FishBeast

Well-Known Member
Hello! Wanted to share my subtropical tank with photos of some of its inhabitants!

Inspiration came from this article on hillstream loaches from loaches.com. I also needed a more suitable home for our 3 golden dojo loaches that were tolerating a tropical community tank for a while.

I have a big air-driven sponge filter on one side and a powerhead-driven one on the other. I was too lazy to create the PVC pipe "manifold" system for a true unidirectional setup, so I added a circulation pump to augment the powerhead's current. When the water gets to the other side, it tends to circulate upward and goes the opposite direction above the main current, in effect creating a "poor man's" unidirectional flow. The water blasts onto a piece of slate and a big rock which algae grows on.

There is driftwood which I have to weigh down with a rock, some wooden half-pipe thing with ferns, more rocks and pebbles, a bunch of rocks, pea pebbles, small rocks and a few rocks.

I added plants like water wisteria, hornwort and Java moss as well as sand for loach-sifting on the left side of the tank as well. Also some big cladophora balls.
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Lighting is a Snake Eyes 6500K fan-cooled system that has 64 3W LEDS. I don't know the PAR values. It's pretty bright at 8640 lumens. Algae and aufwuchs galore.

Temp is kept around 68 degrees F.

Stock list:
Golden dojo loach x 3
Dojo loach x 2
Panda garra x 5 (2 adult and 3 juvenile)
Hillstream loaches x 9 or 10
White cloud minnows x 8
Amano shrimp x 1
Snails
 
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FishBeast

Well-Known Member
Adult panda garra with a hillstream loach.
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Gastromyzon ?
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Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon ctenocephalus)
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Eating seaweed
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Baby panda garra! Super cute.
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Male and female white cloud minnows
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FishBeast

Well-Known Member
They look pretty happy! I yearn for some loaches but we run our tanks too warm for them.
All you need is a spare tank, light and powerhead. You don't really need a heater if you keep them indoors too, one of the advantages of Washington! There are some cool tropical loaches as well (botiids like the super cute and active yoyo loach)!
 

julzhull

Well-Known Member
All you need is a spare tank, light and powerhead. You don't really need a heater if you keep them indoors too, one of the advantages of Washington! There are some cool tropical loaches as well (botiids like the super cute and active yoyo loach)!

You also need the room, more importantly ;) We have a 210g, 46g, 40g x3, 20g, and a 10g. One of those 40's will turn into a 150g or so in the next year. We've pretty much filled all our spare space with tanks.
 

FishBeast

Well-Known Member
You also need the room, more importantly ;) We have a 210g, 46g, 40g x3, 20g, and a 10g. One of those 40's will turn into a 150g or so in the next year. We've pretty much filled all our spare space with tanks.
WOW! Impressive collection! :)
 

FishBeast

Well-Known Member
Gorgeous fish!

Where'd you get the cool moss balls? Those are real right?
Yup! As far as I know they are real... The bigger ones I have (3 inches) I found at PetSmart in Tacoma... I don't know if it was a pricing mistake but they sold the big ones and small ones for the same price (around 8 bucks IIRC).

They aren't very round (B grade) but I figure with the current in the tank and the rolling around they do that they will get their sphere on eventually!
 

FishBeast

Well-Known Member
More photos of the tank's fish today. As you can see I need to dial back on the lighting as the fish can't eat the algae fast enough!

Here are 2 of my newer Sewellia (from Aquarium Co-op!)
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Regular Dojo, meet Golden Dojo!
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"Ok, nice to meet you. Let's move in together!"
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Hillstream loaches ROCK (get it?)
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Very nice pattern on these little fish!
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This almost looks like a photo from some river somewhere in Myanmar...
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