moved from cold water to here.
#1
This is my first post here, although not my first post on this site. Kept goldfish until lately, so posted there.
Here goes.... Bought a new setup a couple of weeks ago, trigon 190 litre corner unit, fluval 406 filter, etc etc.
Luckliy I was able to carry out a fishless cycle, using my media from my recently retired goldfish tank, so cycling was a lot easier than last time.
Currently my ammonia is 0, my nitrites are 0 and my nitrates are about 20 ppm.
My parameters have been stable, even introducing 6 young tropicals last Sunday....3 dwarf gouramis and 3 clown loaches.
Now the problem, the gouramis seem well settled in their new surroundings, but the clowns with the exception of the first day have basically gone AWOL.
Perhaps I should mention the tank is heavily planted with live plants, and supported by bogwood with a little stone, the sandy substrate has a layer of fertilised soil medium below it, which had no effect on my normal pH.
I think its possible the clowns are hiding under the built in filter Heater box.....(which incidentally is being decommissioned this weekend, now the canister should be seeded with the beneficial bacteria.)
Don't really want to loose my plants or bogwood, so are my to assume that the clown loaches are going to be strangers in my tank, one thing that does bother me, is I seldom see them scavenging, or even eating at all, when the do appear they look healthy and seem very much OK.