So I talked about making a change...
The problem is that I'm not happy with the sand. It's just a mess and a pain to work with. Vacuuming refuse is a pain; I've basically stopped. Cleaning algae from the bottom edge of the glass is a pain and stresses me out because I worry about scratches. Plus they spit it all over the rocks, which have a thin coat of algae on them, so it just piles up there; it's not the look I wanted for my rocks. Also, the filter returns blow it around a bit.
I anticipated these issues but figured I could deal with them since I had decided that Thorichthys were the fish I want, and Thorichthys are eartheaters. They suck up a mouthful of sand and spit it back out and/or blow it out of their gills. They do this a lot; it's basically how they eat unless they are pulling something out of the water column. They also do it when it's dark and they can't see. In the morning, the whole substrate is covered with little craters where they were searching for food at night.
I'm strongly considering swapping the sand for a fine gravel. The gravel I am looking at is Caribsea Peace River. It's about as fine as you can get without it being sand. Here is a video someone posted that gives some idea of the consistency of the stuff:
So therein lies my dilemma. I love my Thorichthys but don't like the sand. The obvious question: Is sand absolutely required for these fish? I'm thinking yes, which is why I chose it. But I'm not certain how they would do with a fine gravel. I don't want my fish to live in less than ideal circumstances.
I'm not worried about any of the other fish. The sajicas and EBJD never eat sand. The centrarchus do it a little, but it's not their modus operandi.
Assuming I go forward with a substrate swap, here are some options I'm considering:
The problem is that I'm not happy with the sand. It's just a mess and a pain to work with. Vacuuming refuse is a pain; I've basically stopped. Cleaning algae from the bottom edge of the glass is a pain and stresses me out because I worry about scratches. Plus they spit it all over the rocks, which have a thin coat of algae on them, so it just piles up there; it's not the look I wanted for my rocks. Also, the filter returns blow it around a bit.
I anticipated these issues but figured I could deal with them since I had decided that Thorichthys were the fish I want, and Thorichthys are eartheaters. They suck up a mouthful of sand and spit it back out and/or blow it out of their gills. They do this a lot; it's basically how they eat unless they are pulling something out of the water column. They also do it when it's dark and they can't see. In the morning, the whole substrate is covered with little craters where they were searching for food at night.
I'm strongly considering swapping the sand for a fine gravel. The gravel I am looking at is Caribsea Peace River. It's about as fine as you can get without it being sand. Here is a video someone posted that gives some idea of the consistency of the stuff:
So therein lies my dilemma. I love my Thorichthys but don't like the sand. The obvious question: Is sand absolutely required for these fish? I'm thinking yes, which is why I chose it. But I'm not certain how they would do with a fine gravel. I don't want my fish to live in less than ideal circumstances.
I'm not worried about any of the other fish. The sajicas and EBJD never eat sand. The centrarchus do it a little, but it's not their modus operandi.
Assuming I go forward with a substrate swap, here are some options I'm considering:
- Keep the mixtecos and make them deal with it.
- Keep the biggest mixteco specimens (~5) and rehome the runts.
- Rehome all the mixtecos and replace with something else, probably Cryptoheros nanoluteus.
