Dwarf Chain Loach in a high tech planted tank?

[VeeSe]

Hi all,

I am in the process of stocking my 55G tank, and I am intrigued by the possibility of adding some Y. sidthimunki to the tank. The tank has been set up since April 2011. The current stocking is 11 Harlequin Rasboras and 14 Cardinal Tetras (currently in their last week of a 4 week QT period after I got them). Unlike the fish I currently have, I have some questions about these loaches, mainly because some loaches have high oxygen needs and also almost all are in contact with the substrate a lot. My two questions are:

1) How do they do in a CO2 injected tank? I am sure that there are tons being kept in CO2 injected tanks, so I'm not that worried, but I just wanted to get some more opinions. I generally have some surface agitation with the whole surface rippling and have decent flow across the length of the tank.

2) My substrate is a mix of regular Petco gravel, caribsea eco-complete, and seachem flourite. There's less than 50% gravel and more than 50% of the other stuff. Ecocomplete and flourite are a bit sharper than normal gravel and sand. I've heard that it should be ok, but I want to double check. I can easily go with something else besides loaches, but I heard that these guys are fun and active so I was going to look into a school of them for the bottom of my tank.

Thanks for all your help, loach masters!

[NancyD]

I kept sids on Eco for several years but mine had a lot of fine almost sand bits & bigger rounded small gravel pieces. The fish were fine on it even digging to get an escaping worm. There are different types of Eco now, most Flourite looks sharp to me but I have seen some that was more more coarse sand texture. The black Eco did make the sids very dark, some with little of the chain pattern visible.

I've never used CO2 but rippling surface should provide enough oxygen. Do you turn it off at night?

Sids & striata, unlike histrionica & clowns, never bothered any plants.

[VeeSe]

Yes, it turns off at night. Nighttime shouldn't be a problem oxygen-wise.

[ClownLoachSharky]

Have a read of this article, might help
http://www.loaches.com/articles/oxygen-in-the-aquarium