Yesterday, I took a trip to my LFS, with my motive being to buy black ruby barbs and breed them. When I entered the shop, I was a bit appalled at the price, (5.99 US) and decided to do some more looking around. My eyes met with a 35 gallon long tank with various goodeids, killies, and rasboras. Scuttling around the bottom were some of the nicest yoyo loaches I'd ever seen.
My mind made up, I searched for the best loach I could find. Out of the shadows (quite literally) rose a gravid female, and I knew exactly then which one I would pick.
The owner caught her for me, and told me he was wondering how long she'd last before someone bought her. He bagged her up, pumped in oxygen, and I was set, as I could not afford another loach. I asked him to hold a couple for me, and he agreed.
On the car ride home, I realized that I had made a rash decision. The tank I was intending to put her in was fulll of convict fry and their mother. I decided that I would drain and remodel the fluorescent pink gravel and cichlid-style tank for her.
I got home and went to work. I placed the convict fry in a separate tank, and the mother and a sneaky bristlenose plecostomus went in to my 55 gallon. I saved a gallon of the old water for the new tank. The gravel was vaccumed out, and the ornaments removed. I covered the bottom with 2 inches of play sand, and filled and drained the tank with water twice. The tank was then filled with dechlorinated water at 78 degrees, and the ornaments replaced with rocks.
With the tank set up, I placed the bag and the loach into the water. 15 minutes later, I opened the bag and released the fish and water, knowing that the store tank's water parameters now matched mine. The fish floated to the bottom and then, to my surprise, took off, swimming along the bottom of the tank. I turned off the light and went to bed.
I awoke at midnight, and, not being able to sleep, headed downstairs. I turned on a small hand held lanturn, and saw the most majestic sight a fishkeeper could see. The fish was loachy-dancing at extreme speeds with such elegance along the side parallel to the light! I watched as her silver tail and whiskers serenade her reflection in the glass, and realized what I was to do.
This morning, I fed her some blood worms, which she gobbled down. I noticed she had settled in to the rock cave, and only would come out when I approached with my camera. As I type, she is loachy-dancing along the tank side nearest the computer, and I am honored to be in her presence.
So, with my objective clear, I would like to ask ya'll if you think it can be done. I've read quite probably every single loach-breeding article on the net, and the owner of the fish store, who has bred clown loaches a few times, thinks I can do it.
Any tips or words of advice from the loach-keeping masters out there?
Tanks stats:
29 gallons.
Sand substrate.
Nitrates/Nitrites 0.
pH 7.0
Slightly hard water.
Single strip fluorescent lighting.
160? watt heater.
Penguin 170 bio-wheel filter. *previously used filter media*
Pictures:
The tank.
This pic just screams personality.
Such beauty!
AND gravidity!
