Tank Journal - Hillstream Temperate River

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fishprotector

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Tonight I will be setting up a 130l temperate mountain river set up for my Hillstream Loaches. I planned to do it on Saturday, but found out that I had to partially reseal the lower side seam first. 48 hours later and it is now ready to go. I had the tank lying around and the dimensions are 3 foot long, one foot deep and 18 inches tall. I would have prefered extra length rather then the height but I do not have enough money to buy a new tank right now.

It will have black sand with gravel, pebbles and rocks to recreate a river set up. It will also have bogwood prodruding in as a root system. Equipment wise, I am going to fun two small internal filters rated at 200lph each and a Hydor Korelia 2800. This should give a rated turnover of 3200 lph, or around 25 times per hour (on paper). I have tested the powerhead and the flow should be ideal. The filters spraybars will be above the water level to drag in more oxygen. The temp will be set at 20 degrees.

Up to now, the inhabitants are going to be three Sewellia Lineolata (Goldring Butterfly Loaches - One large adult and two smaller juveniles/adults), one Sewellia Spotted (large adult) and six Gold White Cloud Mountain Minnows. I already have all of these. I am going to up to loach numbers slowly (due to the price of them and the availability).

I will post pics tonight or tomorrow once it is all set up.

This has been the tank I have wanted since day one so I am very excited :)
 
Sounds good, I wish I had the space for another/bigger tank to set something like that up, I'll be watching this topic.

Cheers

Jon
 
Looking forward to seeing this setup, a video clip uploaded to Youtube and embeded here would be great.:good:
 
Oh that would be good. I will look how you do it and post one later on in the week once they have settled in.
 
Here are some pics straight after setup.

Full tank shot :

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End shot looking upstream:

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End shot looking downstream:

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Mid tank:

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My largest goldring in the flow:

DSC_0060.jpg


The loaches all seem to like the set up and have been gliding between rocks and surfing the flow. Sexed them all before putting them in, and I have one 2 inch male goldring, one 1.5 inch male goldring, one 1.5 inch female goldring and one 2 inch female spotted. I may have a little cash coming in later this week so may get another two female goldrings. The minnows seem to be struggling with the flow but time will tell.

I have aimed the powerhead right over the top of the rocks and it gives out a mighty push.

Question time: does anyone know if the goldrings will breed with the spotted? I can not see any records, but they are variations of the same species so I am not sure. If they can, I may trade my spotted in for another goldring as do not really want any hybrids if they do breed.

I am working late tonight, so will do a video tomorrow.
 
Looks good :good:

Are they coldwater? do you use a chiller or just room temperature?
 
They are temperate fish that prefer temps around 20 degrees. I do have a heater in there as we do not have the house heating on that much. Might need to cool it down in the summer if we have a nice one though.
 
This setup is great! i wanted to do something similar with my 2ft but could find the fish i wanted so it never happend :/

Can't wait to see the vid and watch this develope :good:
 
I have been waiting a few years to set this up. I finally got the go ahead from the other half lol.

To be honest though I am struggling to find any more hillstream loaches (apart from the goldrings and the spotted) so I know what you mean.
 
I have been waiting a few years to set this up. I finally got the go ahead from the other half lol.

To be honest though I am struggling to find any more hillstream loaches (apart from the goldrings and the spotted) so I know what you mean.


it was the Goldrings i wanted! could i find them anywhere, now there everywhere! Tanks all divided up for my Bettas now :rolleyes:

It was home to a group of Betta Falx and a Bulldog plec but looked nothing like yours does, never bin 1 for scaping
 
The only other fish that I can think of are Danios and some Barbs. After a little research it looks like many members of these species prefer the lower levels of the tank and may interfere with the loaches during feeding. I will let the keep looking, but hopefully the Minnows may settle in a little more.
 

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