Loaches Online Forum

Ah we're not too worried about it at all. Snails and shrimp eat the stuff, as do plecs and otos etc (although we won't have any of those in this tank, which is why there's any fungus in the first place). I don't know if any hillies are known to eat biofilms...

That's reassuring. I had thought that fungus should be considered as potentially toxic. And also capable of rapidly getting out of control so you had to react in panic mode.

Thanks for the info!

dave, i can see u use juwel power heads? how strong they are? I know the most powerful they have is 1500 l/h.

We actually went with the Resun SP-2500L internal power filters that madDuff recommended on the first page of this thread. (The ebay page linked to doesn't exist anymore.) I'm not sure exactly what the turnover is on them, as I doubt it's 2500ltr/hr!

Any updates on this one?

With Mopani wood like that I use stainless screws through some acrylic sheet and the acrylic gets laid on the bottom of the tank and then the gravel on top. You may get some white fungus growing from it as it absorbs the water, I clean it with a scrubbing brush just before water changes and have seen no detriment to the fish. Eventually this will stop happening.

All the fungus has disappeared, probably under the action of over 40 baby cherry shrimp and rather a lot of snails.

Count the shrimpies!

we went up to Enfield yesterday to see if the maidenhead there had the P. ctenocephalatus still. sadly they didnt. went to Wildwoods to see what they had and we cleared them out of some of thier leftovers.

walked out with

2 x H. confuzona
1 x Mesonoemacheilus triangularis
1 x other Mesonoemacheilus-ish contaminant
2 x hillies we are still trying to ID. they are rather small and look like juvenille gastros or pseudogastros.

pics coming very soon!!!

Pictures?

yes we love pictures

I have to say, I'm really quite disappointed. My photographs are never that great but we just couldn't get decent shots of the new fish. Didn't try for long out of frustration so maybe we'll get better luck later on.

Mesonemacheilus triangularis


Unknown (to us)




Homaloptera confuzona (I hope - don't think it's H. orthogoniata)


Unknown (to us) hilly







A bit rubbish but hopefully enough to get some ID's.

We put some live brineshrimp in there. One of the H. confuzona looks paler and skinnier than the other, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.



That's the skinny one. The other is much better looking.

Jumping up to get the food!





....I'm starting to think it's a young Pseudogastromyzon cheni.

Yeah and Mesonoemacheilus guentheri.

Neat!

Cheers! We're still after P. ctenocephalus but we're quite happy with what we have for now. The species profile doesn't mention if M. guentheri needs company or not...

The skinny Homaloptera has died. Not altogether surprising. The zodiac loach is taking on much bigger cherry shrimp than I had imagined it would!

Looking good Dave! Sorry about your skinny - but as you said, that's an assumed risk. The tank looks great and that driftwood has cleaned up nice.

Congrats on a very well thought out setup!