Tank is 1 week ich free (new pics)

[Xirxes]

Well, if you are a regular here, you have seen my rantings for the last few months, battling with the setup for the loaches, but things seems to be settled down now. My last loach survived the ich, and have added two male dwarf gouramis (fire and powder blue) to my 30g, and have a baby red tailed shark cycling my new 10G quarantine tank.

Here is a pic of Pontius:

Is his coloration a known geographical variant? he appears almost white in the areas normally yellow/light orange.
**note photos have been photoshopped for brightness/contrast

Heres one more of the survivor:




Questions at this time:
How long in general to declare a cycling tank as "loach ready"? i plan on getting one more clown as a friend for pontius, to finish off the tank. Tank has been cycling for about 1 week now. Maybe 3 more weeks? Ammonia is still a bit high (.25-.50).



Total stock of 30G heavy aerated tank :
3 zebra danios
2 Dwarf gourami's
1(2 soon) Clown loaches
(1 soon) red tail shark.

[shari]

Yes, he does seem remarkably white to me. Never seen one that color myself, but he's obviously healthy now

As for when the tank is cycled? There should be 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrates. What are you using to cycle the tank? Sorry if you already mentioned it, but I don't recall it

[clownloach]

the colour will darken over time as he is still adjusting to his enviroment. Since he is the only loach... you really should get some more. But otherwise nice job on killing that ich ( what a jerk..!!! killing your fish )LOL

[Xirxes]

I am cycling the ten with a very young red tailed shark, about one week into cycle, ammonia still high (its .50 out of tap ) looking into a RO system thats affordable.

The coloration however, he was white when i got him, and he is white now. have had him for a month and no color change. I think its his true color. Anyways, i will wait till the levels are right in the Qtank before getting another.

Do you think i have 3 years or so before this guy gets to 6"? when he hits seven i will get a larger tank.

[mikev]

On coloration: it is very nice, but it is not all that rare -- during my 6 months hunt for a really-nice-baby-CL I've seen this type.

On cycling: please don't even consider putting a loach into a tank with non-zero ammonia or nitrates. And I feel really sorry for the shark..you are torturing it and possibly permanently damaging it. Try doing more water changes to keep the poison level lower while the cycle gets established.

Please consider fishless cycling, or biospira, or even cycling with feed goldfish next time. Cycling with a fish you intend to keep does not make much sense, and you don't even save any time (I cycled my 65g in 6 days without any fish being hurt; biospira is supposed to be even better).

On tank sizes: I don't think what you asked is a good way. Firstly, you need more CL's, say total of 4 (some will say 5). 4*6" = 24" -- this is almost your tank capacity (30g I believe), and you cannot discount 1in/1g ratio with CL's. And even one 6" in a 30g will be a form of animal torture.... IMHO, the best way is to try to solve the water problem, make sure that you got a happy troupe of about 4, and start looking at larger tanks. And, if you think this makes sense, also consider that quarantining 2-3 CL's at once will take less efforts than doing them one by one....

hth