The Cookie Crew

Big old water change today and loadsa plant work; including trimming down and re-planting stem plants, ripping out the last of H.Costsata (I'm gonna be so chuffed when I never have to type or read "H.Costata" ever again...!!!), also ripping out the "Taiwan" thingy after being so heavily eaten by the Amano shrimps - pity, coz I like the plant, then planting a bunch of new plants, cleaning tank glass, removing one great big chunk of bogwood and a whole lot of general cleaning & tidying up etc...  Another whole entire afternoon, basically... 

Tank looks super different now - photos to follow once some decent clarity has returned...

Looks great. 

Looks lovely.

What about some skinny bogwood sticks? As @Matt suggested in another post? You could then let the plants fill in the gaps you think are there.

How about putting the bogwood back in over on the left hand side to mirror the right?

This would be termed a u shaped or concave layout with height on either side and less height in the middle.

Do you know, it's actually a fab piece of wood, with a multi-entrance cave in there...  Really is a beauty...!!!  Trouble is, it has a large "footprint" and at the moment, I'd rather have more plants to be honest...  But, I wouldn't mind a smaller piece, or some branchy type wood, maybe even a solitary piece of stone, something with a bit of height but a small'ish footprint...  Will drive over to Wharf tomorrow and see if I can find that special little nugget...     Depending on time, may even go that bit further and visit Pro-Shrimp in Mansfield there, a favourite on-line store for me...

@Helen ...  talk to me about the Kuhli Loaches again lass...  My population of diddy little pest snails is nice and healthy at the mo, but they are so small that it's not a major issue in many ways, yet the notion that the Kuhli Loaches might pick 'em off isn't half appealing... 

I think that was "the "Taiwan" thingy" Pierre mentioned.

I bought one for my tank after seiing it i TopCookie's. 

I have never seen mu kuhli loaches eat a snail. But I have more empty snail shells in my tank than live ones. And after I removed a bunch of substrate, I watched one of my kuhlis hunt some thing that was too small for me to see, on the disturbed substrate.

Since I have put the sand section in, that seems to be where the greatest number of shells are (I'm not sure if this is just because I can see them more easily). But that is definitely one of, if not the kuhlis' favourite place.

They are nocturnal, so are often not considered great community fish, because they can be shy. They are scale less fish, so can be more sensitive to disease and less easy to treat. But, the kuhlis in my tank survived the period of neglect that my tank went through when wi had babies.

They have the cutest little faces.

They do best in planted tanks and like caves. They should be in a group of at least 6. IMine actually seem to prefer the gnarly bits of bogwood i have - presumably because the crevices in them are too small for all other fish.

I see mine usually only at feeding time or lights out. But I do see them a lot more now I have most of the substrate under leaf cover. They like to hang out around the edges of the sand area where there are lots of caves and overhanging bolbitus and crypts.

They are extremely fast. If ones gets spooked, I don't normally see it go, just the little cloud it leaves behind. I hope I never have reason to try and catch a healthy one. I think I'd have to dismantle my tank.

I feed mine sinking pellets. I now crush them and they seem to really enjoy (!) 'hunting' for the grains. They don't seem in the slightest bit worried by the more boisterous fiveband barbs, or even Bertie the bn plec who is known to throw his weight around.

They go absolutely mad for blood worms and come out to feed quicker when I drop the delicacy in the tank.

One thing is that I don't have shrimp. So I don't know how they'd react. I have read reports. But... I'd be surprised if they attacked the shrimp because they do tend to stick with smaller snails. I noticed a couple snails have managed to get bigger than what I consider kuhli snack size. So I might have to feed them to the birds in my garden!

Anything else you want to know?

Ps there are lots of reasons to get kuhlis apart from them seeming to eat snails.

Tank a bit clearer now, from the day after all the work that was done... 

Thanks @fcmf 

Just back from Wharf Aquatics, having picked up a couple of smaller pieces of bogwood to fill that "hole" where the larger piece was... 

Whilst there, I also picked up some new fish after deliberating long and hard about what else can go in the tank...  I looked closely at a few species, from Gourami, Rainbowfish, other Tetras, Espei Raspberries and even the Kuhli Loaches...  but at the end of the day, and for a couple of solid reasons, I have gone with five little Oto Cats...   

Would have loved a snail muncher, but there are no guarantees of either effectiveness or peacefulness, and I needed to keep fish size low plus the Otos will hopefully contribute to clean up crew duties etc...  Always fancied Otos from the start, but it would have been too soon for them much before now...  Fingers crossed they survive that initial introduction to the tank and start feeding soon... 

I do Matt, the Hikari ones, both the mini and the regular sizes... 

I dunno that stuff Sue, will check it out though...   

Here they are, acclimating as we speak: