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Round indoor pond project queries.

There is baby kuhli loaches in the pond or at least one that I saw well 😀

I was doing a water change and I saw the orchid plant had fallen out of the clay pebbles basket into the water. When I was placing it back, I see something moving around the clay pebbles...it was a baby kuhli loach. I forced it out of the basket because I was draining the tank, hence draining the basket so I could not snap a picture. It went under a driftwood and after staring for a while, I saw some more tiny heads in there. I know the kuhli loaches hide under driftwood, stones, even under the clown loach PVC pipe, so I stopped lifting them up during tank maintenance to avoid disturbing them but I am itching now to lift them all up and see what I got.

I've had the adult kuhli loaches since about 2013 I think. I don't know how the small one survived considering the amount of relatively big fish in there, then again I haven't seen the clown loaches or denison barbs show any interest in the adult kuhli loaches. I think I have more babies hiding. We'll see.
 
A bit about the betta....

As I mentioned, I am not a fan of them generally and I only had one before some years back.But this fellow has been slowly changing my initial opinion on these fish....He is extremely friendly, not friendly in a way live bearers for example rush when they think they're going to be fed. That's a bit annoying once you've had enough of it.

He is different. He seems to be the "thinking" type. Sometimes he comes when I just lean over. Some times I lean over and he's somewhere among the plants not paying attention to me. But when I start talking, he runs within seconds, like when you call a puppy.

He also really likes following my fingers above the water. I know it's about him thinking of me being the food bearer but I can actually touch his nose when "leading" him around the tank before dropping the pellets. It seems to amuse him following me too. I am glad he's doing well so far and I hope he doesn't have some genetic defects as most have but I've been really enjoying having him so far. Nice little fish.

And some clown loaches, denison barbs, SAEs and harlequin rasbora fun below from this evening.
You can see some of the harlequin rasboars darting near the camera here and there but I swear they have 120G for themselves inside this tank because the clown loaches, denison barbs and SAES, although seemingly swimming in their own packs of species, the packs of fish themselves are always very close to each other and intermixing. The back side of the tank is almost empty and full of harlequin rasboars 😀

 
Plants started flowering already. The palm has never stopped flowering in years but the lily is more seasonal. I grew two more lilies this winter, one in the hillstream loach tank and one is in the betta tub but they have not yet flowered, hopefully this summer as they're now big and old enough.

On a somewhat sad note, finding the baby kuhli loach in the plant basket prompted me to check out a basket I removed from the tank last summer. I just took it out and let it dry. It's full of clay pebbles. Today I found a dried up kuhli loach in it....How I regret I never checked the basket for fish but I didn't know they'd hide in there.
 
Becoming a betta fish addict at old age, lol but he's so funny.

I went to drop some food around the tanks and I started calling the betta. There's a piece lily in the tank and one leaf is in the water horizontally, slightly below the surface. So the betta started swimming towards me but bumped into the leaf on the way. As it was too little water above the leaf, he turned himself sideways and dragged himself all over the leaf in order to come to the corner where I was standing. I wish I had my camera at that moment :lol:
 
I was looking back at my posts, not sure what happened to some of the pictures...I think I uploaded most of them via the "Upload a file" button but I could be wrong....All pictures on my picture account are still there but some here are missing...

Anyway, wanted to post an update on the loach that was sick when I got him a year and a half or so ago. He's growing and has caught up on his sibling I got at the same time, although you can't see the scale much on the pictures.

He was like that then while being treated for various things:

White Loach1.jpg

And now below. I haven't had any problems with him since.

White loach 2.jpg White loach 3.jpg
 
Some more shots of the plants, although they look the same as before 😉

They are generally healthy but I do remove a lot of old leaves that tend to die so pretty sure the nitrogen isn't that high in the tank, plus I monitor the TDS and I've been in line with my tap for all the time the tank has been setup except for after a holiday. The fish I think appreciate that and are showing robust health and vigor. They're extremely active and the recent discovery of a kuhli loach baby is a bonus.

I am also amazed that the tank doesn't tend to suffer any biofilm on the surface. I've had it sometimes but its always been short lived. For majority of time the surface is crystal clear.

A1.jpg A2.jpg A3.jpg
 
What a beautifull and lovely jungle!. Do you also have a picture of the complete setup?. 🙂
 
I
zozo said:
What a beautifull and lovely jungle!. Do you also have a picture of the complete setup?. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks Marcel.I do,but because the pond has a net over,the pictures come out ugly. I will try taking a half decent one of the entire setup these days
 
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sciencefiction said:
Hey Marcel, I took a few snaps this evening. Ideally I'd want to remove the net and I've been thinking to do so for the last year to take some more decent pics...

View attachment 122585 View attachment 122586 View attachment 122587
Click to expand...

Thank you!!.. Realy looks awsome!. 🙂 Love the massive plant growth, as i expected...

If you dislike the net so much. may i make a suggestion?.. I think i see an easy and cheap way around it.. Literally around i, also with net but less in your face and even more practical.

But than i have one question.. If they jump, how high would they jump??
 
zozo said:
But than i have one question.. If they jump, how high would they jump??
Click to expand...

They actually don't jump, only when I feed them in the morning while piling up in a bunch at the surface but generally none of them appear to be real jumpers. Only that I had one loach jump out 2 years back and I don't want to lose even one fish to jumping. Other than that I think I may go months or years without a jumper...although who knows... Also, since the plants are overhanging half the pond, the further side is safe with no net. I was thinking to get plants all around the tank but it will be difficult to get light to all plants as light is majorly the window.

I am looking forward to your suggestion🙂 You're always full of useful ideas 😀
 
sciencefiction said:
I am looking forward to your suggestion🙂 You're always full of useful ideas 😀
Click to expand...

Thank you.. 😉 I hope so!?

Anyway.. I see the tub has a rim around it as a sort of a upsidedown U profile.. Than if you take aluminium tube 8mm thick, which is 6mm internal.
Than take an aluminium M4 Blind rivet nut, this is 6mm external and fits snuggly into the 8mm alu tube.

Some tech details. if you use a mini pipe cutter to cut the pipe. Than the pipe will have an internal burr edge from the cutter. Than if you use a rivet gun, to insert the blind nut, this edge helps to keep the rivet firmly in place in the tube.

But less technical and equaly effective without the gun. Glue the rivet nut into the tube with a strong glue (Bison)..

Than you will have a piece of 8mm alu tube with M4 thread inside. Drill a 4mm hole in the tubs rim.. Its a tiny hole it wont damage the structural strength of the tub. Screw the alu tube verticaly to the top rim of the tub with a M4 screw from bellow. You can make the tube 10 cm, 20cm or 30cm long. What ever your preference is.

Figur out the correct distance for the 2nd vertical tube and the next in the diameter from the tub to fence it off verticaly with a strip of net. All around the tub.. You could use Tie Raps to fasten the net to the tube.

Seeing the picture, i guess you need about a 6 vertical tubes in equal distance standing verticaly on the rim, to fence it.. 🙂

I hope you got the idea what i mean.. It's easy peasy actualy.. Every hardware store hasthe 8x6mm alu tube and the mini pipe cutter, M4 blind river nut are available via ebay for a dollar.

This way you create a verticale fence around it in prefered height. If they jump close to the edge, they will bounce back from the net, not even suffering a headage..

You just need to figur out the height you are comfortable with..

Pond42.jpg

I used the blind rivet nuts to create this.. But the idea is the same.. 🙂
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/cob-led-alu-mecanno-style-light-stand.50248/
Get Metric thread into tube..
 
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