Marc's fish room build

[MarcW]

Thanks Eric!

Now I have an Asian tank, I'm already thinking of setting up an African tank. Hopefully I'll be able to find some interesting fish for that one too, it will be a long way off though, I need to move some fish on to make more room!

[MarcW]

Not catfish related, but thought I'd share for anyone with a similar issue.

This morning I found my largest ~100mm Garra sp. Red Tail, in the middle of the fish room floor about 5 feet from the tank they are in. It was too late to help the fish unfortunately.

Any gaps in the tank are plugged with foam, and it has a very tight fitting glass sliding lid. There is a small hole behind the matten filter where the airlines for the lifter tubes come in, however there is no gap larger than a foam pore, max ~1mm anywhere around the perimeter of the mattenfilter, including above the waterline.

No gaps between foam and glass, even above the water line.

The only way it could have got behind the foam and have access to the small gap to escape would have been to swim through the lift tube, which would have been a tight squeeze for this fish as they are only 25mm outside diameter ~23mm ID! It seems then it panicked and made the leap out of the tank.

I did find another fish behind the foam when looking around this morning.

So now I have moved the one other fish stuck behind the foam, and placed some mesh, actually filter media bags, over the openings of the lift tubes, as well as plugging the small hole in the lid behind the foam.

They must be attracted to the flow, but I have a large power head, capable of 100x turnover per hour, although dialed right down, at the other end of the tank. Hopefully my modifications will stop this from happening again!

[bekateen]

Wow!

[MarcW]

Over the weekend I decided to try making some tubes for my

Trachelyopterichthys taeniatus

, as I only have clay caves, I thought they'd appreciate some shelter which they can just swim through easily, rather than a dead end cave.

We have a large oak tree (Quercus robur) in our garden, a while ago in strong winds a large branch fell off, so we had a tree surgeon come over who removed a few branches to give the tree a better shape. It had been badly managed in the past and had been left with a lot more growth on one side than the other.

It was cheaper if I kept the wood, so I did, and it's been stacked and drying for about 5 months now. I picked out a few smaller bits ~5-10cm (2-4 inches) in diameter and used my mitre saw to tidy up the chainsaw cuts (as I was paranoid about oil residue), and cut to appropriate lengths. In my case an appropriate length was no more than 20cm, ~8 inches, as my largest spade drill bit is 10cm long once in the chuck of my drill, allowing me to drill from each end and meet in the middle.

Firstly I stripped the bark, this was a pain and time consuming! I used an old chisel and a hammer where needed, this would probably have been easier if I had allowed the wood to dry out longer.

I then used a 32mm ~1 1/4 inch, drill bit to drill through from both ends to make a tube.

I had a few smaller bits of wood so I made a few small caves which I'll try in my

Panaqolus sp(l397)

tank.

I messed one up, and split out the side, I should have used a narrower drill bit for this smaller diameter piece of wood!

They are currently soaking in a bucket in the garden so they sink before I put them in a tank.

[bekateen]

Looks great Mark. Good luck!

Fwiw, my zamoras spends all day in pipes and few of them touch caves.

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

A couple videos for you all!

Firstly my Asian hillstream tank, the catfish in there are

Akysis portellus

, they are so active when feeding, great fun to watch. They seem to have a little trouble knowing when to stop eating though, they get huge (for their size!) bellies!



The second is of my

Ageneiosus magoi

, they are still going through quarantine and doing well, they are now eating, mostly frozen foods (whitebait and shrimp), I had to get used to them eating larger amounts less frequently, as most of my fish are grazers rather than predators!

[MarcW]

Possible fertilisation or just a scuffle?! I'll keep a lookout for eggs, any idea of a timeframe between fertilisation and eggs being laid?

[MarcW]

No eggs, but they are out feeding with the lights on now!

[bekateen]

You and someone else (another Marc I think) are having great luck with these. I hope to see baby ducklings soon!

Good luck, Eric

[Lycosid]

Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments:
I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go through anymore. Convict cichlid fry also love to swim through uplift tubes. Eventually I just let their water level drop so the water dropped a short distance out of the uplifts. (I have come to despise convict cichlids.) A proper solution to this would be excellent.

I've also stripped bark on logs. A draw knife works wonderfully. Not the easiest thing to find, but I have one for other reasons and it works great.

[bekateen]

I have come to despise convict cichlids.

I think many people have.

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments:
I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go through anymore. Convict cichlid fry also love to swim through uplift tubes. Eventually I just let their water level drop so the water dropped a short distance out of the uplifts. (I have come to despise convict cichlids.) A proper solution to this would be excellent.

I've also stripped bark on logs. A draw knife works wonderfully. Not the easiest thing to find, but I have one for other reasons and it works great.

Good idea with the piece of plastic in the lift tube, I'll keep thinking about a more permanent solution.

I did consider buying a draw knife, it'd certainly have made stripping the bark easier, if I make more of the caves in future, then I'll get one, it wasn't a fun process stripping the bark without one!

[fishguy1978]

Enjoyed reading your thread. I am considering rain water collection as I have just recently had a metal roof installed.

[Bas Pels]

Before you start to put fishes in that wate,r be certain there is no kopper or zinc in the metal. THose metals are commonly used but highly toxic for fishes

[MarcW]

Thanks fishguy, as Bas mentioned, be sure to check what metal the roof is made from before using any for fish.

[fishguy1978]

Thanks, I will double check the materials.

[Elhank]

Hi Marc,

Really enjoyed reading your thread what a fantastic job on the fish room.Im a big fan of Pier and have purchased my 8 l046 over the last 18 months in ones and twos.

Can I ask what is your tap water is like where you are. I’m in the Trafford area of Manchester and use just an hma filter for all water needs.

Regards Elhank.

