Loaches Online Forum

Okay, so I have been postponing,.....to make sure everything was "perfect" in the receiving tank, before I moved the loaches.
They have been in a 29 gallon and seemingly very happy. But, we all know that loaches need BIGGER spaces, and BETTER water movement, SOFTER substrate.....
A little drip acclimation "schooling" was in order.


So, after much dithering (myself!!!)
I got it together and moved the two bigger loaches (LArry and "what's his name").
They are AMAZING!!!!
I have not seen too many fish "transformations" but I have to say thy are really enjoying themselves!!!!
So am I. I will send photos, but right now they are too shy ( It turn on the light and they hide immediately...lights off and they loach dance and are introducing themselves to everyone else in the tank.

thanks Rycheck and Diana for the help!!!

oh, yeah,,,
moved them to a 75 gallon tank, which I set up specifically for loaches. No, I am not so advanced as to do a "river manifold" yet (though VERY intriguing!)

Tihs is just a regular 75 gallon tank, sand over fluorite substrate, magnum 350 canister filter, extra powerheads, lots of caves and hiding places, and the stock lights as I am doing mostly fake plants at this point.

I am a little concerned because I have them in with rainbows (3 boesmani and 4 turquoise). They are very nice, but RAVENOUS eaters. I hopes the spoiled and fat clowns get enough to eat! I really feed the rainbows enough, but they never FEEL like they get enough!

Feed assorted foods and at different times. When you feed heavier pellets that drop to the bottom faster the Clowns will be right there.

That's the only problem I have with rainbows! I use a turkey baster to feed my loaches, once they figure out what' going on they'll be fighting to feed from the end.

Feed 2 sorts of food at one time. One that lingers higher up, perhaps drops slowly from the surface to keep the interest of the Rainbows, and at the same time place some food near the Loaches favorite cave. (Once they figure out where in that big new tank they want to hang out!)

Glad you were able to get them moved safely! However, there is one thing missing... where are the pics?

Okay, so I suck at taking pictures and cannot figure out this digital camera. A friend gave it to me with no directions.

Is there a place on the forum that tells a person HOW to post a photo?

I am CLEARLY not getting it!!
thanks!

When you are on the "Post a reply" page, look for the Img button at the top right, under the Subject entry. Move your cursor (arrow) to the button and you should see: [img]http://image_url[/img] (alt+p), just above the area where you enter your message.

Remember, you need to upload your images somewhere on the Internet so that you can enter the URL (http://image_folder/image.jpg).

If you have any problems, just ask and someone will be glad to help.

Okay, so that was painful, but at least you can see some pictures of Larry's tank!!
I will someday (soon) figure out how to not do the flash since now the loaches are stunned and hiding again. (by the way, holding on's finger over the flash does NOT work!)

The long PVC tube to feed them under a hiding place is working very well and they were feasting on some shrimp pellets well under cover from those ravenous rainbows.
thanks to everyone for all the help!
I have learned so much here. I know I would never have gotten the bigger tank and would have probably KILLED my loaches "toot sweet" if it were not for all the invaluable info!!

Oh, and thank you Bookpage!
now I can ALSO show you all some pics of my 125 gallon!!!!!!
IT is only a hardscape right now, going through the old "fishless cycling" thing.

Hey, and Diana, it is WORKING!!!!!
I think I am going to have to do a partial water change due to high nitrites (>10 ikes) , but the nitrates are already showing up, and there is consumption of ammonia so rock on nitrobacter!

I will do the 125 gallon stuff a little later in a different post but it is gonna be AWESOME!

During the fishless cycle do water changes to keep the nitrite under 5 ppm. At about 5 ppm the bacteria that remove nitrite (Nitrspiros) do not work very efficiently and the cycle can stall.