Hi All,
I need some suggestions for a new tank being considered.
A week ago I got eight of R.Wui's:
They are the sole survivors of a shipment of HK hillstreams; all the loaches died, DOA or within hours of arrival, but the contaminants made it ok. These guys are very small, < 1", the babies are perhaps 7mm TL. Here is an almost mature male, the largest fish in the bunch:
They seem to be doing fine so far, nobody looks unhappy, even the smallest were seen eating (frozen foods, worms/shrimp; they don't accept anything else), and botia fry in the same tank does not try to eat them. Of course, they will be further quarantined. So I need to think about a permanent tank for them.
The simple option is to let them grow to the safe size and then release them to a tank with hillstreams, they will do fine there. But I'm thinking instead to give them a private 10g tank, the hidden agenda is to see if they will breed on their own. [This fish will breed, if the conditions are ok, the problem is the fry survival and feeding].
I envision this tank to be planted with a decent amount of current. I'd like the tank to develop microlife (soil worms, copepods), so that they get some natural food and if they do produce fry, it will have something to eat. [I want to avoid baby foods and I'm not likely to notice fry in time anyway].
What do I put into this tank to improve the chances of this working out?
Plants: they don't really need plants themselves, but plants will keep the water cleaner, support microlife, and would allow me to put something else in.
The default choice is simply swords, unless there is a better idea ?. [Swords provide hiding place in their roots, and the leaves allow the fish to sit on them].
Tankmates: two ideas, both involving species I never kept.
An Oto? -- used as a device to generate poop, and promote microlife. Unclear if an Oto will like the current that the gobies need.
Very small "normal" fish, perhaps microrasboras? This is more to make the tank more interesting to look at.
Another possibility is some small shrimps. Here I really have no idea (I don't keep inverts)...but it somehow feels the right thing to do.
Suggestions/ideas will be very welcome, this is a new kind of project for me...and since it is a small tank, I'd like to try to do a good job with it.
TIA
I need some suggestions for a new tank being considered.
A week ago I got eight of R.Wui's:
They are the sole survivors of a shipment of HK hillstreams; all the loaches died, DOA or within hours of arrival, but the contaminants made it ok. These guys are very small, < 1", the babies are perhaps 7mm TL. Here is an almost mature male, the largest fish in the bunch:
They seem to be doing fine so far, nobody looks unhappy, even the smallest were seen eating (frozen foods, worms/shrimp; they don't accept anything else), and botia fry in the same tank does not try to eat them. Of course, they will be further quarantined. So I need to think about a permanent tank for them.
The simple option is to let them grow to the safe size and then release them to a tank with hillstreams, they will do fine there. But I'm thinking instead to give them a private 10g tank, the hidden agenda is to see if they will breed on their own. [This fish will breed, if the conditions are ok, the problem is the fry survival and feeding].
I envision this tank to be planted with a decent amount of current. I'd like the tank to develop microlife (soil worms, copepods), so that they get some natural food and if they do produce fry, it will have something to eat. [I want to avoid baby foods and I'm not likely to notice fry in time anyway].
What do I put into this tank to improve the chances of this working out?
Plants: they don't really need plants themselves, but plants will keep the water cleaner, support microlife, and would allow me to put something else in.
The default choice is simply swords, unless there is a better idea ?. [Swords provide hiding place in their roots, and the leaves allow the fish to sit on them].
Tankmates: two ideas, both involving species I never kept.
An Oto? -- used as a device to generate poop, and promote microlife. Unclear if an Oto will like the current that the gobies need.
Very small "normal" fish, perhaps microrasboras? This is more to make the tank more interesting to look at.
Another possibility is some small shrimps. Here I really have no idea (I don't keep inverts)...but it somehow feels the right thing to do.
Suggestions/ideas will be very welcome, this is a new kind of project for me...and since it is a small tank, I'd like to try to do a good job with it.
TIA
