Loaches Online Forum

Here's a pic of my 150 "wide" river tank:





I'm not finished with the aquascaping yet. I need to get more riverstone and a couple of more large rocks. Substrate consists of about 3" of playbox sand. Once the remainder of the rocks are in, I'll be adding pea-sized gravel to top everything off.
The plant in the tank is willow moss, collected from local streams.



Filtration is a ViaAqua750 canister. Water circulation is provided by a Rio 2500, but this is going to be changed to two external pumps as I don't like the look of the powerhead in the tank. It will be interesting to see if the fish separate themselves out by waterflow.
Water flow in this tank is interesting. It flows from left to right, with the majority of the flow going over the larger rocks. This forces the water towards the surface of the tank as it goes towards the right side of the tank. This creates two main flow areas: the left side is high velocity while the right side is a much slower velocity. Hillstream and brookstream in one tank.
Lighting consists of 6x96 watt PC tubes.
So far, the inhabitants are:

6 Sewellia
6 H. smithii
6 H. confuzona
6 Beaufortia levertti
6 zipper loach
12 gobies (see pics following this post. Came in with the Vannies)
8 Vannies
1 Rasbora rasbora (am getting more)
6 Crossochilus lateus
6 Bluestipe Garra
4 Vampyre Shrimp (a filter-feeding species from Africa)
2 Green Lace Shrimp (from Asia)
50 Asian clams
12 Thai mussels

Here's pics of the gobies. Not sure of the species.

Bluestripe Garras. The second pic shows a piebald one.

Sewellia



Schistura



Vannies



Rosy Loach eating stuff on Willowmoss

Looks fantastic!

Goby -- whatever species -- in particular, really nice colors now.

How do the zippers react to the strong flow?
If they behave like they do here, they should be dominating the tank and get the best food...is this the case?

mikev wrote:Looks fantastic!

Thanks! IT will look even better once it's finished.

Goby -- whatever species -- in particular, really nice colors now.

Yeah....much nicer than in the holding tank. I have one more goby species to add. They came in with the last Vannies.

Forgot to add that I have a pair of Sulawesi gobies in the tank as well.

How do the zippers react to the strong flow?

They tend to stay out of it. More towards the brook side of the tank rather than the hillstream side.

If they behave like they do here, they should be dominating the tank and get the best food...is this the case?

You bet! They're not too aggressive towards tankmates, but they are first in line for food, and they have to check out any new additions to the tank.

Frank M. Greco wrote:Here's pics of the gobies. Not sure of the species.

Formerly known as Rhinogobius wui Frank.

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/Sp ... p?id=55204

Funnily enough, things like Liniparhomaloptera disparis often come in as contaminants with shipments of the gobies.

Martin.

Nice tank!! That's a very interesting fish mix. It should be a very interesting tank to watch with lots of activity.
Those Rhinogobius are cool fish. I have three and, as Martin stated, have gotten all my L. disparis in shipments of those fish.
The Rhinogobius have nice colors (particularly the males) and will change patterns depending on mood and surroundings. I even had them spawn once. The females laid the eggs on a river stone and the male guarded them. Unfortuantely, an SAE that was larger than the gobies, forced the male from the eggs and ate them.

Nice tank. Wouldn't that much lighting (6x96w) turn the tank into pea soup though?

There is no threat of anyone breeding with zippers around....they eat everything, always hungry, and dig for food in spare time. Zippers are the ultimate birth-control method.

Frank,

what also would be interesting to know is how your schisturas behave: do they tolerate each other, hang together OR fight for territory? They felt like the mild kind, but one really only knows when they are released into a permanent tank.

Looks great, Frank!

Emma

Looks Superb!!!

Frank M. Greco wrote:Forgot to add that I have a pair of Sulawesi gobies in the tank as well.

Here's a pic of that goby.

chefkeith wrote:Nice tank. Wouldn't that much lighting (6x96w) turn the tank into pea soup though?

Hasn't in the past. Besides, with all the clams in there filter-feeding, suspended algae doesn't stand a chance.

mikev wrote:what also would be interesting to know is how your schisturas behave: do they tolerate each other, hang together OR fight for territory? They felt like the mild kind, but one really only knows when they are released into a permanent tank.

So far, they are co-existing without a problem. Here's a pic of one of them (no idea as to species).