Nuts ´n´ Trash (today's pictures)

[wasserscheu]

Thank you Emma, but arn't we about in a similar timezone?

I have not seen their body stripes filled out for a while (only shows the fine lines like on the above pic's, need to look at some pic's while they were in quarantine).

So, let's try at least a little sleep now.

[starsplitter7]

Absolkutely gorgeous fish, Wolf. Thanks for sharing.

[Emma Turner]

Thank you Emma, but arn't we about in a similar timezone?

You know me, Wolfie.

[wasserscheu]

I forgot Emma, you have too many nice fish around that keep you from going to sleep.

[helen nightingale]

your tanks are lovely

i like the idea of that green pipe bridge, and seeing pictures of the fish using it was great. like swimming pool slides.

[wasserscheu]

Being a Garra fan already for a while, as flavatras are real pets (here some old pic’s and video) ...

http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o143 ... 136wma.mp4





... it was just a question of time, that more Garras are desired. I always wanted to have some Garra rufa, but never could decide. However, one morning I woke up, determined, today I get some. Of course I was late and the pretty large shipment was sold out. So I ended up screening all tanks in the shop, knowing they travel between tanks. The storekeeper reassured, he put them all in one tank only, however I was able to collect 6 leftovers from various tanks.

Already in the bag the little creatures between 1“ and 1,5“ look like seeking eyecontact, being aware of me (yes and I can see their questionmarks in their minds too ))





From my flavatra I already know, that Garras are not shy at all and come to the glass when calling them by tipping with my finger. Still, I was curious wheter it’s true, that they nibble on the skin – shure thing, they gave it a try right away.







Later in the q-tank, my daughter also wanted her hand to get nibbled on, but they are camera shy, and take off, as soon as the camera is pointed at them.







Moving tanks, the flavatras (some time ago) did not need to get chased with the net at all, they just let themself take out by net, as if they already knew and trusted that procedure. No surprise that 5 of 6 Garra rufa could be moved, from the med.tank to the q-tank, just by hand.





Typically, I clean the filter in the q-tank by sucking it off, during waterchange, but looks like I can save some work with those little helpers. Not even Pseudogastromyzons kept that cartridge that clean. Another good reason for open filtermedia, it supplies a lot of „mikro-organisms“ that specially young fish like to eat.





Of course, also the rufa loves caves for occasional shelter, or as sleeping places.











They are excellent algae eaters







And they are good eaters in general ))) and no, they don’t know when to stop





But they are very active chaps and thus their belly doesn’t stay big very long, as soon as even just a little light goes on in the room, they start zooming around. They grow very fast too.

[Mad Duff]

Great pics and lovely fish Wolfram

[starsplitter7]

Aboslutely wonderful Wolf. Thanks!

[NancyD]

I had to go through this whole thread again, it's been a while & it's still makes me laugh. Your fish & plants are great! I will finally be joining the garra group with some flavatras next week. I hope they have as much personality & lovely color as yours.

I also need to show my echinos your pics to inspire them, that & some root tabs LOL.

[ch.koenig]

hi wolfram
g.flavatra have been on my list for a long time. saw them yesterday when delievering some shrimps. just wonderful. frank schäfer gave some infos about breeding. are you trying?
cheers charles

[wasserscheu]

Hallo Charles,

I've 9 G. flavatra and occasionally I see some being "extra wide", but don't know whether they are gravid. Sometimes, spezially the (much smaller) Botia striata are buging them by picking around their vent, and are following the Garra everywhere. Currently I have too many egg and fry munchers in my collection and very fine sand which gives no gaps for eggs to protect, they may even be rinsed into the filter (in case they are free-spawning).

