"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Bill Stock" wrote in message
...
[Sorry for the double post, I originally posted to the wrong group.]

I just added a new batch of SAEs to my office tank. I'll move some off to
the Plant tank in a few weeks and leave a few behind. I can't seem to
keep
Otos in the Plant tank, they just seem to disappear. Likely the Barbs are
the problem, but they don't seem to bother the Tetras.

The new SAEs seem to be doing a lot of "tail standing", swimming
vertically
up and down the glass. I gather this is some kind of food search? But
they
are ignoring the Green Dust Algae on the front glass, swimming right by
it.

Just some personal observation, but bottom dwellers behave in a somewhat
unique way when acclimating from being moved (also from large water
changes). I attribute it from their coming from a riverine environment,
where the water was faster, fresher and more oxygenated than typically
found in an aquarium. In a water change, I suspect it is the gaseous
imbalance for a day or two. For moves, it might be the nitrates and other
DOCs.

Silly question, how does the LFS keep the Nitrates down. Since they must
have over 100 hundred ?AEs in a 25 gallon tank. I gather they don't feed
much, but do they use any resins? OR is it all in the turn over?


Corys go into cruise mode, back & forth. CAEs, SAEs, Otos, Plecs,
Butterfly loaches etc get very restless, repeating a dart & park routine,
often vertically on the glass. Botia either get into a cruise mode across
the glass, or pile into a small spot and try to disappear. Non-botia
loaches (ie: Kuhlis, Dojos etc) find a corner and 'dance' up & down the
glass. Typically they will not search for food during this acclimation
period, but may eat if something crosses their path.

This sounds like it, but the last batch didn't go through this. Although I
only had two last time, which are now in the bigger tank.

Some other fish will do something similar, such as Platys dancing the
corner glass. I suspect they are using physical activity to force their
metabolism to increase, to more quickly adapt to whatever it is that they
need to adapt to.

To make a long story short (definitely not one of my talents ;~), their
behaviour for the first 2 days is not representative of how they will be
after the have settled in.

Also how few SAEs can I leave in a group. The office tank is only ten
gallons, so I did not want to leave more than 1 or 2 SAEs. Maybe I'll
move
all the SAEs and leave the Otos behind, but that would give me six SAEs
in
the 55 gallon. I KNOW, a BIGGER office tank. LOL.

I could be mistaken, but I've never considered it desirable to shoal the
larger cyprinides SAEs , CAEs, Redtail sharks, Rainbow sharks etc, as they
can be territorial, and don't seem to suffer being alone. Having said
that, if you raise a bunch of SAEs together, they will probably get along
fine, but that's a lot of fish-inches and algae-eating horsepower in a
single tank. The smaller algae eaters like Otos need to be kept in groups
as they are invisible and ineffective otherwise ;~).

The SAEs seem to be hanging out fine now, but they're only about 2.5". I
think I'll have to see if the LFS will do a trade in for some smaller fish
in a year or so. The Tiger Barbs are getting quite deep bodied.

I had nine Otos in my 10 gallon, while I was quarantining them. It was
spotless! Sadly, most have gone AWOL since moving to the larger tank.


--
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