Dojo loaches

[FrogFrenzy]

Just bought 4 dojo loaches and I read they like to bury themselves. I have medium sized gravel and they have trouble getting under it. Should I switch to sand or 2mm gravel? It will they be fine with a lot of caves?

 

[Myfisheatsyours]

Just bought 4 dojo loaches and I read they like to bury themselves. I have medium sized gravel and they have trouble getting under it. Should I switch to sand or 2mm gravel? It will they be fine with a lot of caves?

If sand is an option I'd go with that. My dojos keep the bottom of my tank spotless. They are constantly sifting sand in their mouth and out their gills.

 

[FrogFrenzy]

If sand is an option I'd go with that. My dojos keep the bottom of my tank spotless. They are constantly sifting sand in their mouth and out their gills.

Ok I'll try to replace it with sand. Would it be hard to remove all the gravel and replace it with sand? I have around 20 fish in it right now.

 

[Myfisheatsyours]

Ok I'll try to replace it with sand. Would it be hard to remove all the gravel and replace it with sand? I have around 20 fish in it right now.

I'm not positive, only time iv done the switch was when I was upgrading tanks so I simply dumped the gravel out and replaced with sand but I'm sure there's a thread on here somewhere explaining how to do it. That or maybe someone will chime in with some advice. I think if I was in your situation I'd use a net and go netful by netful And then add the sand little by little after washing it of course. Or get some buckets and stick your fish in buckets while you do your thing to keep the stress on the fish to a minimum.

 

[billsey420]

I bought a big storage tote and drained the tank into it. Put in heater and air stone. Then I put in the fish. Then I was able to do the substrate swap. It took like 4 hours to do the full swap on a 29 gallon

 

[Darkseid76]

Substrate transfer isn't very difficult. I used a couple of bins from Walmart.

1. Transfer everything to the bins. Decor, Fish, Water, Filters, Heaters
I kept everything running. I had 2 bins. In one I had my shrimp and plants. The other all fish and rock decor. Heaters and filters running on both.

2. Shovel out all old substrate. You don't have to get every pebble but get as much as you can. If you want take the opportunity to clean your tank glass too.

3. Prepare your new substrate and layer it in.

4. Add your decor and plants. Now is the time to rearrange or add new stuff.

5. Fill her up! ( don't forget the Prime )

6. Add back your filters and heaters. At this point I let the tank run for about 2 1/2 days so the water could warm up and let everything settle. I then tested my parameters. everything was in order so I then added back my shrimp first. This gave them time to hide and get comfy. A few hours after that I added back all my fish.

I only lost one fish. A female swordtail hopped out of one of the bins. But otherwise no losses. I just want to note that I had spare heaters and used a filter from my QT to help run the bins. No mini cycle either. Hope this helps!

 

[Fishfur]

Did you get them eating ok ?

 

[FrogFrenzy]

Did you get them eating ok ?

I haven't seen them eat yet but when I fed my fish blood worms last night some sank to the bottom. When I woke up they were gone. I'm thinking it was my loaches since they're scavengers.

 

[Fishfur]

Sounds promising. Good luck.