Asian river tank

Beastije said:

Nothing dull about them, yellow, red tints but they are so active, sort of glass surfing, watching you, doing something non stop. I was more afraid they will be hidden in caves and seeing them will be a rare occurrence, but not at all. Fun fish

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Sounds brilliant! Definitely on the list now!

After discussing with many minnow keepers we realized the fish will never breed in this tank, due to the large flow and the inability of the fry to find food in such a large space. I keep moving trios of whitecloud minnows to my shrimp tank to a breeder box to spawn in a java moss in hopes of breeding them in other tanks and bringing them to the main tank.
This however made me think about adding another fish. The idea of one midwater fish was initially due to potential for breeding, which is now not going to happen.
I considered getting another shoal of some barbs, like odessa ones, but the bioload of two shoals seemed a bit too much to me, so I got one male paradise fish.
I added surface plants like water lettuce and stuck the hornowrt behind a filter to make a better shelter. For now the fish is freshly added a bit stressed so glass surfing and not at all interrested in any other fish in the tank.
I hope their agressive nature reports are exagareted, like with bettas, based on a fish itself. If he bothers any of my other fish or snail antennae I will return him, per agreement with the breeder , but I am so hoping it will all work. It is the biggest fish I have ever had and he is stunning.

I am unsure if its tail is not a bit split, will see later on, it is the blue variety with red stripes, it has started to color up. Will add pictures once the fish calms down a bit.

Wills said:

Love this tank! The Panda Garras look really good, I've been considering them for my big tank at some point but was worried they wont look as good in real life as they do in pictures but yours seem to be really yellow!

Wills

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I so thought about you the other day where I was feeding pieces of fluval bug bite to the paradise fish (it wont see/eat hatched bbs) and one panda garra was at the feeding hole, head bumping all the way up, trying to also eat the fluval bug bites, so I gently bumped its head several times, absolute joy ) I saw zero aggression, they are still pretty small though, like 4 cm if my one eyed measuring with a measuring tape against the glass is correct

Beastije said:

I so thought about you the other day where I was feeding pieces of fluval bug bite to the paradise fish (it wont see/eat hatched bbs) and one panda garra was at the feeding hole, head bumping all the way up, trying to also eat the fluval bug bites, so I gently bumped its head several times, absolute joy ) I saw zero aggression, they are still pretty small though, like 4 cm if my one eyed measuring with a measuring tape against the glass is correct

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That sounds good! I'm thinking about redoing the tank I want for these soon so might wait a little before I do anything.

Wills

I decided to move the paradise fish to another tank. While it is not overly aggressive and works quite ok on a day to day basis, during feeding the fish is very territorial, chasing, harassing. I dont think the other inhabitants enjoy it and I am sad to say I made a mistake when I got the fish. Even though I did the research, my sources had different info than english sources and overall, I should have not made the decission.
I will try to breed the minnows in other tanks, since here they are not doing it.
I wonder if I should get another panda garra, to bump it up to 5 instead of 4 members, but I do not want to make another mistake again.
One of my sewellia is nearly black while other has the usual golden lining, I wonder if it is not a different species, will have to take a closer look.

I successfully managed to have my minnows spawn in another tank with moss where I put a 3 males 2 females group for 3 days. First fry, which was the largest, I moved back to the community tank just after 4 weeks, no issues! second went 5 days after it, the remaining two I am feeding in the other tank before adding them to the adults.
I want to report that adding the fry to the adults resulted in zero aggression or interest, they just joined the shoal and are doing a-ok! I was a bit afraid, but this is good news. BTW can you believe that is a four week old baby in the breeding box?! I seemed to have found a good feeding schedule that worked because they grew super quick

The babies are paler in color than the adults, I hope that it is ok and will change in time. It is not even stress from the move, they are same pale in the other tank.

