My 2 Foot Rebuild

[RCA]

Lovely, they are "mad" corys but great fun, very active, enjoy.

 

[Jeremy180]

Lovely additions to the tank,cories are very personable racsals IMO.

BTW nick, I have a question:
In searching in various sites for red cherry shrimp compatibility, I've heard several mentions of khuli loaches being incompatible with baby shrimp, but on closer inspection these were either assumptions or "heard from someone who heard from someone" type information.
In your personal experience, have you seen any of your khulis hunting/attacking baby shrimp, or do they seem to get along well together?

 

[NickAu]

I will be honest here, The RCS in the tank are food,  I put them there so my Betta has something to hunt, At last count there were 70 shrimp in my tank, So if the Betta and Loaches are hunting the shrimp they are not doing a great job, most likely because they are too fat and lazy from being over fed.
 
About a week ago I scooped up a bunch of RCS and put them in a 6 foot tank, Gives my Firemouth Riddick something other than live bearer fry to hunt.
 
Any that are hunted down and eaten are replaced by the shrimp living in the bottom of my canister filter, I have no idea how they get in, every time I clean my filter I find about 10.
 
 
Feeder shrimp are cheap.

 

[Akasha72]

I can't believe I've missed this thread. You have some beautiful fish in there .... even the shrimps are okay and normally they freak me out!!
 
The cories look lovely ... just too cute 

 

[NickAu]

The tank is growing in nicely I think. Do you think the Corys will like it?  When I put them in there the Betta gave them a quick look over and promptly ignored them.

 

[Akasha72]

you know what I'm gonna say!! They'd prefer sand substrate but if that gravel is smooth they will survive and their barbels will be unaffected. They'll like the heavy planting, mine seem to like hiding out in the heavily planted area's 

 

[NickAu]

The gravel is round and not sharp, My Kuhli Loaches are doing fine on it.

 

[Akasha72]

cories will be okay then
 
Won't be long before they start spawning lol

 

[NickAu]

Photo dump.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

[NickAu]

 They'll like the heavy planting, mine seem to like hiding out in the heavily planted area's 

Mine are starting to clean I guess the undersides of my plants, It looks like they are eating whatever is on the underside if the leaves, I watched 1 fish do this for over 15 minutes, then it would dart up to the top for a breath of air then spend another 15 or so minutes cleaning another leaf, They also seem to like the floating plants, and they make a strange noise sometimes when gulping air.

 

[Akasha72]

aww are they squeaking? I hear my lot squeaking all the time
 
When my lot are cleaning the underside of leaves they are thinking about spawning ... might be wrong but just sayin

 

[NickAu]

Yes they are squeaking,  What is funny is that  sometimes when 1 does it and my betta is close she investigates,   Other than that its as if they are not there to her.
 

 
When my lot are cleaning the underside of leaves they are thinking about spawning ... might be wrong but just sayin

They were living in a small cube with hardly any plants,  as long as they are happy its all good, They seem to love resting on anubias leaves looking out of the tank.
 
Oh yes they are active little boogers If they are not chilling out looking at the world go by they are searching for food or swimming around thru over and under the plants. They are not shoaling so to speak, They seem to be ok with being all over the tank as individuals, Only time I see them bunched up is at feeding time, and then there are a bunch of Loaches around also and of course my Betta is hanging around just in case what they are eating is also yummy to her.

 

[Akasha72]

it all sounds like perfectly natural cory behaviour. My cories don't shoal, and like yours only tend to bunch together when there's food around. I rarely see my melini cories as they just hide around the back of my bogwood. I see the largest one (female I think) occasionally but the two smaller ones (boys, I think) are rarely seen.  
 
Once they settle more you'll get to see them playing. They'll start chasing and zooming around. If you have a good ratio of male to female spawning may follow but you'll have to wait and see for that
 
I hope they continue to do well, under your care I'm certain they will

 

[RCA]

Love the tank and your photos, what camera do you use?

Thanks I use an old Nikon coolpix 120 I got on ebay.

Which model is it, as there seem to be a few 120s! Is it the L120, AW120 or another? Does it look compact or more like a bridge camera? Looking out for one, but not sure the one you are referring to, thanks.

 

[Akasha72]

RCA - check out Canon camera's. They have an aquarium setting which few others seem to have. I have a canon powershot 650 which is a little compact point and shoot jobby and I have a Nikon Coolpix 180 bridge camera. The Canon takes far better aquarium pictures than the more sophisticated Nikon. The Nikon takes lovely general photo's though so I guess it depends on what you want it for