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5ft Bookshelf Aquarium - River Scape

Unrecognizable,ha, ha. These two confused me. Yes, these at the start of the video are 2 are sewellia :)

They do change colour depending on the colour of the stone and sand and I've seen online that they can go really pale when they fight. I wouldn't worry about it, they're only settling now.
I find them rather hardy fish so far. I have a group of beaufortia that I bought a year and a half ago but the new group I bought I placed in a brand new set up I put together the day I got them. I did use cycled media and decor, etc that was in a cycled tank but still, the tank wasn't established and they made it just fine, so far...:)
One of my loaches got dropped by the shop attendant and by the time he picked him up from the tiled floor, he literally peeled his bottom half body. The loach still made it and fully recovered...They do like sifting the sand so try also sprinkling smaller pellets. I feed mine New Life Spectrum 1mm pellet. NLS have a nice Algae Max version as well.
 
sciencefiction said:
Unrecognizable,ha, ha. These two confused me. Yes, these at the start of the video are 2 are sewellia :)

They do change colour depending on the colour of the stone and sand and I've seen online that they can go really pale when they fight. I wouldn't worry about it, they're only settling now.
I find them rather hardy fish so far. I have a group of beaufortia that I bought a year and a half ago but the new group I bought I placed in a brand new set up I put together the day I got them. I did use cycled media and decor, etc that was in a cycled tank but still, the tank wasn't established and they made it just fine, so far...:)
One of my loaches got dropped by the shop attendant and by the time he picked him up from the tiled floor, he literally peeled his bottom half body. The loach still made it and fully recovered...They do like sifting the sand so try also sprinkling smaller pellets. I feed mine New Life Spectrum 1mm pellet. NLS have a nice Algae Max version as well.
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Great, the colour was little worrying... I was worried, but the loach seems fine now and all the other loaches have decent colour. Good to hear they can be hardy, I actually found one of the original 4 on the floor about 30 minutes after I added them, it was stiff, I assumed dead, popped it in a jar of water and just as I was thinking of how to dispose of the dead fish I noticed it breathing, put the fish back in the tank and it started to swim, I assume it survived, was one of the really small guys. I dropped the water level by a few more CM and they no longer seem interested in poking there heads out of the water along the glass.

Feeding is a concern, hard to tell if they are eating, I read like much otos if they are active and appear to be grazing on surfaces they are probably eating, I have been dropping algae wafers into the tank which seems to make them active, so they must sense the food around. The white clouds go mad for any food which is a bit annoying... Ideally I can grow some more algae and I will start farming a few rocks out doors in the sunlight. I will look into NLS Algae Max, pretty sure I have some NLS food here but I think is just the generic small fish type. I do have a heap of various foods tho only the larger wavers are algae based, the small micro pellets are a mix. I read Repashy Soilent Green is a good option, but not available in Australia, I like the idea of creating a gel mix and setting it on some rocks, I also have live micro worms which I feed my other fish a few times a week, not sure if the Loaches will go for micro worms as they generally stay suspended in the water column.... I am probably over thinking this... I am sure they will eat!
 
doylecolmdoyle said:
I read Repashy Soilent Green is a good option
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I have that. My new gastromyzon didn't touch it at all. I tried numerous foods with them. I ended up feeding my older hillstreams Repashy and they didn't eat it fast enough. It got blown around the tank and caused a diatom outbreak. I am not personally impressed so the remainder is in the feezer. My older beaufortia much prefer the NLS pellets and they're as healthy food as one can buy.
 
Setup and fish are looking great, one of my favourites on here. The loaches look active and healthy enough and you can see they are grazing/searching for food. They seem pretty settled. Them actively looking about for food and digging in the sand is a really good sign. I'm sure they will be picking up some particles from the algae wafers and pellets.
 
I got home today with 5 of these beauties below. They're very upset right now racing the tank. They were only delivered to the shop yesterday so perhaps not such a wise idea taking them in so early.....

They've got bright blue tails and I think they are Gastromyzon Zebrinis.

Look at my algae factory, ha, ha

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sciencefiction said:
The more I look, the more I think the above loaches I have are Gastromyzon Ocellatus.
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They do look very similar to the majority of loaches I have, tho I find it very hard to tell the different unless they have very unique markings (i.e. all spots or all tiger pattern like the sewellia), I wouldn't mind picking up 2 more Sewellia.

I am amazed how well these guys can hide, some times I cant see any loaches, the seem to be able to get under the biggest rock in my tank, I think they like to retreat to this hide away.
 
doylecolmdoyle said:
I am amazed how well these guys can hide
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They absolutely love being under stones. Be careful if you ever lift anything out of the tank as one could still be stuck on whatever you're taking out.

I could sometimes go and look at the tank and see no loaches whatsoever. Then I keep sitting and in no time at all I start seeing stuff. Loaches start coming out from under the stones, squabbling among themselves , moving to another stone, munching briefly on the side of the tank, etc..

