Loaches Online Forum

Hi i'm new here i have a 650L (6x2x2)tank with a mixture of fish manly loaches here is a list of what is in there
1X18cm clown loach, 2X15cm clowns, 4X10cm clowns, 10X5cm clowns,3X15cm yoyos (1 with big belly of eggs),2X chain loaches ,2X striata loach, 6X neon's, 8X bristle noise pleco, 3X angels, 2X long fined danios, 3X small discus 4cm ish.
I have 2 1400lh sun sun external filters which i clean 1 a week and i do 1 50% water change once a week it also has a power head at one end that the loaches love.
water temp is at 28 degrees + or -1 degree.
The fish all look very happy and have never been sick (touch wood)
my question is am i overstocked or will i be in the future?

Next question is i am wanting to get sum live plants and was going to set up a co2 system which i don't have a clue about
will this effect the fish at all? any advice would be much appreciated.

thanks heaps chris

I have just noticed all the large clown loachs have small white spots on there heads they dont seem unhappy or sracthing tho, could this be the start of white spot? and will it be ok to turn the heat up to 32 degrees? with all the othere fish in the tank?.
Or do they all have that? its very very small the camara dosnt pick it up i only just noticed if i looked real close
thanks again for any help

Chris,

If it's ich, then the white spots should look like grains of sugar/salt on the animals. If it is in the exact same spot on only larger animals of only one species, then I have a feeling it isn't ich. Image searches for ich of crypt will give you a good idea of what you are looking for.

You tank is fairly populated. Filtration and water change rate might keep that manageable, but it will depend on how much larger all of the various fish will get. I'd keep an eye on it.

For a CO2 system, I'd ask first what type of lighting you have, and what your current water chemistry looks like. CO2 helps acidify the water depending on your source water's hardness and can be used to help regulate pH. Most of your fish would be fine in softer lower pH waters. The thing to remember about planted systems is that it is all about balance. You have to balance lighting, plant nutrients and water quality, animal water quality, in order to keep everything stable. The other kicker is that you would need to be really selective of your plant species, as you have several species now that would either make a game of destroying plants, or nibble on them.

Hi thanks for the quick reply I have been keeping an eye on the clowns they havn't got any worse. I have slowly turned the temp up to 31 and will leave it at that for 10 ish days just in case. I havn't noticed it on any other fish just the larger clowns. It looks like a very fine even sprinkel of sugar and it only on their foreheads.

As for the lighting I am not sure what kind it is. Where does it say? It came with the tank when I brought it about a year ago. I replaced 1 bar about 5 months ago with a blue one.

I will test ammonia, nitrates and ph later in the week and get back to you.
The plants I will be after are java ferns... anything looks better than the fake ones
Thanks Chris

For Java ferns alone, I wouldn't bother with CO2. There are several good low light/low CO2 plants, (anubis, cryptocorne, java ferns/moss). I like the elodea and egaria for things like fry tanks to soak up extra nutrients and host micro bugs.

If the bar in your lighting was a long glass tube, it was probably a flourescent fixture. Hard to say without looking at it, but again, lighting, plants, animals, nutrients... it's all about a finding a balance point to keep algae from growing like crazy.

My angels have just started trying to breed exciting but they wont get very far