Small Fish For Shifting Sand

[Callum]

corys are great at moving sand and gravel + a vaccum always helps remember if sand keep at least 1.5'' above the sand unless you want a bucket full of sand. also i use plant tongs to move my sand about

 

[§tudz]

corys are great at moving sand and gravel + a vaccum always helps remember if sand keep at least 1.5'' above the sand unless you want a bucket full of sand. also i use plant tongs to move my sand about

Thanks for the help, I'm gonna add the moving of the sand with my planter to my list of duties on the tanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah all I'd say is keep stirring the sand and get some mts. why did you not want snails anyway? just asthetics?

 

[§tudz]

yeah all I'd say is keep stirring the sand and get some mts. why did you not want snails anyway? just asthetics?

I find them a pointless exercise basically. wht I mean is they just add to the waste load in the tank, and are extremely hard to control and can devistae a tank.

 

[Neal]

yeah all I'd say is keep stirring the sand and get some mts. why did you not want snails anyway? just asthetics?

I find them a pointless exercise basically. wht I mean is they just add to the waste load in the tank, and are extremely hard to control and can devistae a tank.

They are very easy to control, they stir the sand and airate it, they eat up scraps of foods and they eat algae, they don't eat plants, and you never see them. Sorted!

Neal

 

[juliehainsworth]

I agree with Neale about MTS I have some in my tank and they are great, if your worried about population levels getting out of hand you could always just pull them out when you see them and sell them or give them away, I've seen threads in the buy sell and swap section of people who actually want some MTS.

However Khuli loaches are cool so perhaps just stick with them

 

[§tudz]

I agree with Neale about MTS I have some in my tank and they are great, if your worried about population levels getting out of hand you could always just pull them out when you see them and sell them or give them away, I've seen threads in the buy sell and swap section of people who actually want some MTS.

However Khuli loaches are cool so perhaps just stick with them

I currently have 3 Botia sidthimunki, or what ever they have recently been renamed to, in that tank, so I gather they would eat the snails? they did a great job on the snails that came in on the plants, I think they are ALL gone now.

I think I wil try khulii loach, or a banjo cat, as I got mixed up between banjos and whip-tails,

 

[Erised]

I'd personally get more corydoras, maybe a different type that's less shy. Say peppers.
The sand going black will be the waste of the plecs being burried under the sand by the corydoras. It's pretty normal really. If you only have small waste fish like neons you won't notice it much, where as when you keep loads of plecs there's just much more waste and it's very easy to notice. With gravel you won't notice it because it goes right down to the bottom of the tank where you can't see it. It's still there though.

About banjo cats, they're lovely fish to keep. They will eat whatever fits in their mouth though. Say corydoras fry is guaranteed to get eaten. Neons however, I think will be fine. Not sure how much of the sand they'd stir up though. Mine both have a place in the tank they concider 'theirs' and while they move from it during the night, they're always back in nearly the same place in the morning.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi §tudz

I've always been opposed to adding a fish to a tank to do a job you can easily do yourself. Too often the fish cannot do a satisfactory job of it or doesn't fit in with the rest of its tankmates.

Why not reach in while you are doing water changes and the level is low, and simply run your fingers through the sand? You can control the depth it is stirred to better than any fish or snail, and you will know the job has been done completely.

BTW, corys are great at moving the top layer of sand, but cannot go deeper. Here's a picture of their work:

 

[§tudz]

I'd personally get more corydoras, maybe a different type that's less shy. Say peppers.
The sand going black will be the waste of the plecs being burried under the sand by the corydoras. It's pretty normal really. If you only have small waste fish like neons you won't notice it much, where as when you keep loads of plecs there's just much more waste and it's very easy to notice. With gravel you won't notice it because it goes right down to the bottom of the tank where you can't see it. It's still there though.

About banjo cats, they're lovely fish to keep. They will eat whatever fits in their mouth though. Say corydoras fry is guaranteed to get eaten. Neons however, I think will be fine. Not sure how much of the sand they'd stir up though. Mine both have a place in the tank they concider 'theirs' and while they move from it during the night, they're always back in nearly the same place in the morning.

lol, I dont have lots of plecs in there only one small bulldog plec

I'm thinking of adding my BN to the tank too though.
I will probably just stir the sand every few days or so, to keep it moving. The fish I have in the tank are: black phantom tetra, xray tetra, corys, chain loaches, a male siamese fighter, a bulldog plec, 3 danios and 4 otts, I think
so the tank is pretty much full. (Have room to move them when some of the fish get bigger, so no flaming about tank over stocking, lol )