Tank Journal - Hillstream Temperate River

[N0body Of The Goat]

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[fishprotector]

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How are things going now?

 

[fishprotector]

I changed the powerhead and the filters around and it seems ok. The other two Sewellia seem to be doing fine. No more deaths so fingers crossed

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Glad to hear the deaths have stopped.

Are the WCMM coping ok with the extra current at their level, or are they now spending more time lower down?

Really hope this all works out, I have a bit of a thing for fish from flowing waters, but a hillstream tank is something I do not have but would love to try and some point (although I'm a little wary of my gH 13/14 tap water). All I have is a single male ~7cm Aborichthys elongatus (http/www.loaches.com/species-index/aborichthys-elongatus) from a small mixed group of Aborichthys spp. I acquired in summer 2010, who can move like grease lightning and punches way above his weight in the 5x2x2.

 

[fishprotector]

Wow a 'red tailed squirrel loach' where did you find that, I have wanted one for ages. They are such a unique good looking sub species. Your tank looks great. I would love a hillstream community in a tank that size one day. Your gH does seem quite hight for the little chappies though.

The minnows seem to doing fine. They now seem to be swimming more towards the middle of the tank but still venture into the flow. The only issue I can see is that there is not as much flow over the rocks I was thinking on moving the powerhead and filters back to where they were originally and taking the spray bars off the filters. With the outlets above the water slightly this should provide enough oxygen? Any thoughts on that? I have also found some standard wcmm! I know that may not seem impressive lol but everywhere seems to have gold ones around here. Might get six to make the others feel more comfortable and add a bit of colour variety.

 

[fishprotector]

Here are some pictures of my large female Sewellia sp. spotted. I am glad that she is enjoying it after my male goldring passed away as this tank was built for them two. When I bought her she was around half her current size. She is around 3 inches now.

Chilling on a rock in the flow:

Scurrying across the bottom:

On the glass:

 

[fishprotector]

I got 6 standard WCMM's today and it has certainly changed things around. They are shoaling well with the 6 gold ones I already had and now they are all more lively and outgoing. I also picked up another 2 Pseudogastromyzon Myersi as they are a social fish who like their own kind, so hopefully my 4 will be happier as well (not that they seemed unhappy).

I also had a drive to my local MA, who have just had a delivery of Annamia Normani (Vietnamese Giraffe Loaches). I was a bit shocked that they were on sale already though as apparantly they take the travelling very badly and need a good acclimatisation period before sale. They are meant to be a peaceful species who get on well with other hillstream loaches. They also look good and I may get a group of 6 in a couple of months once I have a nice build up of algae for them to go at. Thats if they have any left. They were not cheap though...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I was very lucky that "VickiandKev" from these forums were paid up members of Wholesale Tropicals based just down the road from me in Fareham, who kindly purchased a small group during a visit to this wholesalers and then sold them onto me for a very good price. Not long afterwards I discovered that my group included some unclassified Aborichthys, including sp.1 and sp.2 as shown at SeriouslyFish. Sadly though, just like Mark Duffill's experience, most of the group perished within several weeks, I'll never know if it was from the hot summer period we unusually had ~28C or whether there was something more sinister at work such as parasites that came with them from the wild. However, "Mr Squidgy" (my better half's affectionate name for him) has been pretty happy down in the 5x2x2 between 18C and 22C at various times in the last 18 months or so, despite being the smalleest fish in their by volume by some margin. Would love to get him some conspecifics, but yet to see them since, either in a fish store or on the Wholesale Tropicals stock list.

Glad to hear the new WCMM have joined the existing golden forms with positive results and you managed to get some more P. myersi, those A. normani look fantastic! Is the store prepared to reserve you some to collect should they settle in?

Did you swap the filter and powerhead positions back to their original setup in the end, with the Koralia down low? If not, you could always reshuffle the hardscape to have a raised long side of the tank, right in the firing line of the powerhead.

 

[fishprotector]

Ahh it sounds like you were lucky in acquiring them! Shame about the deaths, but that can often be the problem with wild caught fish cant it. I have had problems with several wild caught L numbers in the past. At least you have one nice example left.

No, they will not reserve the Normani's. I have asked them to reserve Plecos in the past, and their answer is that they can not unless it is paid for in full It would be a shame not to get them, but after loosing the goldrings, I am just not willing to take the chance, certainly not at £15 a fish when I wanted 6. They also reckon that Loaches do not need an acclimatisation period and are good to go once they are in. As they are mainly wild caught and are being dragged from their natuaral habitat and flown halfway around the world in a box, I very much doubt that. Hopefully they will still be there when I go in for them. I very much doubt it though as they seem to have a high turnover of loaches, mainly being purchased for goldfish set ups apparantly. Such as shame

Yes I decided to swap the filters and Hydor back around. I also removed the spraybars from the filters and it a) seemed to increase the flow and b) give more of a waterfall effect back into the tank. It looks like a lot of mixing is going on so hopefully this will drag oxygen into the flow. The powerhead now seems to pick up on this flow from the filters and fires it through the tank. Hopefully this will be sufficient...

 

[fishprotector]

Just been upstairs to check on the newbies and all of the P.myersi were together chillaxing on the rocks downstream in one large group. There was a bit of a scuffle going on at times but I imagine this is fairly natural behaviour and it was great to see.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

No doubt sorting out their new pecking order, should sort itself out quite quickly.

Was browsing the latest Wildwoods "Tropical Fish 2 Your Door" and came across Schistura corica, which apparently do far better as singetons. £4 for a single fish plus ~£12 p&p it a lot, but well worth bearing in mind for unusual fish (maybe you might know other fishkeepers near you that could could combine an order with you to share the costs), I bought some Synodontis (brichardi, congica) and Microsynodontis polli from there last September, the packaging was like a warm fort knox.

 

[fishprotector]

Thanks for that, the Schistura corica look nice. I did not know about that website, so I will have a look through it. I do not know anyone else in person who has an aquarium though, but will see what I can see on there.

I have heard that the MA Peterborough is meant to be the best place in the UK for Loaches. It is a 260 round trip, but I may phone them, see what they have and if required have a drive over at some point. I do really like the Normani's though. Choices, choices lol.

 

[fishprotector]

Here is a little clip of one of my lighter coloured (possibly due to it being a juvenile) P.Myersi munching on an algae wafer last night:

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[fishprotector]

Just a quick update. I found three dead WCMM last weekend (two gold and one white). They had been hanging around at the top of the tank for a few days so I suspected the worst. Since that, the rest of them have been active and are eating well so not sure what caused that one.

I also found my last remaining Sewellia Lineolata dead yesterday. I am still not sure what has killed them all, but all of the other fish seem to be ok. I am pretty gutted though as they were gorgeous and cost quite a lot for the group. All of the other loaches are eating and seem to be happy enough. I have also changed the LED lighting for a T8 to try and increase the rate of algae growth. It is currently on for 16 hours a day and it seems to be working.