Loaches Online Forum

Its finally finished (minus dithers till next month) This is another go at a sort of planted tank with loaches-the B.striata don't seem overally bothered about them at all which is a good sign for me! You will have to excuse the left hand side of the tank-its still a slight working progress.
Substrate is a silver/black sand mix with seachem flourite plant substrate, ideally the sand will evenually settle ontop..... So far so good, shall see in a few months if the plants remain

Pic's-little rusty as its been a while since Ive taken any half decent shots


The tank




The B.striata

A few have claimed the pots and slate caves that were put in for the rubberlip plecs so I may invest in some more in the future...














The red tail shark 'Jaws'



And last but not least, some sort of oto catfish? Anyone able to id this.. it came with quite a few fish that a neighbour wanted rid of and I would love to get him some buddies of the same species if possible






Ashleigh

WOW great pix

The fish look awesome as well

Beautiful setup you have. The tank and loaches look great. Are you sure that once the substrate settles the sand will be on top?

Add a couple Peacocks to this tank. They would love it. Beautiful tank and fish. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome tank! Great photography also, impressive close-ups Thanks for sharing.

Your unidentified fish has the body of an Otocinclus but not the common coloration Nevertheless, my money is on Oto

Beautiful tank! With beautiful zebras!

Your unknown fish looks like a paraotocinclus species to me??

thats one great pic of the striata Ashleigh,
the extended snout shows it's a male,
are these the ones you got from Niels,?
i picked 8 of the last shipment as they were all over 3 inchSL.
they have to be one of the best behaved Botias.

great tank and fish.

mick
ps, spoke to Niel last night he said you'd been in. nowts a secret on here.

Amazing tank. Nice fish.

As for the 'Oto' I think it is either Parotocinclus cf. maculicauda or Parotocinclus cf. cristatus. More photos will help narrow it down or show the true Identity.

Lovely photos.

You may find that the Botia won't dig through the Flourite though. I used to have Flourite Red covering 2/3's of a tank and all my striata shunned it in favour of the 1/3 sand area. In my current setup I have Flourite Black Sand mixed ~50/50 with another brand of fine black sand and both my B. striata & Sidths. plow through it like no tomorrow, especially when I've buried some tasty morsals in it

Superb looking tank Ashleigh!

Anything ( Special ) at Neil's...........

Thanks for the comments everyone hopefully it will start look a bit overgrown within the next few weeks.

mickthefish wrote:thats one great pic of the striata Ashleigh,
the extended snout shows it's a male,
are these the ones you got from Niels,?
i picked 8 of the last shipment as they were all over 3 inchSL.
they have to be one of the best behaved Botias.

great tank and fish.

mick
ps, spoke to Niel last night he said you'd been in. nowts a secret on here.

Lol nothing escapes you I bought 6 of the striata must of been 2 months ago when they 1st came in, picked up another 3 what are looking to be slightly gravid girls, theres a few tiddlers that Ive had myself for a while aswell in the mix

doc wrote:As for the 'Oto' I think it is either Parotocinclus cf. maculicauda or Parotocinclus cf. cristatus. More photos will help narrow it down or show the true Identity

I will if I can get a closer one-he/she likes to stick to the back of the tank And the next question is 'Were do I get more'
Oh I came home with a pair of kribs after yours yesterday... Im so eaisly led

bully wrote:You may find that the Botia won't dig through the Flourite though

The striata have only been in the tank a week or so now, and only have started coming out yesterday to venture around the whole tank while I was there. Some of the sand has started to settle on top in areas, if not I have some sand I can chuck on top . This is the first time with actually bothering with plants reagrding substrate so it shall be interesting to say the least....

Graeme Robson wrote:Anything ( Special ) at Neil's...........

Nothing as of yet, just the striata and a tank full of a mass of almorhae, apparently there will be more coming in throughout the next few months



Ashleigh

Ashleigh wrote:

doc wrote:As for the 'Oto' I think it is either Parotocinclus cf. maculicauda or Parotocinclus cf. cristatus. More photos will help narrow it down or show the true Identity

I will if I can get a closer one-he/she likes to stick to the back of the tank And the next question is 'Were do I get more'
Oh I came home with a pair of kribs after yours yesterday... Im so eaisly led
Ashleigh

You could have had some of mine for nothing if you had wanted .. Good luck with them you should have no problems.

Once we ID the catfish it shouldn't be too difficult to track them down so we should be able to get some buddies asap.

daspricey wrote:Your unknown fish looks like a paraotocinclus species to me??

It certainly looks like a Paraotocinlus. Most likely this one>> http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=2174

Very nice tank and pictures.

I like the Red Tail Shark. Ever have any problems from it?

Awesome! The tank looks sensational. That piece of wood looks amazing. Your photos of the Striata look fine. They are some good looking fish.

I have always liked the photos of your tanks Ashleigh. I am glad you didnt schale back too much.