Gibbiceps Sailfin & Common Bristle Nose

[jimbooo]

Hi Everyone.

i have recently rehomed my sailfin gibbiceps plec from my 12G to my 50G as he's getting rather large at about 7 inches.

the 50G cube tank has 1 adult male bristle nose and 2 juv albino BN's. there are 2 caves on the tank floor and 3 or 4 caves in the big piece of bogwood in the tank.

(for pics click the 50G journal in my sig)

bearing in mind the sailfin is armoured and the BN's aren't am i likely to come into any aggression problems and if so from whom?

so far (48 hours on) the sailfin has lached onto the back pane and hasn't moved.

tank stats are

Temp: 23 degrees
PH: 7.2
KH: 13
NitrAte: 10
Phosphate: 0.5
NitrIte & Ammonia: 0

here is a picture of the sailfin gibbiceps for reference

any advice would be appreciated. thanks

James

 

[The-Wolf]

HI Jim
we have in a tank at work gibbiceps and L034 (medusa bristlenose)
and in another tank gibbiceps and L183 (starlight bristlnose) there
doesn't seem to be any problems at all housing these types of brislenoses
with the gibbiceps.
I feel confident that you will be ok too.

 

[smithrc]

Hey jimbo... see my sig for Mr Catfish... he curently lives with...

1 large what spot plec (2.5")
1 Sunrise Plec (5")
2 White seam bristlenoses (5")
6 (yep 6) common bristles noses (2-3") (2 albino and 4 normal)

OK, the tank is a bit bigger (its a 350l) but there are no problems

It'll look empty soon when they get moved about into the shed

 

[jimbooo]

ahh. although i am gratefull to both of you for your advice it seems we have a problem.

i got home last night to a shredded sailfin. he's alive but every single fin is shredded, his top fin (not good with fin names, sorry) is just 13 spikes with nothing joining them, almost as bad on the tail and side fins. no sign of infection, fin rot or anything so it must be the adult BN.

needless to say mr common BN is now in a LFS tank for his sins awaiting transfer.... i swapped him for 2 botia (not sure which species yet but theyre not tank busters. i've put them in the rekord 60 to munch some snails.

i think the problem was that both plecs were adult (6 inches or so). the bn had been the only big fish in the tank for about 3 months so didn't like the sharing idea i guess.

oh well, my bad. the sailfin should pull through fingers crossed

 

[Smithrc_work]

gutted

what do these new loaches look like then ?

 

[The-Wolf]

sorry to read that jim.
so come on then what botias did you get.?

 

[jimbooo]

er cute ones.... kind of goldy/yellow with circular black bands.

need to do some googleing.

they were labeled as botia xxxxblahblah (so sorry, i really know nothing about fish!) the lfs guy said they grow to about 10 inches. i challenged that idea as i'm sure they look identical to hondours. after a second glance he said "your right" those are about 4 inches when fully grown and then told me the name. in one ear, out the other i'm afraid.

i'll google and let you know soon

 

[Bloo]

tut tut not botia kubotai by any chance ?

 

[jimbooo]

) i know, i never said i was good with fish though. plants are my thing...

er might be those? if not very simmilar.

i tried to take some pics but as soon as they left the bag they vanished. i'll take some tonight when they have settelled down a bit.

if it was those bloozoo, is that a good or bad thing?

 

[The-Wolf]

all botias are a good thing except skunk botias(which are the spawn of satan).
the polkadot loach is one of the best snailers, next to clowns, that you can get.

 

[Bloo]

Get us some piccies ! but I'm sure they'd be absolutely fine and lovely. I Botia's - they are such (friendly) characters

 

[jimbooo]

yeah they were cute. it's a shame, there were 3 in the shop but when he bagged them one had vanished, must have jumped out and fallen behind the tank racking or something, we searched for ages. hopefully 2 will be okay together.

 

[Bloo]

I've had two for a long time, but recently noticed they were a bit too "aggressively playful" and got a third one. Things seem to be better now

See this thread of mine and watch those links The-Wolf gave - very helpful for future reference as you are likely to encounter similar behaviour.

 

[jimbooo]

thanks for that mate so i may have an excuse to buy even more fish after all!!

if they fight i'll get 4 more and put the 6 in the 180.

 

[jimbooo]

it was bugging me... i called the store and they are botia sidthimunki - dwarf chained loach

pic here

reading the profile they seem fine for a 10G but should be in groups of 5 or more

edit: ohh, on further reading it seems they are almost extinct in the wild with only one river in tailand with natural stock.

it seems i may have some rare fish. cool. now to get them to breed, apparently they are ready for breeding at 7 years. looking at the size of them now we've only got about 6 years to go...... lol