5ft Bookshelf Aquarium - River Scape

[doylecolmdoyle]

That's looking great.You've managed to produce a river scape every bit as good as Oliver's, and your minnows look like they are right at home. Overall this has developed in to a fantastic thread.

Thanks for the kind words! I will keep tweaking the tank and updating the tread!

 

[castle]

IMG_1422 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

Really is my favourite aquarium on here at the moment. Rock placements is very good, almost like it’s been taken straight from one of my local streams.

Obviously dimensions of tank play a significant part. If doing something like this myself - which I think you’ve got spot on - the length of the tank almost has to be 7 or 8 times the length of the height.

If you don’t mind me asking, where did you source your stones? I only have flint and chalk round my way (Norwich, Norfolk).

 

[sciencefiction]

I should easily get 30x turn over which is what I have read is the min for hillstream loaches

Your tank is beautiful I must say! I love it.

I just wanted to say you will have trouble feeding them with that much flow. They actually don't need it. What they need is an oxygenated tank. I have a group of Beaufortia Kweichowensis that have been living in a standard low tech planted tank with high flow about 20x but some of it gets lost due to the heavy vegetation. I feed them small NLS pellets as a staple. They love sifting the sand for them.

A month ago I set up a tub for a new group of hillstreams Gastromyzon Ctenocephalus and a contaminant Gastromyzon Scitulus. I set up the tank the day I bought them because it was an impulse buy, with cycled media from my pond, new sand, new stones, lots of water changes and lots of light. After 4 weeks(15 to 18hrs of light) my stones are now green but of course my anubias got destroyed with algae so it had to be moved. I think slow growing plants in a hillstream high light tank is a no no and without the light you won't grow enough algae for the loaches to stay healthy. I have a large emersed pot with a peace lily in my tank and I think that'll be the only plant that can grow with that much light. The green stones are nice but not algae ridden plants....

The loaches wouldn't touch any commercial food and I tried too many types...Mine are wild caught.(the species I have don't breed in captivity) I introduced some old stones from my pond in the mean time to give them something to eat. They fought over them....In the end I got them going on black live worms and I think they're now accidentally eating the NLS 1mm pellets I feed the black worms with. Black worms are aquatic so they live on...The loaches didn't even touch stones covered with specialized food like repashy soilent green, neither several other types of dry food, frozen food,home made food, vegetables, etc...When you have high flow the food ends up in the end of the tank, right under the outlet....The loaches will not chase food. The food must stay put for them to eat. I know that from my beaufortia ones..And they're territorial so you need the food spread out or some will be bullied out for food. I only have 14X filter on my latest set up and I think it's plenty. The loaches are getting fat and seem happy. It's also best if you get a nice big group of them to spread aggression. They don't damage each other but they'll chase each other non-stop.

Apart from that, I am jealous of your tank. It's lovely and the loaches will love it.

Here's a couple of pics of my beauties

G. Ctenocephalus

Beaufortia Kweichowensis

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

@sciencefiction cheers for the tips, I think I will try grow some algae on rocks outdoors, I also can turn one of the filters off when feeding, here in Australia we dont have a wide range of loaches, generally they are just sold as "sucker loach" so exactly what species I will get I am unsure, one store does have some labelled as "Borneo Sucker - Sewellia" and they are probably the loaches I will start with.

@castle the rocks are just from a land scape supplier here in Perth, Western Australia, the rocks are called "South Western Australian River Rocks" good thing is they are rather cheap at 60 cents (about 30p) a KG.

 

[sciencefiction]

@sciencefiction cheers for the tips, I think I will try grow some algae on rocks outdoors, I also can turn one of the filters off when feeding, here in Australia we dont have a wide range of loaches, generally they are just sold as "sucker loach" so exactly what species I will get I am unsure, one store does have some labelled as "Borneo Sucker - Sewellia" and they are probably the loaches I will start with.

Same here really, hence the impulse buy as I had never seen the latest addition on sale. Sewellia are easy to keep and they are the only ones known to breed in captivity so far.