I lost two sewellia, maybe due to the paradise fish, who knows. I bought one more, it is a female, finally can see the size difference in the width. It is the most aggressive sewellia in the whole tank, will even chase garras from a feeding But with at least one female my chances of spontaneous breeding are much higher

I rescaped the tank, removed lot of the stones in the middle and bought normal colored minnows and also some other panda garras, cause I do love that fish. You cant even see I removed a whole bucket of stones!
I also made a quick video

Look at those damn cute butterflies

Back in December i added around 20 shrimp. I chose cheaper culled ones and colorless cause i didn't really expect anything out of it. Imagine my surprise as i am seeing more and more few mm babies, not hiding in the moss wall but sitting on the stones between the panda garras and right under the minnows, no care in the world. The adults are also not hiding or scared, will run between garras and sewellia and annoyed move away when the garras try to sit on them.
Interesting. Also the blue shrimps are just damn gorgeous will post pictures once i have the time.
The tank is clicking, the moss is crazy though, will have to trim it at some point. It is a 30 cm tall 100 cm long wall of moss that fares better than in any tank i have ever seen...

looks great, and happy.

You should enter that tank in our Tank of the Month contest which is for 31 gallon and larger tanks. Entry period ends at 10 PM today your time. So if you want to enter, do it soon.

I did decide to add one more thing to the tank, and it brought me to a question. I bought a snail. I used to have a mystery snail here, a magenta one, but it died after half a year. Not sure why, maybe the temp.
I went for a different snail this time. It is a brotia, either pagodula (sold as such) or armata, but I cant tell the diference. I wonder, do they need wood? do the sewellia and panda garra need wood? Will they appreciate it more?
Got me thinking if I should get something for them to graze on. I mean I have so many rocks. The snail is fun, active and has a cute snout, similar to tylomelania.
If anyone can tell me if is is pagodula or armata, I will appreciate it, though in the long run it doesnt make much difference I guess.

Love the tank, I have one similar, but started with Tin Foil barbs... ( so some big fish ) I was worried they would eat my Panda Garra's, as those came in tiny ( about 1/2 inch ) but the Tin Foils are tolerant of everyone, & soon found them sharing food with the tiny pandas, I have 2 varieties of Hillstreams, as well, & love them & the Pandas... my tank also has Denison Barbs...

I wonder if there are sub species of the Panda Garra's ??? I have 5 of them... 4 of them are a medium grey, & one is literally black... they are both striped traditionally, but the 4 grey ones hang within about 1/3 of a 55 gallon tank, of each other, but the black one always stays on the opposite side of the tank, rarely interacting with the lighter color ones, all are eating good, & growing rapidly, in a month, all have put on an inch in length, so they are all currently about an inch & a half long right now...

Magnum Man said:

Love the tank, I have one similar, but started with Tin Foil barbs... ( so some big fish ) I was worried they would eat my Panda Garra's, as those came in tiny ( about 1/2 inch ) but the Tin Foils are tolerant of everyone, & soon found them sharing food with the tiny pandas, I have 2 varieties of Hillstreams, as well, & love them & the Pandas... my tank also has Denison Barbs...

I wonder if there are sub species of the Panda Garra's ??? I have 5 of them... 4 of them are a medium grey, & one is literally black... they are both striped traditionally, but the 4 grey ones hang within about 1/3 of a 55 gallon tank, of each other, but the black one always stays on the opposite side of the tank, rarely interacting with the lighter color ones, all are eating good, & growing rapidly, in a month, all have put on an inch in length, so they are all currently about an inch & a half long right now...

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There are several garra species, flavatra (panda), rufa (the one used in those dreadful pedicure saloons) and gotyla. I also saw mention of spilota

especially flavatra and rufa look the same but differ in coloration. I suggest you check their description closely and check which ones you actually have since rufa tend to be way larger

I'm sure mine are flavatra... fearless little critters, swim right up to an 8 inch Tin Foil Barb, & take the food out of it's mouth... they were doing that at a 1/2 inch, & could have easily been swallowed

BTW I took a quick picture to show how shrimp safe the pandas are. Astonishingly so. The shrimp took the pellet away for a while. Hillstreams have less success taking the food from garras, as the hillstream will sit on it, but the garra will burrow under it to get at it