I will look for frank shäfers notes, thanks, I will also get more rufa as well.
In case I ever get my plans fullfilled, I will add egg-traps and hopfully than I will be as lucky as Grame, here his supurb results on breeding Garra flavatra.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=16179

[wasserscheu]

Seeing Vancmann’s design,

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=18649

I right away had to use the pipes I had bought already, could not wait, thus I improvised a little, as you will see and connected the Garra rufe Q-tank to the others. (sorry, in a rush and no spellchecker available).

...Would the fish be swimming through the syphon to get into the pipes?...

I assume so, as some need to enter a T-piece to get into the pipes . There is anyway an unclear pattern on loaches, who swims into pipes and who not. I have a few tanks connected and from a small tank with 16 Yunnanilus brevis, only 4 entered the main tank via pipes (over a period of months). And those are still there and won’t return ... Clowns in the lower picking order commuted frequently, but the beta is to large now and does not fit the pipe anymore (I assume, as I have not seen the beta in the pipe for ages). Tigers are basically sleeping in the pipes and commute looking for food. One (of 5) Y.caudipunctata, who was the smallest learned (after half a year) to visit, only one of the smaller tanks, while the tiger is visiting all. Since the small Y.c. goes to eat in the Yunnanilus tank, he grew to the size of the others. One bristlenose female, was the first to take adavantage of all connected tanks and has picked the smallest one as her home and plugs since the commuting pipe. This was the reason for me to add more pipes to that tiny nano tank (a tank that was setup temporarily, but now got a meaning as a traffic intersection so I leave it for a while). Garra flavatra go frequently through all pipes, but rare to the bristlenoses’s ones now, as the bristlenose plugs the pipe for them to return, so they need to wait until it comes out eventually to return to the main tank. And they keep them clean inside.

Would fish in the syphon tube cause any overflow?

Yes they would, as I pump water from one tank to the other and use the pipes as the return. Therefore I have provided an additional pipe which is caped, so fish can not enter. The big clown would almost totally plug the pipe, but the entire network of pipes with all it’s cross-connection would allow the water to go different ways. Fish love pipes with current in.
I stuck to that double safety until last night, I used 2 uncaped pipes dia 40cm (1and ¼“ i/s dia).
One pipe is just a pvc pipe, as I use a bunch them already and will be used sooner or later by the fish. The other construction is a mix of pp wastepipes, only plugged together (no glue) I would not know which glue works, I tried hotmelt, which sticks on it, but more like a bodyfiller. I tried to weld some samples with the soldering iron, that worked (bad fumes though). PP wastepipes are very cheap, and would allow playing with temporary setups, or work great as return or safety pipes (without fish in them, as they can’t be seen).

The pics below show what I did last night in a quick playing session. The pipes highest point is 50cm (1,64‘) above water surface. I want to test how much air leaks through the stick-together connection due to the „vacuum“ (actually I’ll put some masking tape over it once it gets too much...).
There is an airbubble on the top that doubled over night, looks like the water does not flow, it may use the same diameter pipe which is shorter and does not go uphill, that pipe is clean of bubbles. I learned that small airbubbles get absorbed by the water once, it flows. Airbubbles partially coming from plants, in the upside down bucket (no flow) remain and need to be sucket off eventually.













to get the filled pipes into the water I sealed one end with what one Garra is right away claiming as „anappropriate decoration“





Garra rufa in the middle of the night: „excuse me, you out there, would you mind letting me sleep?! I am not going through that rubbish anyway“

[BotiaMaximus]

That plumbing network is getting quite impressive - I like it!

[wasserscheu]

thanks, here some more pics and videos...

The first G. rufa explored the pipe





The G. rufa found his way back or did not leave the pipe.

Anoying are fish without orientation, like this threadfin. It found itself in the q-tank, all alone with the 6 G.rufa.



Pictures of last night with his buddies in the larger tank





But who knows, perhaps he gets visit soon, this one is very close to the pipe entrance (the glass normally is not clean, but in that case, I cleaned it - it’s the reflections of dried echi. Flowers)

[chefkeith]

That is pretty cool. It reminded me of something from my childhood for some reason-