"Bill Stock" wrote in message
...

"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?


Not silly. Some LFS do not. NO3 is relatively non-toxic and it is luck
of the draw whether the fish are being moved into a home tank which has
equally high NO3 levels, or else there is some shock. Some LFS regularly
gravel vacuum, so they inadvertently control NO3 through water changes.
Some LFS use a lot of live plants, so these soak up the NO3. Some use
automated water change systems.

In my shop, I used a combination of gravel vacuuming (twice a week, 3
times for the Oscar tank ;~), lots of live plants (which generally grew
much better than I could ever achieve at home) and water changes (four 5g
water changes per day, per tank, automated). If you are buying small or
sensitive fish, I always recommend that when comparing water parameters,
check their NO3 levels. In some stores, it gets to obscene levels.
--
www.NetMax.tk

snip