Advice required

[tbone87]

Hello guys,

I have some questions, hope you guys can answer them.

1) Is an overhead filter than a hang on back filter?

2) What are considered good resting places for fish? Would it be anything that can create a shadow?

Thx in advance.

[MatsP]

1. I don't think it's quite the same thing. An overhead filter is one that "lives" in the hood of a tank, for example - or a pond filter that is placed above the tank. A hang on/over the back filter works along almost the same principle, and I don't think there's a whole lot of difference in real terms.

2. That is a much harder question to answer generically. It depends on the fish, mostly. In plecos, they sometimes care quite a bit about the material (some like to hide in wood, others like to hide in stone), whilst many other fish just care about "it's dark, and it's the right size, it's perfect" type of thing.

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Mats

[tbone87]

hey mats, thx for the reply.

This are the reasons to why i asked the questions..

I was wondering since the overhead filter is bigger and longer, would it be better than a hob in terms of the amount of medium the water has to go through first thus making it better filtered? Anyways, does an overhead filter need an aquarium cover to rest on?

And as for the hiding question goes, I was at the fish farm yesterday, and i saw a display tank with a RTC just like mine, around 4 inches. Only difference is that the farm's tank was full of driftwood, no hiding places, just gaps in the wood to swim through. Some plecs in it too.
As compared to my tank, my RTC hides in his PVC pipe and comes out only for 3 things :

1) Food
2) Random Patrols around the tank
3) To rearrange plant in tank twice a day. -.-"

[MatsP]

To start from the back: Sounds like you have a very normal RTC - they aren't normally coming out unless there is food available (or it's dark!). You can certainly have more hiding places, and counter intuitively, it's most likely to bring your cat to be MORE visible - because if there is a hiding space nearby, the fish feels more secure and therefore come out MORE.

A filter with more filter media is obviously preferable over one with less filter media - at least of it's comparable media. As to what filter can be fitted how, that's something I can't answer without knowing exactly what filter it is (and even then, it's probably better to ask the seller for details of how it fits).

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Mats