From my short experience I've also noticed they see really well. They can turn their eyes in their eyeballs. Same as I used to experience with my clown loaches, when I walk into my small fishroom I can see a lot of them out and about and then in seconds, no matter how quietly I walk in, they see me and hide.

Having said that, when I do water changes and turn off the filter, I can see almost all of them. They start moving around a lot more, not sure why, oxygen perhaps although all they're doing is fighting over stones while I do water changes...

My older bunch lives in a heavily planted tank and although I see them in and out, they hide most of the time among the plants. The moment I put food they're out in seconds, all of them fighting over the food.

On a side note, the new bunch I got is really stunning. They have pinkish body base and dark brown stripes sort of mixture. Their tails are a mixture of red and bright electric blue. They're still settling. Today after the water change 2 started racing around the tank nervously. But from the 5 I got only one is a bit paler, but not too pale. The older bunch of Gastromyzon Ctenocephalus and G. Scitulus is very dark brown but they've been there 2 months or so.

On another note in relation to hiding, the 3 Pseudogastromyzons I got a few weeks back are the most outgoing and they don't hide at all. It seems the Gastros are quite shy in comparison but the Gastros are stunning fish.

I wish I had set up their permanent tank. Unfortunately I'll have to fish them all out so I am sort of waiting for them to settle well before I upset them again. That means all the algae on the sides of the tank will be lost as well, so a bit of a risk as that tank holds 16 loaches right now. I hope they all make it.
 
Few photos, one at eye level and one from lower down, kind of cool to lay on the floor and watch the water ripple across the surface.

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IMG_2051 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2045 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

@sciencefiction agree they see very well, they are still a bit scared of me if I approach the tank quickly or move suddenly, but if I sit still for awhile soon enough they come out and dart around. I love the googly eyes on the loaches! Was watching the biggest loach (some kind of Gastro) fight the smaller Sewellia for position on the biggest rock, was interesting to watch the Gastro turned more blue, you could tell it was annoyed but the Sewellia wouldnt give up, they where basically going head to head pushing each other about.
 
Starting to get some nice algae... never thought I would call algae nice, tho would be great if I could grow green / brown soft algae without BBA... starting to see tiny tuffs of BBA on the rocks closest to the window in my study. Loaches seem to be enjoying the algae tho.

Some photos below, most of the loaches didnt want to be on camera tonight, I think my camera / flash brings out more yellow than there is in the loaches, the yellow is not so noticeable by eye, they look more dark grey/brown to my eye, could be the flash stressing them bring out some yellow perhaps, they dont like being photographed and hide when I am pointing the camera right at the glass. It is fascinating how quickly they change colour tho, I managed to take a photo (first photo below... not the best photo) of two loaches fighting over a rock, these two guys went really dark / black with the banded stripes, and as soon as the fight is over go back the lighter browny grey. I saw my first blue loach today, it was fighting with a small Sewellia who didnt change colour as far as I could tell. I think they go more blue when really angry!

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IMG_2067 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2078 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2076 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2077 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2073 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2064 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2079 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr

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IMG_2072 by Colm Doyle, on Flickr
 
Very nice pictures. The loaches seem to be doing great.

In terms of algae. I ran my tank on full blast for 16-18 hrs a day up until a week ago. It was a new set up so that may have played a role but I got a massive diatom outbreak, which got colonized by green algae all over, including the stones, some blue green tint also indicating there's cyano as well in that mix. The manzanita wood grew humongous grey hair algae, which turned from grey to green within days after I started putting some micros. There could be tiny amounts of BBA, not sure because there's so much algae on that wood but it's not the dominant one at all. If anything, they could be some BBA on the pre-filter sponge :) I also noticed the loaches started going on that sponge recently and enjoying whatever's there as well. So although it looks ugly and dirty, it works out well for the fish. I do water changes and try to clean up the sand as much as possible but it doesn't make it look clean....
 
@sciencefiction I hear you, I want to grow algae but also want the tank to look good, double edged sword, I am only running light for about 7 hours but the tank does get a fair bit of natural sunlight.
 
Cleaned the filters today, what a pain, a job I never enjoy, tho the filters where pretty clean, no brown sludge like in my tanks with soil, also did light gravel / sand vac and big WC, put a jet nozzle on the other outlet, I think the loaches like the extra flow. I was actually injecting co2 I thought with the huge surface movement it wouldn't effect the loaches and from what I could tell it wasn't, the drop checker was pretty much dark dark green bordering on blue most of the time. but today decided to remove the co2 / inline atomizer one less thing to worry about.

Here is a video I shot after the tank maintenance.

 
Konsa said:
Hi
What is the inner diameter of the venturi adaptors and who is making them?
Regards Konsa
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Hi the venturi is by Juwel, its called OxyPlus O2 Diffusor. It fits onto 16/22 tube so inner diameter must be 22mm.
 
@sciencefiction what size MM NLS pellets are you feeding to your loaches? I got some 2mm Algae Max Pellets but its hard to say if they are feeding on them, they just kind of get blown about the tank
 
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