Not a O.Niger!?! Its Blue with spots, but....!!!

[SoCalDiscus]

Okay!!! So, I've done a lot of looking, but an Oxydoras Niger is black. However, body shape screams at least close relative if not subspecies. Nobody has been able to tell me exactly what I rescued. I love my little (for now ) weirdo, and I want to get all the info on him I can.






~Jen

[Silurus]

Juvenile

Oxydoras niger

(which is what you have) are spotted like your fish. They will lose the spots as they age.

[Marc van Arc]

Imo it'll stay relatively pale because your tank is very bright. What you could do is change the white pebbles for a darker coloured sandy bottom. Not only will the fish get darker, but it'll also be able to do what it normally does: sift sand

[SoCalDiscus]

Been a while but, yep. They (I ended up with a second one) got darker, and grew so quickly, it was awesome. They are currently living in a 180 gallon tank with 2 TSN, a TSN X RTC, a random fatty syno, 3 fire eels, a 16" giraffe cat, a smaller different species also labeled as a giraffe cat, and some others. They are all fat hoovers. Hopefully will get some pictures up soon.

[L number Banana]

Nice fish, eek, want one!! More pics when you can
Did you manage to find them a sandy area for sifting through? Also, how big are they?

[Richard B]

Nice fish, eek, want one!! More pics when you can
Did you manage to find them a sandy area for sifting through? Also, how big are they?

With these it can be a case of how big they ultimately get - 2 foot plus is common, 3 foot plus is quite usual if the tank is massive & the body is very bulky at that size

[SoCalDiscus]

Well, its an eyeballed guestimate, but I would say at least 10 inches. They are wonderfully fat and healthy. They are not in sand, but in small gravel. I am looking for sand. I've heard pool filter sand, but want to do a little more research before I just throw something in there. They've been thriving in their current conditions, so I want to make sure if I do change something that it is actually for the better, and not just to change it. They are in a 180 gallon right now (6'x2'x2'). They have lots of pipes and wood to hide amongst, and they seem to appreciate it. The 180 will be there home for probably another 6 months. Another bigger tank is in the works. Bare minimum, we would look to a 8'X3'X2' for the next step up. Even then I wouldn't be happy to see these guys in that size tank. Ultimately, I am designing a 2x4 tank with dimensions large enough for me to join them for a swim, but not bigger than the inside of the largest U-haul. When we got fish like these guys and our rtc x tsn and others we did it not only with the intent to get a bigger tank, but made sure our timing would allow us to actually do so. I have this thing that you better know what you are adopting before you just decide its cute and take it home. Anyways, they get fed a variety of food ranging from blood worms, tetra bits, mysis shrimp, krill, massivore (well all the different sized carnivore pellets actually. I just let them take their pick of what size they would like to eat.), sinking waffers, and other prepared food. However, they also get whatever I randomly prepare for them... chopped market shrimp, talapia, etc. (I steam everything I buy at the market. I'm a real stickler on cooking things that go through as much shipping and handling as that stuff does. No raw diets for anyone. I worked for years at a top of the line, enormous, animal referral critical care hospital, and I don't get me started on raw foods and food poisoning. There is nothing natural about the way we handle meat.) I would definitely say they eat a healthy diet. I guess when you have as many random fish as I do you just start throwing a buffet in every night and let them choose what they would like. I know I over feed, so they have a lot of filtration on the tank, and get weekly water changes. 1/3 tap with decholorinator and 2/3 R/O, with a pH around 6.5- 6.8. Temp riding at about 78-80. As for pictures... Convincing the other fish to get out of the camera shot is unbelievable difficult. Usually I end up with a blurry picture of a pile of excited fish saying "hi and feed me." I'll keep working on it.

[grokefish]

Childrens play sand is good for the job. Cheap and non toxic, cos little kids eat everything.
I have been using it for years.

Matt

[SoCalDiscus]

Hahaha. Okay, not something that would have jumped into my mind, but that sounds great. Thanks!

[sunfish]

Word of warning on the play sand. Before you put it in the big tank, check a small bit under water. I've had some that I could just throw into my tank. Other batches contained a lot of very small particles so that I ended up with an icky brown slush with foam on top. Also, you being from California I'm not sure whether they might use beach sand (which could increase your water hardness). Over here at least it does not say on the package which sand it is.

I've switched to quartz sand from the DIY store (that you can use to mix cement etc.). Cheap, usually cleaner than playground sand, and definitely lime-free.

[MatsP]

Quartz = Silica Sand = most often childrens play sand. Lime in playsand would potentially cause alkaline burns on skin, so not suitable for playing in/with.

I do agree that sand, whatever the source, will need cleaning. I have not yet found any sand that is clean enough to put in the tank directly. It is possible that those brightly coloured coated/artificial gravels are (I have never used any of those).

--
Mats

[sunfish]

OK, so lime was the wrong word. What I meant was that beach sand often consists of crushed shells containing *not lime, insert correct word here* that can influence water parameters.

If you're lucky you get silica sand (of the work-not-play variety) that is clean enough to put it into the tank directly. I HATE washing sand.

[MatsP]

OK, so lime was the wrong word. What I meant was that beach sand often consists of crushed shells containing *not lime, insert correct word here* that can influence water parameters.

If you're lucky you get silica sand (of the work-not-play variety) that is clean enough to put it into the tank directly. I HATE washing sand.

You are looking for the word calciferous, I think.

But I still think that nearly all play-sand is silica sand, because it's pure, easy to find and suits the purpose. I have so far not found non-silica play-sand, but of course like most things, you can't say something categorically that applies to the whole world - there's too much of the world around to do such. ]

Washing sand is quite tedious. I tend to "underwash" my sand, and end up with a bit of "cloud" in the tank. But it settles after a while.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

I've yet to meet ANYONE who has a love of washing sand or gravel.....

[MatsP]

I've yet to meet ANYONE who has a love of washing sand or gravel.....

But if you meet such a person, I'm happy to offer a few beer tokens [1] in replacement of that person doing what they love doing! ;)

[1] Bank Of England Beer Tokens are also redeemable in many other places, such as LFS or Supermarket
--
Mats

[sunfish]

I admit to being lazy, so I usually wash the sand in the tank and then use an internal filter (filled with only cotton wool) to get rid of the fine particles. I wouldn't do this if there were fish in the tank, though.

Ah, but now I know what to do if I can't find a job. Open my own sand-washing business. ;)