OP
OP
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I can add a few things now that the conversation has started.
The first is re bare bottom tanks. In April 2006 I started on my working with the B&W Hypancistrus plecos by acquiring a breeding group of 13 zebras and 5 of their offspring. These went into a bare bottom 30 gallon breeder tank. I was set up wit a lot or rocks, slate, wood and an assortment of caves. That tank produced many 100s of offspring over then following years.
Initially I had some plants in the tank to provide back-up for the bacteria. Before the zebras went in it had held and assortment of striped plecos which led me to christen it as my "Yipes Stripes" tank. Since more fish were going in than came out, the plants were left in place, However, within a year they had all been removed. The name of the tank originated with a brand of chewing gum that did not last all that long.
Roughly twice a year thereafter I would break down the tank completely to catch the offspring and then put the tank back together. I lost one of the original 13 fish after a few years which I did replace. But since that loss I never had another one die. Today another member here has the final 4 fish from that tank, 2 were from the original group I got and 2 were the final two offspring that remained when I sold off all the rest of the fish.
So I can say that one can have a bare bottom tank be healthy and fish friendly. The filtration n the tank was an Aquaclear 200 (now the 20), a powerhead with a decent sized ATI prefilter sponge on it and a H.O.T. Magnum which used the Micron filter in it which is for mechanical filtration. The intake was plumbed at the opposite end of the tank and it had a decent sized ATI prefilter sponge in it. As far as I am concerned a fair amount of the nitrifying bacteria was on the rocks and decor. The tank ran healthy for about 16 years before I sold off almost all the fish.
I used fine smooth Este gravel for a lot of my tanks including the high light CO added planted one. I kept a number of corys over the years in tanks with such gravel. As I began to expand the number of pleco tanks I also finally tried my hands at Altum angels. I learned from a person who had been to all the rivers where ALtums are found reported that the substrate in most of them was snad and the brand that looked most like what he had seen was Carib Sea Torpedo beach sand. So i had to get this for the Altum tank. I fell in love with it and all of my subsequent pleco and a few other tanks used it.
I have also kept a few different species of cory cats over the years. I kept them on both the Torpedo beach sand and on my gravel. There was a decent amount of discussion on Planetcatfish.com about the proper substrate for corys. The answer comes from an understanding of the species and how it finds food. Corys use their barbels for this. They can "taste" things. As bottom feeders they have downward facing mouths but upward facing eyes. They do not find food by seeing it. They find it using their barbels. Which are not all that long.
As they search for for in the substrate, the nature of that substrate matters. There are two aspects to consider in this regard. One is sharp edges because they van cut. The second is the smoothness of the substrate. Even sand or gravel without sharp edges can had these with a generally rough surface. As a cory roots around in the substrate hunting for food, if the substrate is rough is can abrade the barbels. Think of it as being a bit like a fine grade of sandpaper.
It doesn't natter whether a sharp edge cuts or a rough surface cause injury from scrapingm the result is that nasty bacteria can enter through either form of opening. And this usually results in infection..
There is a further issue here in terms of the size of the substrate. Sand is generally a smaller sized particle than gravel. However, smaller particles sized gravel does exist. If one is using gravel with corys, it is essential that the particle size be small. The reason for this is that the space between the particles will determine how deep into the substrate pieces of food might sink. With sand and smaller sized gravel the food doesn't get very deep, But if one uses a larger size of gravel the food can sink deeper with ease.
So, if one has a larger size gravel where the food can go deeper, corys will be searching deeper for that food. In this process the barbels will be scraping on the gravel as they search for food. This puts the barbels at much greater risk of being scraped even with gravel that has no sharp edges. And this increases the odds of injury and a subsequent infection.
So, corys can do fine in a bare bottom tank. They could also do fine in a smooth slate bottom. They will be fine on most sand and even on smaller smooth gravel. Where they will be in trouble is when larger particles size which is on the rough side or which has sharper edges that thr trouble starts. The fish will be exposing their barbels to being damaged much more easily.
In nature, running water eventually causes a lot of the rock in rivers and streams to become smooth. But in our tanks we have to start with already smoothed gravel as rough rocks will not be there long enough for the circulation in a tank to effect them.
As far as I am concerned the right substrate for corys is one which cannot damage barbels. This means no large size gravel which can cause food to sink deeper and make the fish have to go deeper to get it. What the corys need is to be able to find food close to the surface and not have to go deeper for it. Consider the substrate in the vid I posted. Even when it involved gravel etc. it was clear the fish were not having to get down deeper to find what they wanted.
These days I have corys in four tanks. Three of them have Torpedo beach sand bottoms but the fourth has small smooth gravel. All of my corys have healthy barbels.
