terra cota pots and loaches

[libingboy]

when i used to keep ca/sa cichlids and a few botia modesta, i always had terracota pots in the tank to serve as caves. no issues with brand new terracota (after having boiling water poured on it). however, i recall somebody mentioning that bottom dwellers seem to have problems with new terra cota? can anybody confirm if this would be a problem with loaches?

[Mark in Vancouver]

New terra cotta pots should be soaked for hours in warm water before being added to any tank situation. You want the clay to absorb all the water it can before inserting them in your tank. If you break the pots in half, as I do, make sure the edges are free from obvious sharp points, and try to bury even slightly jagged points in the substrate.

No matter what, it is better to use newly purchased, unused terra cotta pots in the aquarium. Any pot that has been home to a plant has VERY likely been exposed to fertilizers, if not pesticides. These will leak into the water just as easily as they are absorbed into the terra cotta. This type of clay is very similar to a sponge - it can hold a dramatic amount of liquid.

[libingboy]

i used to break the pots, but then it becomes quite difficult to control the fracture, and i would end up going through 4 pots to get 2 decent halves... with terracota pots quite expensive here, i just opted for the pots that are tall and thin, so that i wouldnt need to break them ....

the pots are still soaking as we speak, i plan to test it out in a tank with tiger barbs afterwards, just to see if there are any adverse reactions...

[andyroo]

Open water feeding fish seem to have no drama with terra cotta pots.
But Plecostomus, little gobies and red-tail black sharks (grazers) were 80% dead and 20% quite unwell by the morning.
Whatever the toxic affect, it didn't damage any loaches or anything that didn't direclty ingest particules from the pottery surface. Only rasper/sucker-types.

This has happened to me twice. Took me the second time to put two and two together.... but it didn't happen twice in between, so i donno.

Mark says that warm/hot water soak (overtnight?) works. I hope so, as i love the look of algae covered terra cotta pots in a fishtank and would love to try again.. without casualties.

A