 

[sciencefiction]

I also can turn one of the filters off when feeding,

I just wanted to say that they go round feeding for hours. Also, because they bully each other, they won't all feed at once.

 

[Daveslaney]

Fantasic tank and thread. Love it. Well done.

 

[Conort2]

The tank looks great! I think it all depends what species you go for with the hilstream loach in regards to feeding. I know gastromyzon are more of an algae eater and can be quite difficult to feed. If you go for the sewellia these should be easier, mine eat pretty much anything and will fight the much larger garra I have off the food. I think sewellia are a good starter species if you've never kept hillstreams and the lineolata should be readily available, plus they look great.

Cheers Conor

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Snapped a photo tonight and took a shaky iphone video, still no hillstream loaches, hopefully next weekend, rocks are starting to get some algae so probably a good time to add them. Moved the Vietnamese Minnows to my outdoor tank, so now just 10 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, I will add another 10 soon. The fish are doing well and seem to like the higher flow, tho do generally hang out down the right side of the tank.

Got around to fitting the 16/22mm SS pipes along the front of the tank and it has kicked up the flow again, its really obvious how much the 12/16 SS pipes restricted the flow.

I also have some Helanthium tenellum "Micro" and Helanthium bolivianum, not 100% sure where to plant them, I think i will stick the Helanthium bolivianum behind the 3rd largest rock and remove some anubias, the tenellum "Micro" I may just dot around the left side under the filter outlets, I dont have much of both so will need to do some propagating I think.


IMG_1877 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

 

[Tim Harrison]

Really nice. Buces would enjoy it in there as well. From what I can gather they seem to be facultative rheophytes. They are found growing on the banks of streams, which I'm guessing are susceptible to flash floods.

 

[sciencefiction]

Very nice. I love those big round stones.....

When I was a kid I once looked at the back of the TV to check how the people I see on screen go in there.. My mother had great fun
I think I am going to check my computer screen for the same entrance to sneak these stones out of your tank

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Really nice. Buces would enjoy it in there as well. From what I can gather they seem to be facultative rheophytes. They are found growing on the banks of streams, which I'm guessing are susceptible to flash floods.

Thanks, I have a few bits of buce stuck in with the anubias, its all growing pretty well.

Very nice. I love those big round stones.....

When I was a kid I once looked at the back of the TV to check how the people I see on screen go in there.. My mother had great fun
I think I am going to check my computer screen for the same entrance to sneak these stones out of your tank

Haha i love the rocks too, something different and cheap only 60cents (AUD) a kilo!

 

[Sakura83]

Very nice, good job! Light must be that high ?

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Very nice, good job! Light must be that high ?

Yah I like it high like that, doesnt get in the way, also the light is rather powerful for such a low plant mass.

 

[Sakura83]

Very interesting setup, far more different from anything I have seen. I wonder how to do it on the top of another fish tank
I would love Neolamprologus multifasciatus in it

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Quick WC video

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Added 10 more WCMM, so total numbers are 20. Still no hillstream loaches, waiting for the weather to get cooler and the diatoms have disappeared from the tank so need more algae for them I think, I am starting to get some green algae on the stones closest to the window on the right side of the tank, hillstream loaches should like that but I am hoping to develop a bit more algae before I introduce them.

Here is a video from this evening

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

I think the fish have figure out they can catch food in the flow, now when ever I walk near the tank they all line up in the flow at about the mid point of the tank, waiting for food.

Quick iphone video.

 

[doylecolmdoyle]

Two male minnows showing off / trying to out do each other... still no hillstream loaches, its been so warm here in Perth lately I want to wait until its cooler to add the loaches.

 

[sciencefiction]

We don't have that problem here. It's been a horrible year, cold most of the time. I got my 3rd species of hillstreams. I think they are Pseudogastromyzon Cheni. I only bought the last 3 left in the shop. Unlike the others, these started eating fish food the first day.

Not entirely sure about the species but definitely Pseudogastromyzon and that's how mine looks: