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Round indoor pond project queries.

Hey...
Just to report that the rasboras and 2 baby loaches seem to be doing fine after the treatment and theré's no bouts of diseases anymore. The rasboras are fiery red, great colour and totally not afraid of water changes now...They were terrified at the start...

Now I've also seen both loaches feeding just fine. The day after I posted previously about the second loach not been seen eating, I actually saw him munch on a snail...so no wonder he doesn't care that much about food time....the reason I always quarantine them in a tank with snails.....I've got this tiny species of ramshorn snails that are the only ones not being out competed by the very large shrimp population...I've lost the big red ramshorns and malaysian trumpets in this tank completely.. When you have shrimp...snails don't do well...not these snails though...These snails are about a bite size, max out at 3-4mm adults, fit for a small clown loach :) But besides that...after paying a lot more attention, he's been eating,..just catching the pellets out the back and not comping to the front. He seems to like the spot under the internal filter... I can't wait to move them to the other tank...My other loach would love the company of peer sized loaches but I think I'll give it another few weeks before I do....not looking forward to the catching :)
 
The best picture of a denison barb I managed, capturing the colours...It took me just about 50 clicks...:) Impossible due to the angle and light spread...They are beautiful though...very colourful fish...And I totally like their habits, interesting to watch..though the SAEs are complete nutters, very funny fish..

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A video of my algae ridden quarantine tank again, ha, ha...Its really unpleasant and looks manky but if I scrape all that algae off the glass, the tank may look really good because there's no algae on the plants.....:) But as far as other maintenance goes I do large water changes and in the last 21 days I did 12 large water changes to boost the immune system of my new sickly fish....I think old tanks like this (this one is about 5 years old with the same substrate) do really good for baby clown loaches who many people find hard to keep alive at this age....at least I've had success like this although its never too late to ginx it..

The video features the two small clown loaches hiding under the sponge @ around 0:40 and in the end of the video..though the algae patch blurrs one out.....And the rasboras...They look larger on the video than they are because I've zoomed in but they are rather small and I wonder how big these fish grow....because if they don't get a bit larger than this I might leave them in this tank...They've started to have a real good appetite which can only be a good sign I hope..

 
Tried to take some still pictures of the rasboras...Came out mostly blurry as usual :)

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I was watching the round tank with all tank's lights off for the last 20min or so.....

And I was enjoying a kuhli loach show..Kuhlis everywhere :) In this tank they dare go out only when at least the central kessil light is off but more so when there's just a subdued light from my other small plastic tank...In the previous tank they came out during light hours all the time...The previous tank being the one you've seen above with the rasboras, and the cover of the crypts was enough for them to venture out...What I find really funny right now...is that I've noticed, in the big round tank is, when they see danger ...they wrap themselves either around a stone, a plastic pot or one of the many glass pots I have in there...They actually travel by wrapping themselves around the decoration....The same decorations dispersed around works really good with the clown loaches...They weave themselves around the pots and it seems to work well with their confidence :)

So far I don't see anyone bothering the kuhlis whatsoever, despite my fears....though a few more years will tell the true story....These kuhli loaches had lived almost by themselves as long as I've had them for...about 4 years or more...But I think....they absolutely love the space....I see them even during water changes flying the sides of the tank, same as the SAE's love to do......although I can't take proper video yet..They are too fast for me....or the conditions too dark...But knowing their usual behaviour in a smaller tank...they are having a great time right now...I think they've adapted well. May they live long and happy lives...and my clown loaches don't turn into some carnivrous monsters....Though I highly doubt it...I think clowns are mostly invertebrates and even detritus eaters through sifting sand.....So far my clowns have ignored any but newly born... a couple of mm old fry..but they love fish eggs...
 
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Took a picture of the pond the other day. The flood light out the back looks like natural sun rays hitting the tank :)

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And here is a not so good video of one of the baby clowns venturing open waters. His fins are not a deep orange colour yet but we'll get there. I can't remember if my other clowns had deep orange fins at this age..but at 3-4 months they definitely do.
Both clowns seem to be feeling better these days and are a lot more active around the tank. I've had them for a full month now. I keep doing the water changes to keep the tank in best possible conditions and as a matter of fact my normally not very well growing, iron deficient hydrophila, is doing a lot better too :) It is still slightly deficient looking but is growing fast and bushy.
Sorry again about the algae on the glass, makes things impossible to see....:oops:

The clown is not "fully coloured" normal clown loach colour yet but his yellow/orange area was actually extremely pale when I got him and his black was also very faded so now he looks great in comparison...



And here is a pic of the second one loaching out the back. His colour is more normal, the orange is orange looking and not yellowish like on the the clown on the video but the difference was far greater a few weeks back so things are going in the right direction.
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Compare the above clowns to my older baby clown loach...which I've had for several months now..

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Hey all..

Still dealing with a pale clown loach about which I am sort of worried, very much paler in comparison to the other but full of energy, eating and browsing around. Both baby clowns are out and about almost all the time now, lights on and off. They've really come out of their shells. I am sttill doing large water changes every 2nd day to which all fish have accustomed really well not taking any notion of me whatsoever.

Here are the clowns after eating almost a whole cube of bloodworms by themselves and sort of chilling at the front..They seem to need a digestion period after that...I noticed this before with the previous baby clowns that had access to a lot of food...



Tank glass is so murky and still uncleaned( no reason to upset the fish by scraping it to be honest :eek::) and I've got bad habits when it comes to glass since I was a kid...which in fact saved some of my fish because it acts as additional filtration..)

But if one could look beyond the dirty glass...it ain't that bad...a small attempt below...

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What I found really amazing recently...after doing these large water changes for the fish every 2nd day for the last 6 weeks., is that my always super iron sensitive/deficient hydrophila, which was struggling and not growing in this tank(too small for it too)... has sort of exploded in growth...And it is still iron deficient!!! but not so much and its getting something else via the water changes that is powering the growth which I can't quite identify right now!! I left its top growth uncut, which 6 weeks ago was almost bleached white from iron deficiency...After the water changes the entire plant and side shoots started growing, the side shoots not so deficient, and the stalk got taller...The top never recovered but the leaves grew larger and went pink(they're at the surface)...and still not falling apart which normally happens with iron deficiency...though I did notice the shrimp bunching at some of the not so good leaves recently...Anyways, there's something in my tap water that hydrophila loves...or just the conditions lots of water changes provide....Anyway...I like keeping hydrophila just for that...its easy to keep and does never die...but its so sensitive in terms of nutrients...

Here's the worst picture you could ever show but my point is about doing something and observing the results...which is what excites me in this hobby...Experiments don't equal good results or aesthetic/pleasing tank...The plant is growing and not stunted although still iron deficient...Perhaps there's enough of usable iron in my tap water which the regular water changes provide....I haven'd dosed iron in a long time in this tank...The crypts are not iron hungry one bit...

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Hi SF I think that it is because they are a peaceful fish with loads of personality, other fish with personality tend to be quite aggressive and that can be a big problem with most fish keepers, myself included. keep up the good work.
if I ever manage to get to the other side of the Irish sea please let me come and see them:)
 
I couldn't sleep so I grabbed a cup of coffee and went to "wake up" the fish. They are used to it as every morning I turn on the room light and in about 5-10min all clowns are out begging for food.

Here is a blurry video attempt below. My floating plants are on the brink of death :), very very nitrogen deficient..I haven't dosed in weeks but they still seem to grow and multiply as I throw a bunch each weak.



And the below was from yesterday after I put a cucumber in the tank. It features Mr. Grey who often keeps company to my baby loach during bright lights hours. They've developed some sort of a relationship. Mr. Grey is always grey when the lights are on, from the day I bought him/her 5-ish years ago. The others don't grey out as much even when they do and if all are out, its quite easy to notice the one grey/spooked acting loach :). He's the only one with a name :)



Picture of the cucumber feast. I found it almost eaten this morning and the pleco asleep next to it :)
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Clear waters :)
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And some fish unrelated pictures below. My sister sent me these. I am originally from a small town in the mountains. These are the mountains taken with my sister's phone when they were out there a few days ago :)
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Some unpleasant news.....The other day I found a rasbora dried up on the floor. I have no idea when it jumped but it must have been a few days, the fish was very dry. I was so absorbed by the clown loaches I hadn't counted the harlequins in a good while. I do have a tank cover because fish have jumped out from this small tank before but because of the external filter, it doesn't fully close and there are big gaps all around. I was thinking of keeping the rasboras in this tank for good but after that I changed my mind. They're only 6 of them now but they'll do better in the bigger tank.

I've been more concerned about the pale loach. He is still not an orange colour and yesterday I noticed he's visibly smaller now than the second loach, obviously not growing as he should. The colour difference is also still very visible with the healthy loach being dark orange now and the pale being yellow. Both have dark black stripes though so I am not talking greying out here. I did take pictures and video but my front glass is still covered in algae so its hard to really see.

Besides that, both loaches are active and lively and are out all the time. They are also not hiding during water changes either but get excited and start searching for food as I feed them at this time and they've figured it out. In fact the rasboras start "imitating" a feeding behaviour the moment I turn off the filters and shoot to the surface thinking there's food. I feed the rasboras flakes so I guess that's why.

The pale loach has improved a bit colour wise since the video a few posts back but he's still yellow, just a more solid and not so "whitish" sort of yellow. On Wednesday a couple of days ago I decided to treat with praziquantel(fluke solve). This morning it dawned at me I never removed the carbon pads that I put after the kanamycin sulfate a few weeks ago but I am hoping its not active anymore....or so people say about carbon because I was never a user of it....

I am still doing a water change every second day as I see it as being a major contributor to actually keep get this loach to where he is now and keep it alive, and hopefully get him to a normal health one day. Shape wise he is not rounded but he's not skinny either. I don't see either a sunken stomach or it being pinched around the head, not yet..He's just visibly smaller and not growing. The other loach is wider in girth also besides now being a bit longer too and they were both the same small skinny size. .I just won't be certain of anything until at least the colour improves to orange. But he's been acting pretty normally otherwise.

