Dither Fish for 55g Baby Botia Tank

[SgtMajWiggles]

Any suggestions? The tank is planted with val and swords, primarily, with water hyacinth covering most of the surface of the tank. I have a lot of cichlid stones and hollow ceramic logs in the tank, along with some natural stone. It has a river tank manifold set up with a fluval 304 and lots of bubbles. This is sort of a grow out tank: the loaches are really small but I have 10 of them so I'm trying to avoid overstocking at the outset at least.

Thanks!

[starsplitter7]

Do the cichlid stones leach into the water? This could adversely affect the pH. Just something to think about.

What kind of baby botia do you have? That could make a difference for the dithers? Temps, activity level. . .

[SgtMajWiggles]

Starsplitter - I hadn't heard about the cichlid stones leaching and I don't have a means of testing pH at the moment, but it's going on the shopping list. I have kubotai, rostrata, striata, dario, and a yoyo. My apartment is very warm year-round so the tank is 78-84 F without additional heating.

[starsplitter7]

If you need to get a kit, use the liquid tests. I use API. The strips don't work.

[palaeodave]

Easiest way to test the stone is to scrape some off with a knife and pour a little distilled vinegar onto the powder. If it effervesces (fizzes), it's alkaline and will probably leach into the water.

As for dithers, I've found none better than harlequin rasboras. A decent shoal of adults is quite a sight - don't be fooled by the often stressed youngsters in fish shops.

[SgtMajWiggles]

Do the cichlid stones leach into the water? This could adversely affect the pH.

Okay, so I got the test drops... I suspect that the cichlid stones may raise the pH a bit. My tap water tests at 7.4 and my tanks, some with and some without the cichlid stones, range from 7.6 to 8.0. It's not clear that the ceramics are the cause of the increase, but one would expect as much.

[SgtMajWiggles]

As for dithers, I've found none better than harlequin rasboras. A decent shoal of adults is quite a sight - don't be fooled by the often stressed youngsters in fish shops.

They are lovely fish! My water is on the hard and alkaline side, so I might not be the best fit for them, from what I've read. Bummer though - I definitely had to go check them out!

[SgtMajWiggles]

Here's a pic of the tank. You can see the intake sponge on the left and spray bar on the right for the river tank manifold. A few changes have been made since the photo - the giant danios have been moved to another tank and a couple of the stones were removed from the left side to create a little more open space.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1 ... =548705242

Currently in the tank :
1 yoyo
1 dario
1 striata
1 kubotai
1 rostrata
(I got one of each of the indian botias I could find, hoping they would all be social together - so far this has worked well!)

3-4 clown loaches (there have been a couple deaths due to ich)
1 S. helodes (tiger botia)
3 S. lineolata (reticulated hillstream loach)
1 S. balteata (tri-band sumo loach)

1 african brown knife
1 lone otocinclus
some BN pleco fry

[starsplitter7]

Your tank is absolutely lovely. Looks very nice.

I think your tank is overstocked or at least once the fish start growing, it will be overstuffed, but you will also need to get multiples of each of the loaches like Zebras, Yoyos, Darios, Kubotai and Rostrata. They like to be in groups of five or more. Mine are in groups and also school with other species.

The otos also do much better in groups of 5-10 or more. They are not lone fish,and don't do well alone. They are one of my favorite fish.

I assume you know your Brown Knife will reach 8-12" and can be predatorial (Otos would make good snacks.

I would work on slowly bringing down the pH, since almost all loaches like it below 7. I think all the fish you listed prefer to be below 7.

I would work on those things before you worry too much about dithers. Do you hzve a larger tank you are planning to move these guys to?

[SgtMajWiggles]

Yes, this is a grow out tank. The botias are very small right now - just a couple inches or less. When they outgrow this tank I would like to put them in the biggest tank I can find and fit (150g+).

Someone gave me their 2 clowns and a yoyo when they moved and I fell in love with them! My 100g has turtles in it (and crayfish and some local wild fish)... not an ideal place for loaches, so I wanted to make them a tank where they would be and feel safer. The oto is just hanging out in there until I figure out what to do with him. He is the last of a small group I got a few years ago. I haven't seen any aggression out of my knife yet... of course, it is a big fish and will hoover up anything small enough to fit in it's mouth. Fortunately for the oto it is too big for this.

I was thinking of trying to find a small group of true SAE in the tank (rather than otos) b/c they're a bit bigger and better algae eaters, I gather. I was also thinking of getting 6 glass cats as dither fish. I just am not sure what makes a good "dither fish," as I am new to loaches.

[starsplitter7]

I figured you already knew, just thought I would let you know if you didn't.

I have 6 glass cats, and I don't think they would make good dithers, because they hover in the plants. They don't swim much unless they are hunting.

I've never seen my predatorial fish eat their tankmates. The tank mates just disappear. It took me a while to figure out who was eating everyone. In my case it was a bichir. Now she lives with big fish and eats cocktail shrimp.

[SgtMajWiggles]

Hmm... This makes sense to me. I guess I will just have to watch out for any problems with the knife. I am still new to the hobby and am making lots of mistakes. Thanks for saying it looks good - I am trying lots of new things in it all at once! I may have gone a bit crazy in the design, since I have very little experience in plant keeping, tank hardware and loaches. I just wanted to move the (loaches) somebody gave me out of the turtle tank!

[starsplitter7]

I think it is a beautiful tank. I am terrible at tank design and I have a limited budget, so my tanks are bare bones, utilitarian. I try to do the best I can by my fish.

I have only been keeping fish five years. I am really just a newbie, but I am learning from my mistakes and I learned pretty much everything from this website. In my fish club, there are lots of people who have owned fish many years longer than I have been alive, so I learn a lot.

When I worked at a fishstore, the knifes were pretty easy going. If I had a big tank, I would definitely have one. I think they are super cool.

I am not good at keeping plants, but the little bit of advice I cn give you there, is watch for them not to die. When plants die they can pollute the tank and increase the ammonia.

[SgtMajWiggles]

Thanks for the pointers, starsplitter!