Funny Dojo loach behavior with new substrate.

[grizzlyone]

Hey Folks.

Its my first post here and contrary to the regular "i've got a problem" post, I thought I'd post an observation and a bad pic of some of the behavior

I moved over to a planted tank and after consultation with the local aquatic group I was turned on to coal slag as a substrate.

Its jet black as you can hopefully see from the pictures. Its actually used as sandblasting material.


I was a little leery of its effect on the loaches and the rubber lip pleco, but after a month, they seem to be ok with it. In fact the dojos seem to love the heck out of it.


I was a little freaked at first when I came home and saw one of the bigger loaches had buried itself face down with half of its body sticking straight up.

I've seen variations on this including completely buried except for his mouth, only a tiny portion of the tail hanging out, and any other variation you can think of.

When I can get a pic I'd like to see if I can get an ID on a botia I picked up. I think its a Botia striata. but I'm not sure.


Its cool to find a place like the loach forum and I'll try not to do all the newbie things


I'll be moving to new digs into about 6 months, so I'm probably going to to be upgrading to a couple tanks from 75-125 depending on what I can find on craigslist...

I've just built two DIY tank stands that worked out pretty good. Still have to put on the finishing wood, but they are steady as a rock.


If I can figure out how to upload pics, I'll post some of the more hilarious ones.

Cheers,

Kevin


tanks:

40 gal glass set up as a warm water

3 Botia striata ( I think )
1 rubber nose pleco
5 Zebra danios
5 long fin zebra danios
1 red tailed shark

29 show acrylic set up as cold water

4 dojo loaches about 4in
5 serpia tetras
1 red tailed shark
1 rubber nose pleco


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[shari2]

My first thought was that it might be sharp...but I guess if the dojos are burying around in it that should not be the case.

does your aquatic group have a webpage? And I'd definitely like to see the pics.

[Martin Thoene]

Hi grizzlyone and welcome to LOL.

I know someone else on here has used black sandblasting sand in aquaria (think it was Joe Loach ) with success. Dojos will dig a lot given the right substrate.

Here's our new species profile: Dojo Loach

For loading images, host them somewhere like Photobucket and paste in the actual picture URL (from Properties), not the page URL, then just highlight and click on Img in the Message body taskbar to encode the URL. Your picture will appear in-post then

How "coldwater" is your coldwater tank? Serpae tetras and the RTBS are tropical fish.

Martin.

[grizzlyone]

Well, right now "coldwater" is room temp. Its got a heater, but its set for 65/66, but the room temp is between 65 and 75 during winter. Right now the thermometer says 70. Nobody seems to be in any great distress



Kevin

[angelfish83]

You're killing your tetras there dude....
I've seen a Kribensis die in a 'coolwater tank' because someone thought they could get away with it. It wasn't in distress either. It was just dead.

[grizzlyone]

My first thought was that it might be sharp...but I guess if the dojos are burying around in it that should not be the case.

does your aquatic group have a webpage? And I'd definitely like to see the pics.

Well, if there behavior is any indication, its not an issue. I've watched them closely to notice if there is any place that they are getting cut, but they seem perfectly healthy and no damage. I asked about this when I found out and the member who was the proponent of this had clowns loaches that were fat and happy...

They don't have a webpage, but do have a yahoo group with pictures.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caga/



Kevin

[grizzlyone]

You're killing your tetras there dude....
I've seen a Kribensis die in a 'coolwater tank' because someone thought they could get away with it. It wasn't in distress either. It was just dead.

Well, they can be moved to the tropical tank. What other tankmates can they coexist with?

I like seeing some action at the middle and top levels


Kevin

[grizzlyone]

My first thought was that it might be sharp...but I guess if the dojos are burying around in it that should not be the case.

does your aquatic group have a webpage? And I'd definitely like to see the pics.

If you look in the photo album, the guys promotiing it has several photos up. Its under "Chris Michel". He has a nice looking 180 gal.

Cheers.,

Kevin

[mamaschild]

Martin, I actually use Black Sandblasting Slag in a few of my tanks I've also mixed it with a natural colored sand for some contrast, and never had problems with it either way.

I must admit, I refused to use it until I called up the company and found out it was completely silica encapsulated and safe, with no leaching

and yes, my Dojos are known to bury themselves in it, too....

[Laura]

My dojos love to bury too - it usually takes me a while to find them.
To address temperature concerns for some of the fish, you could always switch your danios for your serpaes - my understanding is that danios can handle the cooler temps.

[angelfish83]

Best weatherloach photo yet!!!

Also a very healthy specimen

[Joe Loach]

I know someone else on here has used black sandblasting sand in aquaria (think it was Joe Loach) with success. Dojos will dig a lot given the right substrate.

I didn't think you would remember me, Martin.

In the past, I've mixed regular white silica sand with black Estes "Marine Sand," which is coated silica. (The Marine Sand is safe for FW aquaria.)

This black and white combination gave the sand a gray look that is similar to the beach sand that I grew up with. It also allowed the bottom dwellers to have darker markings. I found that regular white silica washed out these markings on certain fish.

I also found a type of black "sand" that was beautiful, but was like jagged pieces of glass. I placed it in my tank, nevertheless, and found that certain bottom dwellers had difficulty sifting the material through their gills. No doubt, it was harming their gill tissue. I got rid of it in short order.

Here's an old pic with the black and white silica:

[Martin Thoene]

Joe who?

Nice to see you around mate!

Have you seen 'LOL, The Next Generation' (still under construction)?

http://community.loaches.com/

It has yet to gain its new "skin", so will look different eventually, but for us Mods it is fully interactive. This means it is infinitely updateable and therefore we can keep it cutting-edge unlike the slightly blunt older version

Check out the cool Species Profiles and Articles.

Martin.

[Joe Loach]

Wow, this place has grown! Yes, I'm still catching up with all the new additions. Thank you. Looks like there's a move in the near future.

Good to see that the sun still shines, I'm still breathing, and some of the same old regulars can still be found at LOL.

Great to "see" you folks again...and I LOVE Emma's store! WOW! That must have been a FANTASTIC experience!

[Martin Thoene]

Yes it was a fantastic experience and confirmation that Loach people are such nice people. We had a fantastic day and a bunch more of them are going back on Dec. 8th to once again be awed at what a fish shop can be.

Martin.