(edited for typos)
The first is re bare bottom tanks. In April 2006 I started on my working with the B&W Hypancistrus plecos by acquiring a breeding group of 13 zebras and 5 of their offspring. These went into a bare bottom 30 gallon breeder tank. I was set up wit a lot or rocks, slate, wood and an assortment of caves. That tank produced many 100s of offspring over then following years.
Initially I had some plants in the tank to provide back-up for the bacteria. Before the zebras went in it had held and assortment of striped plecos which led me to christen it as my "Yipes Stripes" tank. Since more fish were going in than came out, the plants were left in place, However, within a year they had all been removed. The name of the tank originated with a brand of chewing gum that did not last all that long.
Roughly twice a year thereafter I would break down the tank completely to catch the offspring and then put the tank back together. I lost one of the original 13 fish after a few years which I did replace. But since that loss I never had another one die. Today another member here has the final 4 fish from that tank, 2 were from the original group I got and 2 were the final two offspring that remained when I sold off all the rest of the fish.
So I can say that one can have a bare bottom tank be healthy and fish friendly. The filtration n the tank was an Aquaclear 200 (now the 20), a powerhead with a decent sized ATI prefilter sponge on it and a H.O.T. Magnum which used the Micron filter in it which is for mechanical filtration. The intake was plumbed at the opposite end of the tank and it had a decent sized ATI prefilter sponge in it. As far as I am concerned a fair amount of the nitrifying bacteria was on the rocks and decor. The tank ran healthy for about 16 years before I sold off almost all the fish.
I used fine smooth Este gravel for a lot of my tanks including the high light CO added planted one. I kept a number of corys over the years in tanks with such gravel. As I began to expand the number of pleco tanks I also finally tried my hands at Altum angels. I learned from a person who had been to all the rivers where ALtums are found reported that the substrate in most of them was snad and the brand that looked most like what he had seen was Carib Sea Torpedo beach sand. So i had to get this for the Altum tank. I fell in love with it and all of my subsequent pleco and a few other tanks used it.
I have also kept a few different species of cory cats over the years. I kept them on both the Torpedo beach sand and on my gravel. There was a decent amount of discussion on Planetcatfish.com about the proper substrate for corys. The answer comes from an understanding of the species and how it finds food. Corys use their barbels for this. They can "taste" things. As bottom feeders they have downward facing mouths but upward facing eyes. They do not find food by seeing it. They find it using their barbels. Which are not all that long.
As they search for for in the substrate, the nature of that substrate matters. There are two aspects to consider in this regard. One is sharp edges because they van cut. The second is the smoothness of the substrate. Even sand or gravel without sharp edges can had these with a generally rough surface. As a cory roots around in the substrate hunting for food, if the substrate is rough is can abrade the barbels. Think of it as being a bit like a fine grade of sandpaper.
It doesn't natter whether a sharp edge cuts or a rough surface cause injury from scrapingm the result is that nasty bacteria can enter through either form of opening. And this usually results in infection..
There is a further issue here in terms of the size of the substrate. Sand is generally a smaller sized particle than gravel. However, smaller particles sized gravel does exist. If one is using gravel with corys, it is essential that the particle size be small. The reason for this is that the space between the particles will determine how deep into the substrate pieces of food might sink. With sand and smaller sized gravel the food doesn't get very deep, But if one uses a larger size of gravel the food can sink deeper with ease.
So, if one has a larger size gravel where the food can go deeper, corys will be searching deeper for that food. In this process the barbels will be scraping on the gravel as they search for food. This puts the barbels at much greater risk of being scraped even with gravel that has no sharp edges. And this increases the odds of injury and a subsequent infection.
So, corys can do fine in a bare bottom tank. They could also do fine in a smooth slate bottom. They will be fine on most sand and even on smaller smooth gravel. Where they will be in trouble is when larger particles size which is on the rough side or which has sharper edges that thr trouble starts. The fish will be exposing their barbels to being damaged much more easily.
In nature, running water eventually causes a lot of the rock in rivers and streams to become smooth. But in our tanks we have to start with already smoothed gravel as rough rocks will not be there long enough for the circulation in a tank to effect them.
As far as I am concerned the right substrate for corys is one which cannot damage barbels. This means no large size gravel which can cause food to sink deeper and make the fish have to go deeper to get it. What the corys need is to be able to find food close to the surface and not have to go deeper for it. Consider the substrate in the vid I posted. Even when it involved gravel etc. it was clear the fish were not having to get down deeper to find what they wanted.
These days I have corys in four tanks. Three of them have Torpedo beach sand bottoms but the fourth has small smooth gravel. All of my corys have healthy barbels.
(edited for typos)
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& to me it's similar to #2 pool sand. Easy to vacuum but not "cubes" or especially smooth; a pretty pale tan color. No corys or other sifters on it.
