Long Winded 8 Ft Tank Thread

[Lorne]

Yeah, Finally!!! my troup of 11 Synodontis Petricolas have spawned today, at least 2 pairs, maybe 3, so, hopefully in a couple of days (If they haven't ate them all) I shouldn't be able to see the gravel through baby fish!

I've had this group of Petricolas from about 3/4" from a friend who bred them about 3 years ago, I had hoped they would spawn, but didn't really care if they did or not, very nice to see tiny eggs flying everywhere though.

The Petricolas are the only fish in the tank, and they are spoilt rotten

 

[Tizer]

wanted to do this myself, only have two of them, how did you set the tank up for them? typical flowerpot / marbles in a bowl thing?

 

[Lorne]

The original parents of my fish belong to a friend of mine, he has been breeding Petricolas for Years, his have a concrete shipwreck and gravel in the tank, nothing else, they regularly deliver 1000 babies for him, and he now has at least 6 pairs that do that for him.

The parents were left to their own devices and kept the young in the shipwreck with them, sometimes they would have babies from prvious spawnings in with them when they produced a new lot, with no problems for the new batch.

So, onto mine, they are 3 years old and are in a juwel lido 120, originally the tank just had 2 resin caves in there for them, on gravel. The water is around 27/28C and in of a PH of 7, I know they come from an area which has PH of over 8, but this is the PH they were born into, and they seem to like it.
I added some giant straight Vallis for them, and they loved hanging around in it. When transferring the fish and plants to the 8 footer, I put all the smaller plants into the Petricolas' tank, they went a bit mental, swimming and playing in them, so when I had moved the plants to the 8 FT, the Cats looked a little down in the mouth, which led me to going out and buying £50 worth of plants for them, all happy again now!

Now, I have NO idea why they decided to spawn today, I did do a 50% water change, removed and cleaned all the plants and cleaned the filter this week, but it could simply be, that they have finally reached "that" age

I didn't take any pictures of the Spawning, as I have been busy taking delivery of a new sofa and getting rid of the old one, but the eggs are tiny anyway, about half the size of a Cory egg, so taking pics would be quite hard, they have been at it all day and it was at least 2 pairs, perhaps 3.

Funny thing with my Petricolas, they refused all types of food, including what they were raised on, until, out of desperation, I gave them Tetra Goldfish Flakes, they love 'em, weird

I have seen that Marble and bowl technique, very interesting, but I am going to leave them to their own devices, it's not like we know better than them, and their parents might have passed their expertise onto the ones I have. I will be removing the powerhead and putting an airstone into the Juwel filter and adding a sponge filter this week, just so any babies don't get minced up

Here is the only decent picture I got of the tank, you can see one of the cats clearly in the middle of the picture

 

[eggo]

Love the idea of the gas struts found some on ebay only £1.99 each, if i put two on each lid they would hopefully not fall on me when working in the tank with the lids open and may even be able to close without any assistance your tank looks fantastic

 

[Lorne]

Love the idea of the gas struts found some on ebay only £1.99 each, if i put two on each lid they would hopefully not fall on me when working in the tank with the lids open and may even be able to close without any assistance your tank looks fantastic

Cool, mine are 150N each and hold the lid up perfectly, I would love to add another to each lid, but don't know how they would attach in the middle

 

[Livewire88]

Great tank, its nice to see a group of Clowns in a huge tank.

A bit off topic but I am looking for a quiet air pump to run a sponge filter on my shrimp tank and have read that the Eheim Air Pump is the quietest around, how do you find yours noise wise? and have you had it long? if so has it become louder over time?

 

[Lorne]

Great tank, its nice to see a group of Clowns in a huge tank.

A bit off topic but I am looking for a quiet air pump to run a sponge filter on my shrimp tank and have read that the Eheim Air Pump is the quietest around, how do you find yours noise wise? and have you had it long? if so has it become louder over time?

The Eheim 400 is very quiet, I have 2 running on the big tank, and have just bought another for a fry tank, it is running a sponge filter and an airstone, gotta say, the water movement from the sponge filter is quite loud, but I guess that is what they do, the air pump is still quite quiet

I also have Tetratec Whispers (They don't bloody whisper LOL)

 

[snazy]

I've had the Eheim 400 too for about 10 months, super quiet compared to anything I've had before, best one so far.

 

[LucyB]

Beautiful, I envy you!

 

[Lorne]

 
About time for an update I think,So, I tidied up the corner where the kid's coats were, bought a Beech kitchen unit and covered the white side in beech fablon (Right pain) I also added a Pine folding door                                                            

                                                One of the 8 Hoplosternums in the big tank                                                          

                                              The Jave Fern has gone mental                                                            

                                                Set up a fry raising rack, not going too well, I have lost a lot, but still have some left                                                  

                                                This is for when they are big enough to learn about bigger tanks, I have a Juwel Vision 180 getting ready for some of them                                            

                                                I customised the outlet of the Juwel Filter                                                          

                                              The Spraybar is hidden in the background and siliconed in, holes are drilled of the outlet                                                  

                                                Synodontis Petricolor fry                                                              

                                                Bigger Petricolor Babies                                                              

                                              The Parents have dropped more eggs, but I have left them all in the tank to see how they do in there, as             I found a rogue one in their tank, and it is way bigger than any I was feeding Brine shrimp to!                

 

[Tizer]

Guess you don't have much of a view out of the window
 
looking good mate

 

[Lorne]

Guess you don't have much of a view out of the window

 
looking good mate

 
 
You wouldn't want it, I hand dug a 15 foot by 15 foot by 5 foot deep hole out there, and then started to fill it back in, this year I have to dig it out again and make it 8 x 15 x 5 for my son's Koi, shame I dumped a load of crap in the hole, oops

 

[Tizer]

Your neighbours must love you

 

[Lorne]

Your neighbours must love you

 
 
Don't care, I own the house, so stuff 'em, nah, apart from a noisey Autistic son, we're generally quiet, so the neighbours should like us LOL

 

[Zikofski]

wow this tank is sensational

really well done

love the clown loaches

shame you there is not red line torpedo barbs in there