Loaches Online Forum

Doing water changes tomorrow.
There are only 5 fish in the 75g, the largest 2 are black skirt tetras at 2.75"...2 marigold mollies...and 1 cardinal tetra.

I want to move them over to the 55g so that I can move the gravel out, pull the UG out & put the river tank manifold into the 75g. To start getting it ready for Clown Loaches in late Dec. I should also have the FX5 next week sometime.

Is this a bad idea?

The 55g has 3 Balloon Belly Mollies, 1 swordtail, 3 sunset plattys, 3 micky mouse plattys, 1 (unknown) 2", 1 Serpae Tetra, 1 sailfin molly, and the 3 Guppy (?) fry that are about an inch now. The largest in the tank is the unknown at 2" & then the 3 balloon mollies at 1.5"
...Oh, and tomorrow I will be bringing home , prob, an Albino Bristlenose Pleco.

It will be fine to move them to the 55g while you get the 75g ready. Do you know how long you will be moving them for? You need to remember that as you were using the UGF that most of your bacterial colony at the moment is in your gravel-leave it to dry out, or in a bucket for a day any your population will start to die off, meaning that you will have to cycle the tank from scratch... not something that would be recomended as loaches are best added to a well established aquarium

Ideally you want to get the UGF out and the manifold all setup and running in a day, either pop the fish that were in the 75 back once your done to keep your bacterial population going, or add ammonia to the tank on a daily basis to ensure it stays cycled.

Ashleigh

I don't think you have any stocking issues, my only concern would be the mollies crossbreeding. Since the balloon mollies are inbred to get their deformed spine, I don't know how mixing up a sailfin, balloon and marigold cross will look.

Of course widening the gene pool may work, but I really don't know. I would worry that the spine trait would carry over.

The bioload you are moving is so small I would not expect problems that way. The genetic issues might be a problem, though, if you are concerned about it. Also, the tank seems large enough, but some Mollies are pretty tough and may feel that the tank is theirs, and will harass the new fish.

Thank you for your advice Ashleigh, Laura & Diana. I didn't respond sooner because I got busy making the transition. Thank you for helping me decide what to do.

Did the water change on the 55g. Went to my little local fish store for a pleco...hopefully the Rhino will not grow too large, too quickly. During his acclimation I also acclimated the other 5 from the 75g & drained it (reserving 15g of the water to store the gravel & decorations in.

I took a 'few' pix & think I titled them. If you get bored with average/fish/pix...this is where you'll want to exit the thread. I would have posted this on the Freshwater forum, but it all started with me trying to get the 75g ready for the clown loaches arrival in Dec

Tank looks cool! Love the ship! I know some other ones who are going to love it too, when you get them...
nice orchid, too! wouldn't that be neat hanging over the tank, soaking up some nice humidity!
Look forward to pics of the tank once it's populated!

Thanks Greenbaron!
That's a good idea about the orchid (sorry, couldn't resist adding a pic of it here) ...but I'm not sure it would recieve enough light. I like the ship too, any ideas on how to remove the brown & green algae from the cloth masts? It seemed to get there in a matter of 2-3 dys. The pleco has done a nice job on everything else, but hasn't shown an interest in the ship's sails.

Wondering how one can get rid of algae growth on white fabric...?

Looks great! I'm sure my girlfriend is jealous now because I won't allow a ship in my tank.
Wouldn't know how to keep the sails clean in any other way than cleaning them every day or blocking the light above it. Maybe it will give the ship some extra character in time to come.

That looks great I think leaving the sails and letting it get a bit of character. You never know your little plec might clean the sails for you


Ashleigh

Ashleigh & Dutch...thanks! The brown & gren algae does lend a bit of character.

Dutch wrote:Looks great! I'm sure my girlfriend is jealous now because I won't allow a ship in my tank.

Dutch...when I recently got the 75g it came with all kinds of decos, including a tall red pagoda that Mr Sea Sprite wanted to keep & use. I explained to him that the 75g was going to be home for mainly clown loaches & I wanted it to resemble their natural river environment.
The 55g houses mollies, tetras, rasboras & a rhino/choc pleco.
I'm fine with the coral head & sunken ship in this tank.

It's just a funny difference I noticed in 'aquarist-culture' (for lack of a better term). We Dutch seem to be drawn more towards natural looking aquaria and/or heavily planted ones, but I've seen that in North America it's often more about creating something that looks nice but without any "rules" or complex aquascapes.
I remember AquaMojo (well known the world over for his Cichlids) posting a picture of one of his fish with a sunken ship at a Dutch Cichlid forum. He got so many (funny) comments about that, his response... "LOL....you guys are such purists"

LOL!!!