New tank. Loach heaven!

[surgeon]

450L (6ft long, 2ft deep, 16inch high). Logs and rocks from my parents farm creek. Gravel is Eco Complete red.

Tons of hiding places and the rock castle is solida as a ...rock. nobody will be dislodging that. over to the right is a very large hollow log for my big clown loach that is currently sitting in the old tank I had (he was previously a star in my "help HTH!" thread).

Will eventually be home to 5 clown loaches, 7 yoyo's, 11 rasboras, 1 bristlenose, 5 ottos and 2 SAE's (wondering if I should get rid of them) and maybe 6 glass catfish.

Plants are an assortment and I will be seeing what lives. Lights are T5HO dual bulb, 1 2ft, 1 4ft.

Filtration is an Eheim 2075 and a FX5.

Hood still to go on and doors to be constructed., hence the unfinished look.

[starsplitter7]

Absolutely lovely. You have some very lucky fish!

[redshark1]

That looks great. I hope it goes well and reaches it's full potential.

I hope your water quality matches up to what I can see. That is the aspect that is the most important.

[surgeon]

Ive hosted some pics. Theres a thread over at http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthre ... nk-journal

Buts heres two that you guys will be interested in


Note the rightmost side where there is a very large hollow log for my big loach

[glenna]

nice tank with lovely environment for the loaches. You big guy is FAT!!!
If you ever do a video, we would lOVE to see i!

[surgeon]

All the fish are now in the new tank. All going well. so far.... The loaches seem to enjoy the new tank more than the old one, the loach in the pic is just over 10" . You can see how orange is actually a camoflage in the volcanic soils of indonesia.

[surgeon]

Update.

Went away for the weekend and left the mother in law to feed my fish and now the old loaches are 'greying out' and hardly coming out at all. Incredibly skittish and dull colour but don't look ill. The 3 new small clowns dont care and are brightly coloured and coming out to scrounge for food. I hope its just something they will get over. Going to check them more carefully tonight.

Tannins are still a huge issue. 750ml of Purigen is trying and failing to keep up. Doing 40% water change every few days. Thankfully its much easier with an FX5 and garden hose rather than buckets.

[Jim Powers]

That's a great looking tank!

[cider]

looks awesome ! Great job. im sure your loaches dig it !

ps. obviously you already put the wood in there , but in future, if you dont want the tannins leeching in your tank, you can boil it. I keep a big pot (used to be for boiling lobsters,but i cant stand doing that to them), so now it is used only for boiling wood. I usually change the water a few times, and has taken up to 6 hrs for my largest pc , and when the water is clear but still boiling down, i put a few drops of Prime in the pan as i have plecs who will rasp on the wood and dont want them sucking chlorine....just to be safe.

Well your tank does look like loack heaven , enjoy and thanks for shaing
G

[surgeon]

It'd have to be a big ass pot as originally the hollow logs I had were nearly 5ft long. I had to cut them in half for the scape (yep I have spare hollow logs!). I soaked them in hot water in the bath for over a week but obviously I should have done it longer.

On another note, has anyone ever had bully yoyo loaches? I have one who spends almost all day scrounging for food (he is faaaaaat) and occasionally I see him attacking the face of other yoyo loaches or my SAE's. None of them appear to get hurt but I'm wondering if he is half the reason many of my fish stay in the caves most of the time.

edit: These (true) SAE's are fully grown, larger than the mean yoyo loach and able to swim away at crazy fast speed though it seems they don't for some reason.

[surgeon]

Just an update.

[glenna]

that looks great!
is that a big gourami you have?
What are those floating plants?

Oh, and I love the raspora hets, such pretty fish (I have some of these in the kitchen kuhli tank and they are so elegant!)

The tank looks wonderful.... how did the "big mamma" adjust to that lovely hollow log?

truly inspirational

[surgeon]

that looks great!
is that a big gourami you have?
What are those floating plants?

Oh, and I love the raspora hets, such pretty fish (I have some of these in the kitchen kuhli tank and they are so elegant!)

The tank looks wonderful.... how did the "big mamma" adjust to that lovely hollow log?

truly inspirational

Yep gourami. Floating plant is amazonian frogbit. The big loach has finally adjusted and is back to being a glutton that chases everyone else away when its food time.

[surgeon]

Sort of related question...

I have a tiny yoyo loach. I bought a bunch around his size a couple of months ago when I set up the tankin post #1 (they have all since grown) and I assumed this guy had died as I did not see him for MONTHS but now he is out and comes to your hand for food and everything but he is very very small. Im 99% sure it couldnt be that the yoyo's bred as they are immature and they are loaches However I am at a loss to explain how he stayed hidden for so long or how his personality has completely switched from never being seen to fighting with a clown loach 100x his size for bloodworm out of my hand. Could internal parisites be the cause of his size? (Same batch as the other yoyo's that have grown just fine for months). Mutant?

[ClownLoachSharky]

it might just be a slow grower. just like having super short people in the same year level as a tall kid. growth varies. or its just a freak of nature which i doubt. And i dont think it wold get stunted in such a bad boy huge mama tank.