Here's the deal: somehow my Dear Husband (DH) and I were in the pet store getting supplies for our goldfish, who had come in for the winter. We ended up in the basement "just to take a look" at the fish. I've never even heard of loaches before, was looking at other fish,but DH has had Kuhlis and a weather loach in the remote past, and said "loaches are cool and they don't need a heated tank", and soon we were leaving with a really cool-looking polka-dotted loach and a pl*co.
Get home and hit the internet. Uh oh. Add a heater and two more kubotai to keep Maggie company. Find the LOL site, and we laugh and roll our eyes at the "loachaholic" title line and the dismissal of other aquarium inhabitants as "dither fish" (cue the dark, foreboding music) Find we are spending a lot of time researching loaches. Then, about a week later, little Suzzy disappears without a trace. We are both HEARTBROKEN -- look everywhere, take apart the filter -- no Suzzy. And 3 loaches aren't enough to make a shoal anyway, so we go back to the petstore -- and they are out of Kubotai.
She promises to order more for us. Meanwhile, it is clear that 20 gal tank is not big enough for our loaches, and standard 55 gal or larger won't fit the space we have (due to a couple of weight-bearing pillars), and all of a sudden DH is researching building tanks.
Just over a week after first fish-store trip, and we have ordered glass and bought silicone, and we build a 54 gal that is only 44" long, and ordered a Rena Filstar SP3 (based on Diana's recommendation), bought nice fine sand for substrate.. and now I am ready to get the UV filter and some powerheads, and we are already measuring the next-door (other side of beam) space for the net tank and thinking about hillstreams for a third tank.
Sigh.
So, the fish stores really need to have big warning signs (in addition to the NoClownsinaCube signs) that say : "WARNING! MORE ADDICTIVE (AND EXPENSIVE) THAN HEROIN! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!"
The 54 is ready and water-tight, waiting on the filter to arrive and get set-up, and I am having to really talk DH down from going right out and getting a school of Yo-Yos (not enough room) already.
Questions (I realize a lot of these are FAQs but the search function brings up a thousand hits on every search I do):
Recommendations for UV filter?
How do you set up the power-heads to get a good flow going, and what are good brands?
Where did Suzzy go? No remains found, tank is covered, don't think she could jump out!
How does one know how much food is enough and not too much. Our loaches are all still young -- largest still under 2", and I know we are supposed to feed more when young and growing, but they will eat as much as we can feed them, in less than 5 min, and beg for more, and I think we could do that all day. We are feeding frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp, sinking pellets, random veggies (they LOVE brussel sprouts), have algea pellets on the way...
What plants other than Java fern and J ava moss are relatively loach-resistant?
How does one construct a water-bridge, for when we build the second tank in the series?
What are reliable mailorder companies for aquatic plants? Are these grown in a away that they are unlikely to introduce nasties into our tanks?
And mail-order for fish?? Makes me really nervous, but we live in rural VT and local pet stores are pretty bad. (not to worry - -that is a long-term plannign question, no new fishies till we get current ones settled)
Holy cow. Less than a month ago we just had one lonely gold fish in a tank....
Thanks for all the help!
Kate