Poor thing definitely wants to live because he was in that poor pale condition in the fish shop for weeks too before I bought him. And it was the reason why I didn't buy him when I saw him the first time but since he stayed alive till the next time I visited....I now have trouble on my hands :) The praziquantel is just very safe to try on loaches, having tons of shrimp too in the tank, and loaches are known to carry trematodes from the wild so the cycle needs breaking. It may not help but its worth a try at this stage. Fingers crossed for a lively and seemingly sick loach to pull through.
 
Today I moved the two small loaches to the bigger tank. They were in quarantine for over 2 months now.
It took me less time to catch them than I expected. The healthier one kept swimming at the front of the tank and then gave up and stood on one spot so I scooped him. The sickly loach was a bit smarter but after some chasing he decided to hide in the ceramic cave so I took him out with it :) All done and dusted in 10min or so.

I turned off the kessil light in the big tank and left only the flood light. I wanted to lure all the loaches out and they all came out almost instantly upon reducing the light. The small loaches acted spooked by the bigger ones for an hour or so and then they figured all is ok....although they're still a bit weary of them... Now they are very interested at exploring the tank..:) They're going around sniffing it like dogs :)

I am still concerned about the pale, skinnier loach who isn't growing much but I think he'll fair better in the larger tank, better water quality too. I'll give him some time up to a couple of months to improve after the praziquantel treatment, if not I'll treat the lot with kusuri wormer plus. There's no snails and I can't see any shrimp in there to be worried about killing..But, besides looking rough, the sickly loach is very active all the time and acts normal. He's not as pale anymore although he's still yellow and all my other loaches are orange.

I think there's a slight improvement from last time I posted a video but he's definitely skinnier than his buddy of same age, and smaller now, but doesn't seem to be getting any skinnier. Whatever he's got, also doesn't seem to be contagious. So, in the big tank he is...He was also getting bullied by his clown loach companion at feeding time so we'll see. The kuhli loaches in there seem to be doing just fine, so if they're feeding well, the small loach will too...lots of nooks and crannies to find food where the larger ones can't go...Plus they may get into the habit of eating with the denison barbs and SAEs like my older baby loach does..The latter has grown quite a bit now that I can compare with the younger loaches...
 
Happily surprised to hear they were easy enough to move :lol:. I still have 3 x khulie locahes to remove from a 5x2x2 soon...not looking forward to that...

Don't know if this has been asked before, but what does the skinny loach's poo look like? Weird question, but does it's anus look normal compared to the others? Hopefully he just fattens up with a good feeding regime :).
 
Don't know if this has been asked before, but what does the skinny loach's poo look like? Weird question, but does it's anus look normal compared to the others? Hopefully he just fattens up with a good feeding regime

The poop is invisible, same as the other loaches, you can never see when it poops. Its "backside" is completely normal.But he's smaller than the other loach I bought together with him, but when you look from above he's definately thinner. I have a bad picture of it I took recently but it sorts of gives the idea....

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Skinny loach and his buddy are doing well in the new tank. Skinny is active and out and about. You can't tell by the behaviour that he is sick. His colour is definitely not white as before, almost looks normal but not that striking dark orange the other two small ones are now. I've had him for over 11 weeks now and I am telling myself he would not have survived if he's not on a recovery road...whatever his alignment is....

All of them just fussed over a portion of bloodworms and they look good. I've noticed even some of my older loaches have put on some good growth and loach number 3 and 4 size wise are large looking when swimming on their own but once the two big loaches join in, every other fish looks rather small..

In comparison, skinny loach looks like a tadpole from above and he can only challenge a couple of the SAEs for size, who still remain rather small. The Denison barbs have outgrown the SAEs. They seem to be faster growing and even the runt is now indistinguishable from the rest.

Tomorrow, if not lazy, I'll try catching the remaining 6 rasboras because I don't want any more jumpers out of that 54l tank they're in now. Although they look rather content with themselves these days. It will be interesting to see their reaction to the bigger space...All fish come out of their shells when given the space...

And then I'll have a version of an Asian tank...besides probably the pleco who's a South American fish.
 
I moved the harlequin rasboras today...It was really tough catching them...It took me over an hour to get the last one of them. Those buggers never swam into the plants before but when they saw the net, they went straight down and hid in the thick vegetation, and would not come out...

They were quite funny in the big tank..They couldn't find each other at first, ha, ha,swimming in couples and singles. One of them sort of joined the barbs and then oops, got spooked when it realised they don't look like its buddies :) Then after about 2 hours I finally saw them swimming together and guess what they were doing....:) They were swimming from outlet to outlet which happen to be on the opposite sides, and having real fun in the flow in and out, in and out... :lol: You'd think they are stressed but to me it looked deliberate because there are plenty other places around the tank they could go to,..where there's no such flow...They look really happy to me right now, enjoying the extra space a lot...

I am going to miss the fuss in my small tank now which happens to be in the sitting room. I started scraping the glass algae little by little. The shrimp really like to feast on it.
 
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