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Moving current fish stock to smaller tank?

pinchez

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16 Jun 2013
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This is my current 360L tank which is home to a Pea Puffer, Bristle Nose Plec, 2 x Silver Hatchets, 2 x Horse Face Loach, 4 x Green Tetras, 4 x Ember Tetras, 6 x Rummy Nose Tetras and 8 x Sterbai Cory's.

I need to downsize their tank to around 200L and I'd also like to go with a heavy planted scape.

So firstly will this amount of fish be ok in 200L (2ft cube or similar) and secondly bearing in mind the Cory's, Plec and loach like to sift through the substrate, would it be possible to have silica sand and plants?

Thanks
 
If you want to continue keeping the horseface loaches, I’d suggest a tank with dimensions 120 x 45 x 45cm rather than a 60cm cube style - you don’t mention current tank temperature, but these fish also prefer cooler water (16-24*C)

https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/acantopsis-choirorhynchos/

The rest of your fish would likely manage fine in a 60cm cube tank

At some point I’d likely increase the shoal sizes of the tetras (establish new tank with current fish first)


This PFK article shows one planted sand option
https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/how-to-keep-dwarf-puffer-fish/

Many plants prefer soil over sand, but many plants can still be grown in sand (just takes more attention to water column nutrition) BUT if the horseface loaches decide on some decent under-substrate activity, plants will struggle to establish ...
The plants used in the PFK article would likely do better than most, once established, Vallisneria is very resilient (eg Tropica Vallisneria spiralis tiger ;))

Then wide use of epiphyte plants - on wood and stone

@Ady34 has an outstanding densely planted, non-soil aquarium
Re-education.....
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/re-education.56118/

 
Thanks Alto, I’ve had the Horse Face Loach for around 3 years already with my temperature at 26c and they seem to be doing fine. Most of my tetras are around 2 to 3 years old and the rest 3 to 4. I’d like to keep them all till they naturally pass as I view all my fish as pets (also keep Marine and Koi)

I mostly wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be dangerous overstocked (Will have an external 50L sump with lots of Biohome Ultimate media). Eventually as they pass away I would stock to compliment the scape.

Another tank option I could have is a 80 x 40 x 45cm, would be less volume but longer so might lead to a better scape? I’ve been watching a lot of George Farmer and MD Aquatics and really do want to have a heavily planted scape and was thinking maybe I could have a silica sand bed like I have now, with dragon stone and wood and the plants planted in to the stone and wood.
 
Of course you can keep these loaches at 26*C but they will appreciate the increased oxygen levels from dropping the temperature, even just to 23/24*C which would also work for your other fish

I assume you’re having difficulty with a longer footprint tank?
- the EA 900 would be my compromise size if you can do a 120cm

In terms of a stunning scape, I’d go 120cm x 45-60cm(w) etc - though obviously there are great scapes in all tank dimensions
 
I’ll definitely look into the temperature and take your advice, thanks for the info.

Unfortunately my limiting factor is space, the only place I can fit another tank is in a alcove which is 80cm long. I already have a 60cm/2ft cube I could use but I really don’t mind spending the money on a 80x40x45cm tank if it’s a better option?
 
How big are your horseface loaches?
I rather assumed they were the species linked above (the only sp. I’ve seen locally over the years) but perhaps they are the dwarf species?

https://www.loaches.com/species-index/acanthopsoides-molobrion

Also this apparent intermediate sized sp.
https://www.loaches.com/species-index/acantopsis-octoactinotos

In terms of tank size, if you must down size, then you must downsize ...
If the alcove is 80cm, do you really want to place an 80cm tank in there? (plus cabinet?)

Looking online, there are some 70 x 50 x 50cm aquariums, not as much length as the 80 x 40 but more footprint, except not the swimming length of a 100-120cm tank (but then you’ve said you can’t fit anything this big ...)

As you already have the 60cm cube, I might be inclined to give it a go, but then I don’t mind breaking down/rescaping tanks etc
As long as you maximize sand area for substrate swimming loaches, the 60x60 may work out fine
I’d place any rocks directly on the glass so the loaches can’t burrow beneath (and possibly be injured), and not too much area occupied by rocks
Wood can be “tumbling over rocks” rather than pushed into substrate, you can also anchor wood (and lava rocks to glass walls)

Tropica Bankwood https://tropica.com/en/plants/aquadecor/bankwood/




In an ideal situation, you want a group of horseface loaches rather than a twosome, but then you’d really want a bigger tank :)
 
I’ll definitely look into the temperature and take your advice, thanks for the info.

Unfortunately my limiting factor is space, the only place I can fit another tank is in a alcove which is 80cm long. I already have a 60cm/2ft cube I could use but I really don’t mind spending the money on a 80x40x45cm tank if it’s a better option?
Do you have the option of buying a custom made tank? I didn’t have the option of a long tank either however I made up for it by making it a lot wider than the standard 12/18inch. For example if you went say 80cm long x 60cm wide it would give the loaches a lot more floor space. Bottom feeders couldn’t care less about tank height and it’s floor space that matters. You could go for something like 80 x 60 x 45?

cheers

Conor
 
My Horse Face Loach are between 3 - 4” one being slightly longer than the other, they’ve stayed the same size for at least the last year or so. I bought them from the LFS simply because they were unusual and although I do like them I hardly ever see them as they spend most of their time buried. I wouldn’t buy any more.

Thought long and hard about the tank situation, yes I could have a 80x60 and any height in the alcove and I usually build my own stands. It wouldn’t matter if it took up the whole alcove. I already have a Custom Marine Tank being made by ND Aquatics which will take around 6-8 weeks, everyone else were quoting 9-12 weeks so don’t really want to get another custom tank especially when I can pick a 80x40x45 opti-white up for £108 inc. delivery. Im leaning towards using the cube I have.

I will definitely be focusing on having as much of the sand bed available as possible with my scape :)
 
I can pick a 80x40x45 opti-white up for £108 inc. delivery.

I’d probably go with this for scape aesthetics ;)
(it’s more difficult to scape a cube layout, perhaps in part as there are fewer online/book examples to develop a sense of how to accomplish this)

It’s certainly easier/cheaper to light a 45cm tall aquascape, though as you’re not attempting to grow a carpet plant, this is less relevant
(Filipe Oliveira has several examples of deeper tanks on his YouTube channel)
 
Yeah I’m thinking if I was to go 60cm high I would have a 3” sand bed with rock in one corner of the tank raising lots of wood branches to mid tank level with plants and moss attached.
 
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