zoo in the Indo-Malayan exhibits.
At the time I did not want to fork out the cash for roseline sharks and was not familiar with Odessa barbs, so they were my go to.
Needless to say, for this tank at least, a roseline shark/Odessa barb mix is a 1000x better choice. This tank is an appropriate size for good size groups of both, they aren't big enough to snack on the loaches, and their insectivorous diets make them dietarily compatible with the loaches, all of which are more than can be said for balas and/or tinfoils.
Plus, at this point, my tastes have changed to preferring the more appropriate choices! ?
I believe the superior colors of roselines compared to balas is well worth the price, and Odessas are 1000x nicer looking than tinfoils even though they cost the same at the same sizes.
More black kuhli pictures.
Also a few notes on temperature that might be of interest.
-I found today that during water replacements when the equipment is turned off, the water temperature drops to 20.7 degrees, unsurprisingly so since the tank is in my cold basement. Even though these fish prefer temperatures on the cool side, that is a bit too cool (this tank was going to be at 23-24 degrees).
Time to keep the heaters running during water replacements, oriented so that they stay fully underwater with the drainage.
-Speaking of cool temperatures,
esoxlucius
' thread on challenging developments made me realize how lucky I am that this tank can be at 23-24 degrees! ?
For comparison, the other 473 liter and the 110 liter are both at 27 degrees, so the heating bill for this tank will be relatively lower and hopefully a decent step away from falling into massive debt.
Also a few notes on temperature that might be of interest.
-I found today that during water replacements when the equipment is turned off, the water temperature drops to 20.7 degrees, unsurprisingly so since the tank is in my cold basement. Even though these fish prefer temperatures on the cool side, that is a bit too cool (this tank was going to be at 23-24 degrees).
Time to keep the heaters running during water replacements, oriented so that they stay fully underwater with the drainage.
-Speaking of cool temperatures,
esoxlucius
' thread on challenging developments made me realize how lucky I am that this tank can be at 23-24 degrees! ? For comparison, the other 473 liter and the 110 liter are both at 27 degrees, so the heating bill for this tank will be relatively lower and hopefully a decent step away from falling into massive debt.
Don't think so.
I have got the opposite problem. My tanks can often be too warm.
It's based on Seriously Fish recommendation. They recommend a range of approximately 21 to 26 degrees for the species planned, which is cooler than the tropical fish 'standard' of 27ish degrees.
I would say they are so far correct, at least for the black kuhlis. They are as active and hungry within this range as would be expected.
At least I don't have your problem! Chillers are apparently a real PITA.
Just did a wee bit of experimentation with the Sicce Voyager and found a way to include at least 1 of the 2 I bought into this tank, instead of just having the XStream like I thought I might have to do earlier.
By twisting the ring nut to partway cover the holes, dead spots at the bottom are retained while still gaining the extra 6000 lph (and hopefully 12000 lph, if I can get it to work with both) of flow. Indicators for dead spots were the calm water kuhli loaches, as they did not appear phased by it.
Having all these pumps will make for quite a large flowing top area. I consider that pretty important for the stocking here, as it ought to provide all 36 planned riverine fish space enough to exercise in the flow as they please without having to 'wait in line' for their tankmates to finish.
By twisting the ring nut to partway cover the holes, dead spots at the bottom are retained while still gaining the extra 6000 lph (and hopefully 12000 lph, if I can get it to work with both) of flow. Indicators for dead spots were the calm water kuhli loaches, as they did not appear phased by it.
Having all these pumps will make for quite a large flowing top area. I consider that pretty important for the stocking here, as it ought to provide all 36 planned riverine fish space enough to exercise in the flow as they please without having to 'wait in line' for their tankmates to finish.
After some observation today, it seems like using all 3 Sicce pumps (yes, it worked!) is actually bringing out the kuhlis even more than when just the XStream was going. They stick to the dead spots though, so perhaps it is related to more oxygen in the water.
Based on this, I would recommend to anyone whose kuhli tank isn't highly oxygenated to bump up the oxygenation for more activity. And perhaps cool the temperature a bit to increase the oxygen further, this tank is at 21.8 degrees right now so there will be more oxygen than the higher end of the kuhli loach temperature.
I wonder if I can get them to spawn (both the black kuhlis and the future striped kuhlis) as a result of all that oxygen. Would be a nice project, and I have no doubt that some babies could avoid the larger fish until they were too big to be eaten (after all, they are teleportative telepaths like
Midwater
mentioned).
Based on this, I would recommend to anyone whose kuhli tank isn't highly oxygenated to bump up the oxygenation for more activity. And perhaps cool the temperature a bit to increase the oxygen further, this tank is at 21.8 degrees right now so there will be more oxygen than the higher end of the kuhli loach temperature.
I wonder if I can get them to spawn (both the black kuhlis and the future striped kuhlis) as a result of all that oxygen. Would be a nice project, and I have no doubt that some babies could avoid the larger fish until they were too big to be eaten (after all, they are teleportative telepaths like
Midwater
mentioned).
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If this happens I'm looking forward to seeing it?I wonder if I can get them to spawn (both the black kuhlis and the future striped kuhlis) as a result of all that oxygen. Would be a nice project, and I have no doubt that some babies could avoid the larger fish until they were too big to be eaten (after all, they are teleportative telepaths like
Me too, lol. How great it would be to become self sufficient in kuhli production.
Speaking of kuhlis, I think I actually have striped kuhlis as my favorite loach instead of clowns now. They have all the things I like about clown loaches (same pattern, fun to watch, reasonably easy to care for), but I can give them far more space and have far more of them.
Speaking of kuhlis, I think I actually have striped kuhlis as my favorite loach instead of clowns now. They have all the things I like about clown loaches (same pattern, fun to watch, reasonably easy to care for), but I can give them far more space and have far more of them.
