River Tank Babies!!!

[Martin Thoene]

Cute little "Shufflebums"

Lovely video.

Martin.

[helen nightingale]

Emma do you realise that you may be getting us all addicted to sewellia videos now. thats a great video. Shufflebums is such a good word for them.

whens the next film coming out? do we get one of marge stuffing melon too?

[Emma Turner]

Cheers all, glad you liked the footage!

p.s. Helen, Marge is showing off as I write this, dancing up and down for her food, and encouraging all the others. One evening I'll take the time and try to capture this on video. Might need a wider-angled lens though!

[Jim Powers]

Nice video. It looks to me as if the little guy was checking out the temp in the tank.

[kimby]

LOL! "shufflebums" is great. I took to calling the one hillstream I had "wigglebutt".

Same difference, different dialect I love that someone else thinks of them that way.

[Mark in Vancouver]

Once again, Emma Turner makes loach history with a fabulous document. And, it should be said, a testament to her lovely, weird loach devotion. Big cheers for more video clips!!

Thanks, Emma. Really rather good stuff.

[Emma Turner]

Loach fry update 14/08/2006:

Over the weekend, I decided to add a small powerhead to the baby tank, as up until now I've felt they were too small and liable to be sucked in (even through the tiny slats of the protective cage that sits underneath). I'm now confident that they are now wide enough to be safe.

Until now they've just had their little air-driven sponge filter, which really doesn't produce very much turbulence in the water. I've gradually been removing some of the ceramic media that used to be their substrate, and now have a layer of black sand. There is still a small pile of ceramic rings at one end, but I've also added some small flat stones for them to graze on.

The trouble is that since changing the tank around, they tend to stay hidden quite a bit more. In order to fit the powerhead in the tank, I had to move the sponge filter to the back of the tank, and the little loaches seem to dart behind the sponge whenever I approach the tank now. So getting photographs has been a little more tricky than usual....

The tank:


A blurry pic of one of them exploring the new flat stones:




Fin down....


Fin up....


And my favourite. Although slightly out-of-focus, this shows the little loachie in action, swimming between the flat stones:


Emma

[Laura]

I've got a couple of the same powerheads - I've found that an AC 50/200 foam insert cut in half with a big X chopped into it fits perfectly over the intake. It's coarse enough to not get bunged up quickly and still protects (in my case it was shrimp I originally wanted to protect).

I've got them on every intake now, I find it cuts down on filter maintenance - - I just pop them off and squeeze them out during weekly water changes.

[Jim Powers]

I would be very careful with that exposed powerhead intake. I lost several small chenis in the 2cm range because they got sucked up against an exposed intake and couldn't get away. I thought they would be big enough to handle it, but apparently they weren't.

[Emma Turner]

You're worrying me a little now, Jim. I've spent a lot of time watching them since adding it to the tank, and they don't seem to have any trouble with it. It's one of the smallest powerheads available and doesn't seem to have that much pull, but I'm wondering whether I should shove a small sponge over the intake just in case....hmmm.

Emma

[Jim Powers]

I hate to worry you Emma, but after my experience, I would hate to see those little jewels have the same problem. Looking at the pic, it is hard to see just how big the powerhead is. The one I had problems with (with the chenis) was about 125 or so gpm. If its less, maybe they could handle it.

[Emma Turner]

I can't remember offhand exactly how powerful this powerhead is, but I do know it's not as powerful as 125 gph. I was wondering if your cheni's were more prone to be pulled against it because they are a slimmer bodied fish? The Sewellias haven't grown that much in length recently, but are gaining width. I was watching them swim around earlier, and some came to rest on the upper part of the powerhead (the bit where the motor is housed inside) and they didn't seem to have any difficulty. I'm in two minds now as what to do - I wouldn't want to lose them, that's for sure.

Emma

[LES..]

Hi Emma,

If anything a wide body could be more of a problem in this case. Hillstream loaches are designed to face the current nose on, the are not designed to swim back first against the current. In the worst case one of these guys will come to rest on the intake with their body flat to the current, this would mean that they have a large surface area that has water being pulled past it would require a huge amount of strength to pull free.

I think you will need something just to diffuse the draw on the intake, just in case.

[Emma Turner]

I'm going to try putting a small sponge around the intake, like the sort that comes with the air-driven sponge filter sets. If that doesn't work very well, I think I'll take it out until I find a sponge that's suitable.
Thanks for your input Jim and LES..

Emma

[Jim Powers]

I think that's a good idea, Emma. We all want your little ones to be safe and you to get a good night's sleep. I have a feeling you wouldn't sleep well unless you knew you had eliminated any risk.