[MarcW]

Hi Elhank,

Welcome to Planet Catfish!

Thanks for reading through the thread, glad you enjoyed it. The tap water here is hard, it's actually been a while since I tested it, usually coming out at a TDS of ~300ppm, pH of ~7.8, one of my main concerns is that I have 40ppm of nitrate in my tap water. That along with the hardness is what led me to move to cutting rain or RO with a smaller amount of tap water.

I believe around Manchester the water is much softer?

[Elhank]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the reply. I think I’m lucky with my tap water

Ph 7
Kh 0
Nitrate 0

Reason I asked was the problem you were having with fungus on eggs.Did you get to the bottom of this?

I don’t have a tds meter.

Elhank

[MarcW]

I haven't got to the bottom of that unfortunately, some of my thoughts which I haven't tested yet are:

Something in the water - I would hope unlikely due to the small amount of tap water I use which is filtered through an HMA system first. If it is this, it's probably something I couldn't test for/detect in a home setting. I am trying to increase the amount of plants I keep to see if they help absorb excess nutrients which may not be helping.

Too much light - I have heard in the past that some eggs can be light sensitive, occasionally I have put a towel over tanks with no difference, but haven't always been careful to replace it, or maybe it's too late by the time i notice the eggs.

Just a couple thoughts, it's a bit chaotic in the fish room at the moment moving stuff around for a couple new setups. Once that's done I should have a bit more time to try and figure this out!

[MarcW]

A few updates on the

Ageneiosus magoi

.

One of the larger females received some damage to her operculum, a chunk of it was missing with a clean cut leading up to it, hopefully this was caused by a male! It happened over a week ago, there are no signs of fungus or infection, and it appears to be healing well, a much thinner membrane has grown back to fill the gap, which I'm assuming will thicken over time.

The smallest female has taken on a more yellow colouration in the past couple days. Previously I had heard they are often yellow when captured, due to living in silty water, which then fades to silver in captivity. No idea what caused this, one idea from another keeper is that it may be related to tannins in the water, some of his fish became more yellow after he added more leaves to the tank.

As a side note the females, regardless of size, seem to eat a lot more than the males, I'd guess twice as much, and more frequently, hopefully related to producing lots of eggs .

[bekateen]

Would be great to see fry Marc.

Good luck!
Eric

[MarcW]

Some new arrivals today, as the courier service are accepting fish occasionally.

A group of 12

Mochokiella paynei

for my Sierra Leone, Kassawe Forest Reserve, loose biotope which I am setting up, in addition to these there will be a group of Epiplatys annulatus (Clown Killis), and a group of Ladigesia roloffi (Jelly bean tetra) which should be arriving on Monday. @racoll I'll share some pictures once it's all setup! I'm calling it a loose biotope as I can't find any leaf litter from Sierra Leone, everything else should be correct for the area!

Also in today's delivery, I got 12 more

Akysis portellus

because they are so much fun to watch, especially when there is food about. A few more Rainbow Shiners for the small outside pond, and some Barilius ardens for the Asian hill stream tank.

[Jools]

Those "synos" are one of my top "I should have kept these by now" species, I hope you enjoy 'em!

Jools

[MarcW]

Thanks Jools they seem to be settling in well so far, I'll add some more pictures and try to take a video of the tank when it's setup.

If you feel the urge to get some Neil has "loads" in at Pier.

[Mart1996]

Over the weekend I decided to try making some tubes for my

Trachelyopterichthys taeniatus

, as I only have clay caves, I thought they'd appreciate some shelter which they can just swim through easily, rather than a dead end cave.

We have a large oak tree (Quercus robur) in our garden, a while ago in strong winds a large branch fell off, so we had a tree surgeon come over who removed a few branches to give the tree a better shape. It had been badly managed in the past and had been left with a lot more growth on one side than the other.

It was cheaper if I kept the wood, so I did, and it's been stacked and drying for about 5 months now. I picked out a few smaller bits ~5-10cm (2-4 inches) in diameter and used my mitre saw to tidy up the chainsaw cuts (as I was paranoid about oil residue), and cut to appropriate lengths. In my case an appropriate length was no more than 20cm, ~8 inches, as my largest spade drill bit is 10cm long once in the chuck of my drill, allowing me to drill from each end and meet in the middle.

Firstly I stripped the bark, this was a pain and time consuming! I used an old chisel and a hammer where needed, this would probably have been easier if I had allowed the wood to dry out longer.

prepared oak.jpg
no bark left.jpg

I then used a 32mm ~1 1/4 inch, drill bit to drill through from both ends to make a tube.

drilling hole.jpg

I had a few smaller bits of wood so I made a few small caves which I'll try in my

Panaqolus sp(l397)

tank.

through tunnel.jpg
finished tubes&caves.jpg

I messed one up, and split out the side, I should have used a narrower drill bit for this smaller diameter piece of wood!

They are currently soaking in a bucket in the garden so they sink before I put them in a tank.

[Mart1996]

I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post !

[stuby]

I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post !

All the wood in this tank is Red Oak.... works great and is safe! Just know fresh Oak will turn your water a nice tea color..... but my fish seem to love the tea!

Take care,
Chuck

[fishguy1978]

I've wanted to try oak but wasn't sure (afraid of the sap/oil)
Thanks for the post !

All the wood in this tank is Red Oak.... works great and is safe! Just know fresh Oak will turn your water a nice tea color..... but my fish seem to love the tea!

Take care,
Chuck

By "fresh" do you mean green or just new to the tank? I don't think I would add green wood of any kind it should be completely dried out before introducing. I have ready access to alder but I would like to add some oak, maple, and possibly hazelnut(filbert).

[stuby]

Fresh as in I just added a bunch of it to the tank...… I would never use green wood for my tanks!

Take care,
Chuck