Schistura update

[bevans]

Well, not having a river tank, I put my little schistura in the 33L with the cories and the guppies. It doesn't have a power head, but there is an Aquaclear 30-50 and a sponge filter rated up to 80 gallons in there. All is well so far. The large guppies are unscathed, though he's been known to lunge at a fry if it gets too close-one has a chunk out of its tail. He doesn't pay the cories any mind at all.

He's actually rather entertaining, seems quite the hunter. I've not seen him eat food from the sand, he prefers to snap it up on the way down. His favorite hangout is on top of the sponge filter, probably because that's where the best water flow is. He seems healthy enough and quite perky.

I fed the tank frozen blood worms tonight, and boy, wasn't that something to see! He lunged at them as they fell and must have eaten a dozen or so. His belly is all distended now. If I wasn't familiar with loachy capacity, I'd have been worried. Now he's lurking on top of one of the rock piles, looking down at all the cories for all the world like Snoopy doing the vulture thing on top of his dog house.

I may have to move him eventually, when he gets bigger, but he's being a good boy for now.

[Mark in Vancouver]

You really should prepare to move him sooner than later. Don't wait until signs of distress show up. Brook loaches want very active water flow.

[tattooedgemini]

you need to make sure the water is being well airated or your fish is gonna die...mind you i've seen some living at the lps for quite a while without water movement...they didn't look too healthy though or i would have bought one... lowering the water level so it makes ripples will help a bit but you should get a powerhead asap at the very least.... good luck with them

[bevans]

The sponge filter is a big one and it has an air stone that is going full blast. That's where he likes to sit, up by the bubbles.

I have a powerhead, but I've had lots of problems with it clogging up, even after modifying the intake with sponges, etc.. It's in the 55 gallon. It provides a small area of high flow, but not anything significant. I orignally bought it for the kuhlis, but they didn't seem to care for it-certainly they never did the surfing that some people say they do.

The 55 is pretty much overstocked at present, with an overly successful colony of black swords that I can't sell or give away. They've stopped breeding and I'm basically waiting for some of them to pop off of old age.

I'm stripping some of the smaller swords out of the 55 down to one of the 20s and could possibly have the bio load to put him in there, but nobody ever told me if he would pester the kuhlis or not, so I'm scared to. I thought schisturas tended to get hostile to things that had body shapes similar to their own. And quite honestly, I think he has better water flow where he is in the 33L at present-it's only 13 inches deep and the sponge filter is kicking up lots of ripples on that end of the tank. I'm certainly having to top it off almost every day!

I just don't have the budget at present to set up a river tank just for this fellow (unemployed at present). I could put the power head in the 33L, but I don't think the cories would appreciate it, and it's planted with some live plants. So if he starts to look like he's not doing well, I'll take him to my specialty fish store and turn him in. They've got at least one high flow tank, and there they'll make sure he won't be sold to anyone who doesn't have the stuff to take care of him, unlike the pet store I bought him at.

[tattooedgemini]

i'm not sure that he'd hurt the kuhli's, but kuhli like still water...sounds like your tank is getting quite a bit of aeration, although staying by the bubbles could be a sign of needing oxygen, or he might just like bubbles. glad to see that you have somewhere to bring him if you have too.... if you keep looking in the classifieds you might find a nice tank for cheap, that's usually what i do

[bevans]

At this point, it's a question of where to put another tank. We are about to strip the carpet out of my son's bedroom and put new flooring in-the carpet was not great to begin with and having 29 gallons of water leak all over it after the used tank I bought cracked (after I'd filled and checked it outside!) didn't help any. So I've currently got 5 tanks in my kitchen-one 55 with two humongous goldfish in it, the 33L cory tank, a 29 gallon (guppies) with a 20 gallon (mollies) beneath it and a 10 (more cories). In the living room is the other 55 with the kuhlis, etc. and a 20 gallon under it that I'm setting back up. I've also got an empty 10 there that I'll fill back up soon.

After we get my son's room finished, I'll be able to move tanks in there or maybe buy another good sized one-he likes having fish in his room. Maybe I can give him the 55 gallon and put a bigger tank in the living room. My husband would like that-he keeps wanting to go bigger. But I do keep my eye on craigslist and ebay and aquabid, just in case...

[Steve]

My experience with schistura has been that they are less aggressive if in a group of 3-4. They're a very playful family of loach, and if there's no-one to share the game with then I've found them to take it out on other tankmates. If you have a group they'll play together quite happily (it's not aggressive play at all...mine have a habit of enjoying a "pile on" where they land on each other).

I don't think your tank size is a good one for a group though, and as people say you really need a good filter flow and aeration. A 55 would work