7 Foot, 1074 Litres, 284 Gallons.

[dave_oddballs]

yeah i knew after seeing them it was a marbled motoro i wanted, but it was T1 that found this one, and glad i went for it as he is stunning, think the smaller female crapped herself when he went in though. might try and get hold of a marbled female when i get the cash, i would have to find another clear base at the same grade as this male though in order to get a grade pups from them! but it would be worth it, can't wait for baby rays!!! they won't come too soon!!

 

[dave_oddballs]

been trying to get some pictures of the two rays all day but they hide when the lights are on, well, when i go near the tank they do! just caught them out during the mid day light off period so took my chance! not brilliant but you can see the size difference!

make a nice couple! haha

 

[bae1994]

really nice cool that they have the different patterns

 

[T1KARMANN]

the size diffrence is not that bad mate females grow a lot faster than males i think within 3-4 months the female will be the same size

good water and good food is all you need

 

[dave_oddballs]

yeah hopefully once she reach's a similar size to the male she will slow down a bit so i'll be able to keep her as long as possible, then hopefully i'll be able to find another female the same as the male.
before the bigger rays went in i did a 30% water change every week, on top of numerous sand vacs per week, and now with both the bigger rays in i will do 50% a week and the vacs, maybe split into 2 x 25% changes per week.

when he is swimming around and burying himself the sand goes everywhere, im worried a lot is going to get into the filters and damage them! would i be better off switching to fine gravel? i like sand though!
T1 you had sand in your old tank with these eheim 2080's, did you get a lot of sand in them? and if so did it affect them at all?

 

[T1KARMANN]

its best to do 2 x 25% water changes in the winter and 2 x 40% in the summer straight from the tap

drain the tank add tap water conditioner then fill from the hose

i didnt have sand in the old tank but you are best off cutting the drain pipes as high as you can so they dont stop draining at the 40% water change mark

 

[dave_oddballs]

yeah the inlet strainers on both the eheims and the fx5 are cut so they sit roughly just past half way down the tank, but when the rays move the sand goes everywhere, even if the strainers were at the top the sand would still reach them!
so within the next few weeks i should do 2 40% changes per week? will that amount of cold water, say 400 litres, be ok, like would the fish be ok with the temperature change? it takes a few hours to warm up again when i put cold water in. if thats what you did then i'll do that as obviously all your fish are good!

the arowana is getting picked up at 2pm today, finally! let it go for £45, which is what i payed for it, but getting to the point where im wondering if my characin and hujeta gar will still be there in the morning!

also will be getting 3 more big bichirs, 2 on saturday and another the week after, and will be looking into some more tigerfish, especially the campbelli!

 

[T1KARMANN]

i never let the temp drop below 76 if it drops below that i stop the filling and start again when its about 78

my temp was always at 86 so with the 25% in the winter and 40% in the summer it never dropped below 76

in the summer the tank was at 90-92 so the cold water hardly made a impact

 

[dave_oddballs]

i only have these digital thermometres, has a probe that goes into the water, i don't know about Fahrenheit but was always not too far from 29 Celsius. will have to get a new thermometre as it the screen went yesterday, think the batteries ran out, could do with something that plugs in but don't know if you can get 240 volt thermometres! ha
well like you said if it gets too low i could just stop filling for an hour or so and then start again when the temp picks up.
these simple solutions i just never thought about!

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

just see this dave
http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail62_103719.php

got some cambelli's on there for £70

 

[dave_oddballs]

yeah i have seen them mate, i actually emailed him last week about a few fish, with £20 p+p it would be £90, so for an extra 2" is it worth £120 for a 7" campbelli??
i am trying to sort something out to get some cash to buy a 'job lot' of 4 microlepis and 3 campbelli's at the moment, obviously once they have grown there wuld be too many in the tank but at least id be able to choose the best fish out of the lot and sell on the rest, would like to keep them as long as possible though!

 

[dave_oddballs]

well im not arowanaless, ha got £50 for it so im relatively happy at that, at least my characin can live in peace now!
but, have another problem, my beloved red tailed black shark as disappeared! i don't think the arowana had it as it would have been obvious as its belly goes fat after just a couple of lance fish! doubt any of the tigers could fit it in their mouth's, i would have my doubts about either of the rays being able to eat it. but its definitely gone unless its been hiding for the last 4 hours!

 

[bae1994]

the arowana could of had a go for him so hes in hiding


i know there different but when i introduced my manderin goby my lion fish tried to eat him i took the lion out then to the lfs (as i have fish slightly bigger than the manderin in there) and the manderin hid for 2 days now hes out constant

 

[dave_oddballs]

naaa its not in the tank no more, well unless its inside something else! i could safely say the arowana hadn't eaten it, it wasn't fat enough, the only fish i havent seen is the dat quadrifasciatus, which is the biggest dat at 9", he is still hiding behind the plant, maybe resting on a full belly? will poke him out in a bit and have a look!

 

[bae1994]

yeah forgot about him probably just had his welcome to the tank feast