My new 1000 liters clown loaches tank (page 22)

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi,

I did a big vaccumming yesterday on about half of the floor. All woods were moved apart for cleaning. I also cleaned up all filters, cleaned Purigens and did a 20% WC. Will do tests again tomorrow.

Here are some new photos taken today.
Hey milkev. Take a look on kubotais and see if they are of any use for your studies...












I also made a new video of the tank (available on my signature)

Hope you enjoy!

[Tinman]

Did you find any pockets of crud ? Again,Great tank

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi Tinman,

Did you find any pockets of crud ?

Not much. I expected a dirtyer floor.
Today I did other half. Moved some rocks and wood for better vaccumming. WC of about 25% and nitrate was tested again: 80 PPM this time. Little drop.
Before this two WC and vaccumming it was 100 PPM.
Now I can assure: floor is very clean! Hope nexts WC drop that value.

[Vancmann]

Keep us posted, i am curious.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

I will.

Tomorrow I will do another 25% WC. I´m doing WC each 2 days.

[DI]

Awesome Aquarium, I did not realize you could have all those different type fish w/loaches!!

DI

[Vancmann]

With that many fat bellies in there, even if you were to get it down to zero, what will you have to do to keep it low!!

[Marcos Mataratzis]

With that many fat bellies in there, even if you were to get it down to zero, what will you have to do to keep it low!!

Indeed, I keep thinking about that. Tank here is a bit overcrowed. Even ofering small amounts of food I still have to put bigger quantities. Maybe that´s why my nitrates keeps high.

Hi Di,

Actually the both blue Jack Dempsey are not to compatible with loaches because of their size. Fortunately, mine thinks he is a blue loach as they always join the loaches looking for food on the substrate.

[mikev]

Hi,



Here are some new photos taken today.
Hey milkev. Take a look on kubotais and see if they are of any use for your studies...

Very nice Kubs. Look a lot like my newest (longfaced, multidot, seemingly longish barbels). Congradulations!

How large are they? (It seems that any discussion of loach variation is pointless unless the sizes are noted).

It would be interesting if you see any behavior difference between these type3 and "normal" Kubs...I think you had one like this.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi Milkev,

They are about 3" each. Since arrive they still are not completely feeling they are on their new home. I still feel them a bit hiding. Maybe because they are the smallest ones in my tank.

[mikev]

Sure, Marcos, but please take a look at them when they are established.

Incidentally, my "type3's" did not have a hiding period at all...possibly because the tank they went into was already Kub-dominated (I saw the same effect with Clowns added to a Clown-dominated tank). But they are behaving differently from the rest even now.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi,

Good news! Nitrates seams to be dropping. It was 100 PPM, dropped to 80 and now 50 PPM.

Some new photos:

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Keeping you informed about my Nitrates:

After 3 consecutive 20% WC (did them each 2 days) my nitrates seams to be under control and still dropping.
It got up to 100ppm. Dropped to 80, 50 and got to 40ppm two days ago. I will do another 20% WC today and hope I can finaly get to 30pppm (is that ok?).

Now, the bad news...

Yesterday, during lunch, I saw one of my helodes loach showing up. As it´s not too comon, I decided to get my camera and take some shots of her.



After this shot was taken she went to a cave and layed down. I did not get anoyed with that as many of my loaches uses to do that. It´s a comon behavior...



But... she looked like too still, even when a big YoYo came close to her:


Yes, dear friends. She was dead...

I removed her to investigate possible causes. There were no signs of fight or any other external symptoms. Her color was ok, gils looked perfect...


I imediatly checked all water parameters: Temperature=28.6°C, pH=7.0, ammonia=0, nitrites=0, nitrates=40ppm, gH=5,5, kH=2,5, dissolved oxigen=10 ppm. All absolute normal for my standards exept for the nitrates level wich as I said, it´s dropping day after day.
No other fish had any symptom of anything. All looks great.

She simply layed down and died...

Has anybody here had such a case before?
May I assume she had a sudden heart attack or something like that?

A few other shots from yesterday:

[tariesindanrie]

Marcos,

Thanks for sharing the new pics- beautiful as usual

Good to see the clown with the unusual spot on his side is still looking well!

Very sorry about your helodes. It sounds like she was just stressed in the recent nitrate spikes, but from your description of the changes, you've got it under control again. Best of luck to you and your happy bunch!

Kate

[Mark in Vancouver]

Sorry to hear you lost your helodes. But I'm still baffled by what's causing the nitrate spikes. At some point you'll have to do fewer water changes - for your own sanity. If we have ruled out over-feeding, dead vegetation, dead fish, and crud in the substrate, what is it? Have you tested your tap water?