|
| View Thread | Return to Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg |
The Loach Forum Archives (2)
Re: The Nemachelius are Innocent!
Posted By: BB <nettech@bellatlantic.net> In Response To: The Nemachelius are Innocent! (Martin Thoene)
Date: Friday, 5 November 1999, at 11:48 p.m.
Hi Martin :) Sorry about your luck with the bucket from hell. Not a good way to start off the day :( Come to think of it ...not a good way to end one either.
Your post has me curious about everyones denizens of the deep and something I do not recall ever discussing before. Mainly, the digging habitis of loaches, specificaly the genus botia. I guess by now it is common knowledge that there are a number of other species that burry themselves in the substrate completely or at least in part but what of digger/movers. I'm curious about others experince/observations with this. Most of my botia seem content to play the wedge game either singularly or as a group but the modesta in particular will dig out indivdual hollows. An example would be a piece of lacerock with a small hollow between itself and the substrate. Originaly the fish could squeeze under this but as it grew the fish excavated a bigger entrance rather then search for a new home or simply take up residence in a larger unoccupied hollow or cave. I have been fortunate enough to wittness this. From what I can see the head is used as a shovel of sorts. One in particular occupies a hole where they must enter on its side. During the day this particular fish will enter a much larger cave and peer out at the wolrd beyond but ever night its back to the smaller hole. Its body hangs out of the hole at least half its length. I think the fish thinks as long as they can not see then nobody else can see then :)
The only other wierd ones are the dario. I can not prove this one because I never saw them do it but I suspect them ;) The tank in this case has a sand substrate and the only fish in this aquarium are six dario and a female L15 just shy of six inches (15cm) TL. The dario at the time were all around 3 inches (8cm) TL. Not very long in the fin:) ...but a bit on the thick side just the same. Previously the aquarium had a substrate of small gravel around .5cm in diameter. When I overhauled the aquarium a very small amount of the original substate (perhaps two tablespoons at best) was left behind and burried by the sand. Just about the time I had forgoten there ever was another substate I saw something very odd. A small depression in the sand with a cluster of the gravel in the center of it. My first thought was the filters had caused the depression through the flow of the exhaust. Odd that it never occured in this place before but it seemed the most logical explination. So I repositioned them in the far end of the aquarium since the pit was in the middle of the aquarium. That night I used the turkey baster to refill the depression after using it to inject brine into the aquarium. Next day it was back again in the same place ..along with the pebbles! Starting to doubt the filter theory or my memory for just how well I removed the gravel during the overhaul at this point. I picked the pebbles out this time, filled in the depression and probed the substrate for more burried gravel elsewhere. I came up empty tough. Next day.... depression is back and with some pebbles (not half as much) again! This time not overnight but while I was at work. Pleco comes out and the gravel I had picked out of the depression goes back in but I distribute this all over the bottom and make shure it is not visiable. Watching for days and nothing changes. Friday night I go out and early on Saturady the depression now holds more gravel. The whole time this is going on the dario completely ignore the depression and almost seem to avoid it entirely. Nothing changed for several days and I decided to fill in the depression and distribute the gravel throughout the aquarium ...again. Never was I to see the depression again :( Can't prove beyond doubt that it was them and not some fluke. Rip in the fabric of the substrate time continuium, a wormhole perhaps ;) Never did any serious chemical tests on the pebbles. It is just plain old aquarium gravel (Estates Ocean Beach #5). Ocean Beach is the color not the origin of collection. Will not fizz, and is inert when left in standing water for over a week.
I do recall one of the ladies (I think) mention clowns carrying bits or white gravel a long time ago. Making piles I think ...which I found intresting. I think it was suggested that the rocks might contain something the fish did not like at the time it was posted. Whatever the reason ...it is very strange.
BB
| View Thread | Return to Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg |
The Loach Forum Archives (2) is maintained by Jeff Shafer with WebBBS 4.33.
