Tank setup update

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Keith Wolcott
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Location: Charleston, Illinois USA

Post by Keith Wolcott » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:58 pm

I have added a few more clowns and a few more Brilliant rasboras. Now I think that my stocking of the large tank is complete. The final numbers are:

In the 300 gallon and the 75 gallon tank with the water bridge between them the following move between them,

7 clown loaches (3 Borneo and 4 Sumatra)
13 striata
16 kubotai and histrionica (can't tell them apart for sure yet)
6 SAEs

In the 300 gallon (They have not, and I doubt that these will ever go across the water bridge),
9 Rasbora trilineata (scissortail)
13 Rasbora borapetensis (brilliant, blacklined, or redtail)

In the connected 75 gallon (They have not, and I doubt that these will ever go across the water bridge),
5 Devario sequipinnatus (giant danio)
4 Hyphessobrycon callistus (serpae tetra)

That's 73 fish in the two tank system.

Here are a few pictures.

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Jim Powers
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Post by Jim Powers » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:19 pm

Nice!!
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NancyD
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Post by NancyD » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:44 pm

They look great, Keith!
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chefkeith
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Post by chefkeith » Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:16 pm

Fabulous!

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Keith Wolcott
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Post by Keith Wolcott » Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:21 pm

I forgot to post the videos of a clown crossing the water bridge. In the first one he goes from the 300 gallon tank to the 75 gallon tank. I did not catch the beginning since he was so fast entering the river bridge on the left.

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In this second video he entered the water bridge from the small tank and went two thirds of the way across, but then returned to the small tank. I have seen him cross many, many times and I never know which tank he will be in when I enter the room. A striata crosses often too, but is more secretive about it and I only catch it occasionally. It does not dally and just goes across quickly. Some of the SAEs cross every day or two. They take their time and largely look like they are just cleaning the inside of the tube and then sometimes happen to end up in the other tank.

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Also, I would like to thank Martin for posting the details of the homemade food recipe. I have been feeding it for about a month now and all of my fish love it. Great nutrition and very inexpensive ($26 for a full batch of ingredients in this area and it will last me quite some time)! See http://www.loaches.com/articles/home-co ... n-fishfood if you have not tried this yet.

mickthefish
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Post by mickthefish » Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:26 pm

thats really smart Keith, it gives a loach a place to go when the skirmishes start.

mick

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Keith Wolcott
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Post by Keith Wolcott » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:43 pm

A lot of people helped me get the 300 gallon aquarium installed last fall so we had a party today to show off the current state of affairs and we jokingly called it the Grand Opening of the Charleston National Aquarium (in this very small town, it is most likely the largest tank setup around). We had quite a nice time and the fish liked their extra portion of bloodworms. One of our friends made the following beautiful aquarium cake.

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I also took a few shots of the the loaches in the main tank.
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And a sewellia Lineolata in the river tank.
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chefkeith
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Post by chefkeith » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:58 am

Awesome. Thats a tasty looking piece of driftwood on the cake.

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Keith Wolcott
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Post by Keith Wolcott » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:45 pm

Thanks chefkeith. Also thanks to Mick for convincing me to hold the camera right on the glass. The loaches were curious and kept coming right up to the camera. I would take a picture and they would run and hide, but then come right back again for another picture. I'll be doing that more often in the future.

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Jim Powers
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Post by Jim Powers » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:00 pm

Those are great shots! The fish are looking good.
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wilsonho
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Post by wilsonho » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:45 am

would you please let me know what is the substrates of your two pretty tanks?

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Keith Wolcott
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Post by Keith Wolcott » Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:26 am

Thanks Jim. Some people asked about the big rostratas, but they would not show themselves on opening day.

wilsonho- Yes, raw sugar was used for the sand on the cake :D

Seriously, it is Red Flint sand. See http://www.redflint.com/ . My LFS does not carry it, but is willing to order it for me when I need it. It costs $18 US for 50 lbs and is the .6 mm size. I like it since it has a variety of natural browns and reds in it that make it look nice. The size works well too. It is not so small that it moves around to much and gets into filters, but it is small enough that the loaches can move it about a bit. You cannot aim a pump directly at it or it will slowly move and form nice dunes. I have current going across it which keeps it clean.

mickthefish
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Post by mickthefish » Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:58 am

they're great pics of your fish mate, the tanks look brilliant as well. :wink:

mick
never take people at face value.

Memnoch
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Location: L.I New York

Post by Memnoch » Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:23 pm

Duuude Thanks for Sharing

Really really nicE~!!!


Friends at work are amazed at you bridge!!!!!

Regards!

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Keith Wolcott
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Location: Charleston, Illinois USA

Post by Keith Wolcott » Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:22 pm

Thanks Mick and Memnoch. This two year project has been a lot of fun. I continue to fine tune details and I think the fine tuning and experimenting will most likely continue indefinitely. Currently I am still working on foam coverings for all of my pump intakes (this has been covered in another thread).

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